73 people who told us they are not part of a church, nor part of the Christian Union prayed the salvation response prayer outdoors in Lancaster Castle tonight. And an additional 5 who are also not church nor CU, didn’t pray the prayer but said they’s like to know more. Castle security guards said 773 people attended, and this represents a fantastic amount of hard work from Lancaster University Christian Union and the University of Cumbria CU, and Jamie Haxby and the UCCF staff. Guests arrived from 6pm onwards and everyone stood throughout the entire event which started at 7pm and lasted just over an hour. Students were at the Castle literally all day setting up. And bear in mind that last year, which was the first year of ‘Carols in the Castle’, these guys were deluged by Storm Desmond, so it was a truly heroic effort after such a monumental downpour last year, to come back for a second year and to throw so much time and energy into bringing together such a complex outdoor event. The sound was brilliant, the numerous choirs were ably supported by the huge ULMS brass band, and I was fascinated to see that when the chamber choir finished off our 8th Carol, which was ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ that about 300 students stayed for at least another 30 minutes after the Carols ended. So I think that a number of factors came together to make this such a success: Abi Andrews was a great organiser, and the teamwork from the students was outstanding. Obviously we had an iconic 800 year old venue, also it was more than a year ago that I started talking to Elliot Sloman about speaking at the event and I had a great time gathering with some of the Lancaster students at UCCF’s Forum event in September where I was able to paint a big picture of the potential of tonight’s event to reach hundreds of people who don’t normally go to church. You can see me standing on two chairs in the distance in one of these photos.

Comments

comments