Kankaanpää Free Church (Kankaanpään Vapaaseurakunta) opened its new meeting space on the town square on Friday 4 September, with around 160 people attending the opening celebration. The congregation moved from its prayer house in the Myllymäki district, where the meeting hall and the car park had both become too small. The new home is a former clothing shop of more than 300 square metres, right in the centre of the town.
The move carries deep significance for the congregation. Ministry in Kankaanpää began in 1960 as a prayer circle of the Pori Free Church, and when the congregation became independent in 1990 its premises stood on the same square, on the other side. After eleven years on Toukolankatu, elder-board chair Oskari Niemi said that words spoken over the years — that the church would one day return to the square — have now been fulfilled. "The atmosphere is expectant," he said, noting that the new space opens up possibilities for men's and women's evenings and, perhaps, something new for youth ministry.
The celebration included greetings from neighbouring churches. Curate Jaakko Rainerma of the Kankaanpää Lutheran congregation read the account of the ten lepers and encouraged the church to be a place where people find life; pastor Esa Saranki of the Kankaanpää Pentecostal church pictured the congregation as a lighthouse shining at the corner of the square; and pastor Mika Tapio of the Pori Free Church brought a large box of tracts as a practical gift. Niemi added that during the month of renovation he had met more people than in years at the previous location, as passers-by welcomed something new on the square.
(Originally published in Finnish. Summary translated by CC / Connexion.)
Source: Suomen Vapaakirkko / Suomen Viikkolehti — svl.fi
