This page comes from the newsletter of Broadmead Baptist Church, known as The Record. The Record has been produced since 1934.
The Broadmead Cross
This cross, like all representations of the cross of Jesus Christ, symbolises his suffering and death for all humanity.
The arms reach outwards, like the arms of God, in love and forgiveness, gathering all suffering to himself
The space between the two upright members represents the fact that Christ is no longer dead. Beyond the cross there is the Resurrection.
The upright members point upwards to denote Christ's Ascension.
From The Record - Broadmead Peace Candle
At each Sunday service in Broadmead, the Peace Candle is lit as a sign of the church’s prayerful concern for peace in the world. I recently listened to a tape of the service when the Peace Candle was first presented to the Church on 22 July, 1990, from the Uniting Church in Australia, by Margaret and Desmond Rendle. They had been attending the wedding of their younger son Alistair, in Goulbum. On the Sunday they attended a country branch of the main congregation at Parksmore, 11 miles from Goulbum, the home of their daughter-in-law. It is a centre of Marino sheep breeding. Parksmore had a small congregation of 30 members, who gave the Rendles an enthusiastic welcome. Parksmore presented Broadmead, through the Rendles, with a peace candle as a sign of fellowship and hope. The Uniting Church of Australia was formed in 1977 by Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregational churches.
The peace Candle has its origin in an American minister's visit to Russia, where he was given a sum of money by an old lady in Odessa. It was the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and she asked him to use it to light a candle for peace when he got home. His own American congregation decided to send out candles to neighbouring churches. One has been given to a church in England from a Goulbum contact, and now one has come to Broadmead. Broadmead gratefully accepted the candle, and a Church Meeting prior to the service agreed some peace candles should be purchased to give to visitors who come here in the future.
Roger Hayden
Last updated: 30-10-06