Christian Centre To Open Today

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31725, 8 July 1968, Page 10

Christian Centre To Open Today

The Church of the Open Door, an independent, non-denominational mission run by a former Methodist minister, will open its new headquarters in the former National Airways Corporation’s building in Gloucester Street today.

The centre which will be known as the Christian Faith Centre, includes a large hall, formerly the airline booking office, three rooms leading off the main hall, which will be used for counselling, prayer and meetings, two offices, a kitchen and cloakrooms.

The minister of the church, the Rev. D. W. Edmonds, an ordained minister of the Methodist Church of New Zealand, said yesterday that the hall would provide accommodation for about 150 persons, and in the prayer and meeting room there would be room for about 16 persons. About 30 persons could attend meetings that might be held in the kitchen. The official opening and dedication of the centre would not be held until it was fully equipped, he said. This included the installation of a permanent heating system.

At present, a prayer meeting will be held at the centre each Wednesday at 7 p.m. and at 11 a.m. on Thursdays there will be a healing service. A prayer and healing and a Bible study and fellowship group will meet each Friday at 7.30 p.m. and prayer meetings with missionary emphasis and revival will be held at 7.30 p.m. on Saturdays. Sunday services will include worship and Communion at 10.50 a.m. and an evangelistic service at 7 p.m. Mr Edmonds said that between 20 and 25 persons were usually present at the Sunday evening service, but during the last four months about 100 different persons had attended various meetings. Other meetings would be arranged as the centre developed, he said. “Our aim is to give spiritual help to anyone in need through personal counsel, friendship, prayer, worship and fellowship groups, and to pray especially for sick and troubled people,” said Mr Edmonds. “The Christian Faith Centre, based on faith and prayer, will be available to all persons,” he said. Mr Edmonds, who left the Methodist Church because of theological differences including opposition to secularisation of theology and a wish to re-emphasise evangelical beliefs against what he felt were excessively liberal trends, began his new work last September by holding services and meetings in his home at New Brighton and in a hired hall.

Earlier this year he was joined for a few months by Mr G. Moody, a prominent Christchurch layman in the Methodist Church, but since April Mr Edmonds has been running the church on his own again. Services have been held regularly in Forresters Hall, Oxford Terrace, and for a short time the men worked from temporary offices in Manchester Street