Spirit of unity is clear in church group’s new logo

A GROUP that brings together Christians from Ashbourne and its surrounding villages has launched a new logo to symbolise its spirit of unity.

Ashbourne Churches Together commissioned a member of Elim Church, Jont Perkin, to design the new logo, which uses historic symbols to illustrate churches coming together.

The Ashbourne Churches Together group is a fellowship of Christians from the town’s churches and nearby villages, working together to build a strong Christian community and to serve the town with events and services.

Mr Perkin, who runs his own design company Print and Sew, explains the logo illustrates the uniting of the area’s congregations.

He said: “The logo shows three icthus symbols coming together, which represent the different churches uniting and forming a trinity symbol.

“The icthus, or fish shape, was adopted by early Christians as a secret symbol and is still in use today, and the trinity symbol shows the Christian understanding of God being the father, the son and the holy spirit.

“I also liked that the fish can also be seen as sections of three circles - the different church fellowships uniting within a larger circle.”

The first ecumenical activity in Ashbourne is thought to have been the Ashbourne Auxiliary of the Bible

Society which began meeting in 1939.

Activities were to enable fundraising for the British and Foreign Bible Society.

The Ashbourne and District Council of Churches was the forerunner of ACT, and the earliest meetings on record are from 1963.

Today the group gets involved in some of the town’s biggest events, including the Late Night Shopping event at Christmas, and Easter’s Walk of Witness.

Its current incarnation includes the largest churches in town – Methodist, St Oswald’s C of E, All Saints RC and Elim are joined by other smaller church groups including some from the surrounding villages.

The group also actively supports good causes from far outside the Ashbourne area, particularly through the work it does to raise money for Christian Aid.

Ashbourne Churches Together organises Christian Aid Week each year, and this project is mentioned in the very earliest meetings.

The forerunner of the current One World Group, which is a part of Ashbourne Churches Together, was the Third World Group and was launched in 1984.

It became the One World Group in 1999 when it was realised that there was serious poverty and deprivation in parts of Eastern Europe.

The group’s Patna Partnership began in 1998 after the visit of the Bishop of Patna to the area after the Lambeth Conference.

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, every January, has always been an important time.

Christians in Ashbourne have found new ways to celebrate their faith in Jesus during lockdown, hosting three drive-in carol services last December in Sainsbury’s car park, attended by more than 800 people.

Ashbourne’s residents have been able to attend two online courses, run by Ashbourne Churches together, looking at the Bible, and exploring the essentials of the faith.

Ashbourne Churches Together chairman Rev Maggie Rode said: “One of the good things that’s come out of Covid is that Ashbourne ministers and pastors are much closer than we were.

“We used to meet every six weeks but now our online meetings happen at least every fortnight.

“At the moment it’s even easier to visit your local churches and see what’s going on because services are recorded and published on Youtube.”