Port Sunlight

Hymn: Morning has broken
Congregation of Christ Church, Port Sunlight (recorded for BBC Songs of Praise, 2017)

Welcome: Rev Ian Smith
Good morning and welcome to Christ Church, Port Sunlight. I’m Ian Smith, the minister here.

Port Sunlight is a model village on the Wirral Peninsula, created by the Lever Brothers for the workers at their famous soap factory. It is well known for its picturesque tree-lined streets, generous green spaces, art gallery, and striking Arts and Crafts architecture. Today, the village continues to have strong links with its industrial heritage, remaining home to both a Unilever manufacturing site and a research facility. While most residents no longer work for Unilever, Port Sunlight continues to be a thriving community that celebrates its unique history while remaining a vibrant place to live and visit.

Christ Church is located at the heart of Port Sunlight where it is perceived by many as the village “parish” church. Opened for worship in 1904, the church’s English Gothic architecture, graveyard, bell tower and position all reinforce this impression. However, when William Lever built Christ Church it was originally a non-denominational church. William Lever was a Congregationalist, and the church later became a Congregational Church. In 1972, when the Congregational and Presbyterian denominations united, Christ Church became a member of the new United Reformed Church.

The liturgy for our worship this morning is built around a Service of the Word from the United Reformed Church.

Let us worship God.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

We are God’s people.
How good it is that we have all come
– women and men, young and old –
to worship God who creates us;
how good it is that we are gathered
to meet Jesus Christ – God’s living word;
how good it is that we seek together
signs of the Holy Spirit,
whom we cannot catch or subdue.
Come, let us worship God.

Hymn: Love divine, all loves excelling
Congregation of Christ Church, Port Sunlight (recorded for BBC Songs of Praise, 2010)

Prayer
Wise and Holy One
you are
beyond our imagination
beyond our understanding
beyond our humanity;
and because you are beyond us
we turn to you for sanctuary
we come to you for protection.

Wise and Holy One
you are not completely beyond our imagination,
because Jesus Christ shows us what you are like;
you are not completely beyond our understanding
because Jesus Christ teaches us the way;
you are not completely beyond our humanity
because Jesus Christ is one of us.
And because you are beside us
we can walk alongside you as a companion
we can speak honestly with you as a friend
we can keep silence with you as a lover. 

Wise and Holy One
not completely beyond us,
not only beside us but deep within our being.
Spirit of God
when we feel confused,
help us to make sense of life and offer it to others;
when we feel abandoned,
help us to know your love and share it with others;
when we feel at a loss,
help us to rediscover hope and offer it to others;
when we fail to love you,
help us to know your forgiveness and share it with others;
encourage us to leave what is past and travel on,
with you and all your people,
into your glorious future.
Amen.

Hymn: All people that on earth do dwell
Congregation of Christ Church, Port Sunlight (recorded for BBC Songs of Praise, 2017)

Rev Ian Smith

In 1887, the Warrington based Lever Brothers soap making business began a search for a new site on which to expand. They bought 56 acres of flat unused marshy land on the Wirral peninsular, south of the River Mersey. Large enough to allow space for expansion, and in a prime location between the river and a railway line. The site became Port Sunlight, where William Lever built his works and a model village to house his employees, and named it after the company’s Sunlight Soap.

William Lever, who later became Lord Leverhulme, personally supervised planning the village, and employed nearly thirty different architects. Between 1899 and 1914, 800 houses were built to house a population of 3,500. The garden village had allotments and public buildings including the Lady Lever Art Gallery, a cottage hospital, schools, a concert hall, an open air swimming pool, a church, and a temperance hotel. Lever introduced welfare schemes, and provided for the education and entertainment of his workforce, encouraging recreation and organisations which promoted art, literature, science and music.

The aims of Lord Leverhulme were To socialise and Christianise business relations, and get back to that close family brotherhood that existed in the good old days of hand labour. He claimed that Port Sunlight was an exercise in profit sharing, but rather than share profits directly, he invested them in the village. He said It would not do you much good if you send it down your throats in the form of bottles of whisky, bags of sweets, or fat geese at Christmas. On the other hand, if you leave the money with me, I shall use it to provide for you everything that makes life pleasant – nice houses, comfortable homes, and healthy recreation.

The historical significance of Port Sunlight lies in its combination of model industrial housing, providing materially decent conditions for working people, with the architectural and landscape values of the garden suburb, influenced by the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement. Each block of houses was designed by a different architect. The backs of any of the houses cannot be seen, and each house is unique.

But what was it like to live and grow up in Port Sunlight, and what is it like to live here now?

Reflections: Lesley and Jim

Hymn: Be still, for the presence of the Lord
Congregation of Christ Church, Port Sunlight (recorded for BBC Songs of Praise, 2017)

Reflection: Judith

Music: All for thee – Paul S. Kellner
Sung by the Diocese of Manchester Choral Scholars

Rev Ian Smith
O God,
your heart is full of mercy.
May we hear and trust your words to each of us:
‘Your sins are forgiven.’
May we forgive each other
and forgive ourselves.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.

Eternal God,
who longs for us to know all good things
and to walk along a peaceful path,
open the eyes of our hearts
that we may see the way to life,
open our ears that we may hear the truth,
and open our lips that we may praise you,
this day and all our days,
in Jesus’ name.
Amen. 

