Immanuel URC Church

Wonderful church, lovely friendly staff with great facilities.

Love this church, the staff are friendly and helpful, there's a nice cafe here, soft play for children, food bank and lots more.

My mother, who has just recently passed away, used to attend Immanuel Church for many years so it was a natural thing for the Reverand Peter to do the Service of Thanksgiving for her. I have never attended the church, so was not sure what to expect. I neednt have worried. The Reverand Peter and everyone who works at the church do so with complete love in their hearts and a desire to help. It is a hive of activity and you know that you will be looked after whatever occasion brings you there.

Its a lovely welcoming church. The vicar is very nice and made the congregation very welcome with his nice memories of my family member, who was a personal friend of his at his funeral.

As a group of friends we have been uncertain about where to channel our feelings and feedback about the funeral service held at Immanuel Church for our dear friend Chris. Whilst there was clearly a sense of love and care from the members of the church who offered their own kind of support to Chris in the last year of his life, it was utterly devastating to sit for an hour and hear so little about the Chris who meant so much to all of us there. He was complex and emotional, funny and rude, brave and caring and so many things that were not spoken about. Chris’ life was an incredible tapestry of people and experiences before he found his faith (and this church). There were triumphs and struggles and we each had a unique experience of these by his side. However in this service these were, at best an afterthought, at worst deliberately disregarded as meaningless. Recruiting for the Alpha course, pondering about whether Chris was in heaven, talking to us about our own faith, anecdotes from the speaker’s own radio interviews and the caricature-like impressions of Chris as a one dimensional ‘surf dude’ were just a few of things that felt like a total injustice. His friends had offered words about his life, songs he loved, and images that meant something to everyone there (and most importantly Chris) but these were played quietly at the end and felt like an afterthought. I understand faith is important to people, and it may have been important to Chris, but he was so much more than his faith.

On Friday I attended the so called "service and celebration of life" for Chris, a wonderful young man, a lifelong friend of my son's and a hugely loved friend of many. We hoped to be able to remember Chris, hear from those he loved and loved him, grieve and cry and smile and celebrate his life. However we were sadly denied this healing experience by the insensitive and wholly inappropriate approach taken by the church's leadership.
I am sure that Chris did take comfort and find fellowship at the church during the time he was involved there, however there was far far more to him and his life than the the narrow and introspective preaching that was thrust upon us during this funeral service. Instead of encouraging those who had shared their lives over many years with Chris to share memories, experiences, thoughts, music and pictures - of which there were numerous ones offered in the preceding days - it seems the opportunity of a captive audience was seized upon and cruelly used as a platform to advertise and proselytize.
So sadly and devastatingly misjudged. It left me (and I understand a great many of us there) angry and frustrated, adding to the already heavy burden of grief and loss over this untimely passing of such a dear soul.
Please Immanuel Church take note and think more carefully in future when faced with such a delicate task.
(If zero stars was an option, I would have given that)

Great place for the community. Friendly and welcoming.

I'm not a church goer, but, this church has a very well attended café. It is a bright and welcoming place and attended by volunteers who were more than pleasant and welcome you with a smile. They have a reasonable menu offering both snacks, and luncheons. However, I didn't try the food so cannot comment on the quality, but, if the number of customers is anything to judge by it cannot be bad.