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St. Andrew’s Community Church in Tilbury on the east side of London in the docks area was a local ecumenical partnership Baptist/Methodist church. The church had done very well the previous 6-years under the leadership of a Baptist pastor. When that pastor was called to a church much farther north, many of the key leaders left.

In October 2003, St. Andrew’s invited Shannon Duncan from Charlotte, NC to serve as interim pastor. As mentioned in the report on Milnsbridge, Shannon’s wife, Tillie, is on staff at a Baptist church in NC and cannot accompany Shannon on out-of-town assignments.

Shannon Duncan

Shannon served at Tilbury from October until December 2003 and went home for a few days over Christmas. He returned in early January and served until March 2004. Praise the Lord, Shannon is able and willing to pay for his own airline tickets so his initial round-trip to Tilbury and his trip home over Christmas cost the UK church nothing.

It is significant that Paul Hills, Regional Minister of the Eastern Baptist Association, made it a point to sit with Chuck McComb at lunch at Baptist Union HQ in 2004 to tell him about the closure of St. Andrew’s Community Church. The church required about GBP 50,000 for upgrades. The property was owned by the Methodists and they had insufficient funds to make the changes. They took the decision to close. Paul said that closure was in no way a reflection on Shannon Duncan or AIPM. We appreciate his concern that we not mis-judge the cause of the closure.