"Pier Pressure" Premiere at Bournemouth International Centre

"Pier Pressure" Premiere: 3 Nov 2007
News Video, Editing by Tony Jian
Interview by Kyriaki Karadelis

Church Launches "Money Matters" Course

Tony Jian, Bournemouth, 24 Oct 2007

A Free "Money Matters" course is starting at Lansdowne Baptist Church next week.

It runs for six weeks and addresses issues such as debt control and money management. "Debt is a serious problem. Lots of people are very much in debt. The church can not help people get out of debt but can teach them not to get into debt," says churchgoer Sam Whitelaw.

This is the first ever course of this type the church has launched since its establishment in 1876.

Lansdowne Baptist Church is a daughter church from Boscombe Baptist Church. It was set up by 40 Baptists who wanted to spread the gospel to people of Bournemouth, a smaller town than Boscombe at the time.

The church became independent and had its own pastor eight years later. It started with only 20 members in the beginning but the church was later full of faithful followers after Pastor Francis Dixon initiated a series of Bible classes in 1945.

"The first thing he did was to start a Bible school. We had meetings in this church every Tuesday night," remembers Mr Whitelaw, 87, who was 25 at the time.

Dixon was famous for the classes and the sermon notes he prepared. "He taught the Bible and people came to listen," states Mr Whitelaw, "Because the notes were very organized, they were then spread out throughout the world."

By the time Pastor Harvy Kilbride took the position in 1970, the church had been very successful. Hundreds of people, in particular, young people crowded into the church.

The Hub (picture above), a building right next to the church, was purchased during the term of Pastor Michael Buss in 1980s. It is a venue for socialising activities such as "the Mustard Seed Coffee Bar" for international students on Friday evenings.

"The asking price was £80,000 and the congregation contributed £104,000 so that allowed us to do lots of work," Mr Whitelaw explains.

Pastor Christ Kelly took up his post in 2002 and continued ever since. The church has just celebrated its 130th anniversary last year and also keeps up with the times by offering practical courses such as "Money Matters", which is not limited to Christians.

(article and pictures by Tony Jian)

Friends International Rolls Out "Visa Course"

Tony Jian, Bournemouth, 21 Oct 2007

A ten week free course for international students is being held by Friends International at town centre every Tuesday evening.

The course offers not only an opportunity for international students to practice English and meet new friends but also an entrance into Christian faith, hence the name visa course.

“We usually have many students from Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China and some from South America and Europe”, says international student worker at Friends International Sue Burt.

Julie Lee from South Korea states that she felt depressed before joining the course. “I worked for a company. I had a successful life but I felt helpless and empty.” Ms Lee attended the course in the autumn last year and seven months later she was baptised.

Visa course is only one out of many English learning activities that Friends International launches. Others include Wordsearch, A Meal at Richmond Park, The Mustard Seed Coffee Bar, Compass, iMeet, Wellspring Café, and Friday Evenings at West Cliff, just to name a few.

Friends International is a Christian organization that works with many churches across the UK to welcome international students. It aims to "help students of all faiths, or none, during their stay in the UK" and facilitate cultural exchanges.

The local origins can be traced back to summers in 1960s when there were many language schools in Bournemouth. Local churches found language students had no where to go so they decided to "welcome them, shelter them with hospitality and also give them an opportunity to find out about Christianity," explains Ms Burt.

The churches then cooperated with Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF) but no formal organisation was formed to coordinate the issues about international students as yet.

In mid 1980s, the precursor of Friends International, International Student Christian Services (ISCS), was established and continued to work with UCCF, the former responsible for international student affairs while the latter mainly that of British Christian students.

"To reflect the nature of our work and for the ease of memory, ISCS was renamed Friends International in 2002," Ms Burt explains.

Friends International borrows the Hub (see picture below) from Lansdowne Baptist Church as the venue for some of its activities, the visa course being an example.


The course starts at the Hub, 7 Lansdowne Rd. Bournemouth, from 7:45pm to 9:45pm every Tuesday.

(article and picture by Tony Jian)

Russell-Cotes Museum Showcases Victorian drawings

Tony Jian, Bournemouth, 18 Oct 2007

Victorian drawings by Frederic Lord Leighton have just been showcased on October 16 in Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, one of the last Victorian buildings ever built in Bournemouth.

Russell-Cotes museum exhibits in six sections the works of Leighton, the President of Royal Academy for almost two decades, from the drawings he made as a student to the final works in his life.

The museum has also collaborated with Text + Work, the gallery at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth to create Meeting Place, a contemporary artwork exhibition inspired by the time, space, and displays inside the museum.

Peter Harvey is a member of staff at the service counter and has been working in the museum for 15 years. "We try to bring in different types of art as much as we can," says Mr Harvey. "The museum is like a book needs to be written."

The museum has invited many local artists, Abi Kremer for example, to display their works. It is a Grade 2 listed building steeped in history and yet full of energy and dynamics, made lively by the dialogue between contemporary artists with a wide repertoire of collections, from Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Tibetan, to Middle East, just to name a few.

"It is a cosmopolitan place," Mr Harvey comments.

It is also a "meeting place" where East meets West, and modernity juxtaposes with antiquity. It is a venue where artists can unleash their creativity, the public can engage in an intellectual discourse and children can have fun.

"Once I saw a kid forced in the door by his parents but ended up holding to the door without wanting to leave," reminisces Mr Harvey.

One of the museum's missions is to "increase audience for the arts and participation in arts activities, with particular reference to young people" and to "make arts activities accessible to everyone."

To accomplish the above mission, the museum has launched a series of activities for all age groups. Contact Marion Cavanagh Learning Officer for further information.

(article and picture by Tony Jian)