Reading: Matthew 14, 13-21

Hymn: There’s a wideness in God’s mercy
Congregation of Christ Church, Port Sunlight (recorded for BBC Songs of Praise, 2010)

Reflection: Rev Ian Smith

The story of the feeding of the five thousand is unique – it is the only miracle story to appear in all four Gospels. And while some of the details change from one Gospel to another, the miracle at the heart of the story remains the same – Jesus somehow feeds five thousand men, plus women and children, with five loaves and two fish. Our modern, twenty-first century reaction to the story is to ask how? How could five loaves and two fish feed from five to fifteen thousand people, if you include all the men, women and children? Was it an example of sharing – many of those present had brought food with them, and they shared what they had? Or maybe it’s not about physical food at all – maybe Jesus met the spiritual needs of the crowd, feeding them with spiritual food. But that’s not what the story seems to be saying – the story speaks of a supernatural, miraculous feeding of thousands of people with a very small amount of food, and there being baskets of leftovers.

Lord Leverhulme’s Christian ethos aligns strikingly with the themes of Matthew’s feeding of the five thousand: compassion, provision, stewardship, and the belief that small offerings, placed in God’s hands, can bless multitudes. Lever was shaped by a strong Christian upbringing in the Congregational tradition. His faith emphasised human dignity and welfare, moral responsibility in business, practical compassion expressed through social reform, and stewardship of resources for the common good.

Lever believed that industry should uplift people rather than exploit them. This conviction led him to build Port Sunlight as a model village with good housing, education, leisure facilities, and healthcare — a radical act of corporate benevolence at the time.

The feeding of the five thousand in Matthew centres on several theological themes: Jesus’ compassion for the crowd — He had compassion for them and healed them. Provision in the face of scarcity — Jesus takes the small offering of five loaves and two fish, and multiplies it to meet the needs of thousands. Partnership with disciples — You give them something to eat, Jesus says, inviting them to participate in the miracle. And abundance and care — everyone eats and is satisfied, with twelve baskets left over.

These themes come through in Lord Leverhulme’s Christianising business ethos. Compassion that becomes action: Jesus’ compassion leads him to meet physical needs. Lever’s philanthropy — from decent housing for his workers to education and welfare — mirrors this movement from seeing need to providing generously. Stewardship of resources: the miracle shows that scarcity is transformed through faithful stewardship. Lever believed wealth and industrial success were not ends in themselves but tools for social good — a modern echo of Jesus taking limited resources and using them to bless many.

Partnership in provision: Jesus involves the disciples in distributing the food. Lever likewise believed employers had a duty to partner with workers in creating flourishing communities, not merely profits. His model village embodies this collaborative vision. Abundance for the community: the feeding miracle ends with abundance, not mere sufficiency. Lever’s investments in Port Sunlight — libraries, gardens, an art gallery, sports facilities — reflect a similar belief that people deserve more than just the bare minimum, but also the opportunity to grow and develop.

Faith in small beginnings: the small offering becomes a miracle. Lever often spoke of humble beginnings and the belief that small acts of goodness, multiplied by God, can transform society. This resonates deeply with the Gospel narrative.

I think that Lever’s Christian ethos can be seen as a lived expression of the feeding of the five thousand. Where Jesus multiplies loaves and fish to feed a hungry crowd, Lever multiplies industrial success into social provision, believing that God calls people to use their resources for the flourishing of others. Both stories — one biblical, one from recent history — show how compassion, stewardship, and faith can turn limited resources into abundant blessing.

Of course, most of us have neither the resources or the opportunity to build a model village. And we should also remember that Lord Leverhulme’s approach was not typical of industrialists of his time – there are other examples – Titus Salt in Saltaire and the Cadburys in Bournville to name but two – but these are exceptions.

But the same theological themes from the feeding of the five thousand that guided William Lever to build Port Sunlight can guide us in our less-grand but no less daily lives and interactions. Compassion that becomes action – seeing a need, and responding to it. Stewardship of resources – using what we have to make a difference. Partnership in provision – working alongside others in common cause. Abundance for the community – the pooling of skills and talents brings out more than the sum of it’s parts. Faith in small beginnings – in God’s hands the seemingly insignificant in our hands can become something so much more.

Hymn: Immortal, invisible, God only wise
Congregation of Christ Church, Port Sunlight (recorded for BBC Songs of Praise, 2017)

Prayers
Loving God,
we give you thanks and praise
for all that you have done for us.
For your whole created universe
a universe created and yet still being created.
For the beauty and fragility of our spinning planet,
the blue oceans, swarming with life,
and the green and verdant earth.
For our fellow human beings,
people of many colours, of many languages,
of many abilities, yet all your children.
We give you thanks
for the life, death, and resurrection of your Son, Jesus Christ.
For the message which he brings,
for the life in us which he renews,
and the example he has given us to follow.
We give you thanks for the Holy Spirit,
sweeping through all of life with boundless energy,
at once as gentle as the breath of a child,
lifting us up in your grace.
Hear us, Lord,
as in our own hearts and minds
we give you thanks for your presence in our lives ...
For all these things we give you our joyous praise,
through your Son, Jesus Christ
and in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Lord’s Prayer

Closing prayer
Let us go out into the world
as bringers of love
as makers of peace
as messengers of hope
knowing that the blessing of God, the source of life,
of Jesus Christ, the way to life,
and of the Holy Spirit, the sustainer of life,
is with us today, tomorrow and forever.
Amen.

Hymn: Loving God, your radiant sunlight
Congregation of Christ Church, Port Sunlight (recorded for BBC Songs of Praise, 2010)