St George’s, Portsea

St George’s Church at Portsea in Hampshire, which calls itself 'Harbour Church', was built in 1754 though subject to the usual repairs over the years, not least on account of Nazi bombs in the last world war. The church’s website declares:

In 2016, the Bishop of Portsmouth invited a team from St Peter’s Brighton to plant a church in Portsmouth, with a specific focus on reaching young people. Since then, we’ve grown to become a church with three locations…

Wonderful: evangelism and growth, and from an older, elegant building. The current bishop of Portsmouth entertains heterodox views of sex and marriage, so the planters and evangelists of the Harbour may well need to take stock of their situation. Anglicanism viciously persecuted Independency (congregationalism) from 1662-1689, but now, evangelical brethren in that denomination are increasingly resembling that model of church which their forbears once loathed. Lost souls on the sea of sin need a safe harbour; I pray that dangerous, worldly currents do not trouble them once they safely enter. 

These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Jude 12-13

A D