My family and I moved to the City and to St Augustine 's Church over five years ago.
We have settled in extremely well and are all very happy here. St Augustine 's has a very historical and ancient history here in the city on its walls, but it also has a present and a future. There are lots of things that happen in the 'wee church on the walls'. This year we began a project called 'All Together Now' for which we received funding from the Church of Ireland Priorities Fund . The vision of the project is that we have an all age church where young and old are welcomed and looked after. Within this project we have a youth worker, Julie Green, who builds relationships with and looks after our younger members through KIDZ KLUB and our teenagers' group, Sitting Ducks. We also run a lunch club for the senior citizens called The Leah Project (Lunching with the Elderly And Housebound.) This gives our older members a chance to be picked up from their home, come to Kilfennan Presbyterian (which has better carparking and disability access) for a delicious hot lunch supplied by Ivan and Elma Taylor of Browns Restaurant, sing a few hymns together and have a short epilogue. St Augustine's also has an active Ladies' Guild, choir, bowling club, gardening and flower club, house groups, puppet ministry for our family services, an informal monthly service for young adults called n:counter, and regular Alpha Courses. We also have several new teams established through a recent Parish Development initiative, namely, a pastoral care team, prayer ministry team, tourism team, welcome team and public relations team. Around 11,000 tourists pass through our doors each Summer and we consider it vital that they have a warm welcome, historical information and a space in their busy day to sit quietly and reflect. My vision for this church, which was decimated during the Troubles as families moved out of the city to the Waterside, where many formed new church relationships, is that it will be a church that is full to the brim with all ages, and a sense of fun and warmth and Christian fellowship. Our Parish mission statement is: 'Together, as a caring family, we seek to grow in faith, share God's love and welcome others. We are a community whose hope is in Christ'. That says it all. We are determined to build for the future – we are very proud of our historical site in this city, but we certainly do not rest on our laurels and are working very hard as a team to make this church vibrant and relevant for the present and for future generations.

Rev Patricia Storey