Royal visitor gets a warm welcome from Elim church

Jamie Price shares what it was like when the Queen came to Wave House Church

Wave House Church has welcomed many visitors through its doors over the years, but never a senior royal. Yet all that changed when the church was invited to host a royal visit in September.

Queen Camilla visited Newquay on 2 September to meet various Cornish charities of which she is patron. Among them was the Cornwall Community Foundation, which backs Wave House’s supported housing project Turnaround House.

“We have 17 residents aged between 16 and 25 and support them into housing, education or work and also help with life skills,” says minister Jamie Price, who was in line to greet the royal visitor as she arrived.

“The Queen was particularly interested in Turnaround House’s work and spent time talking to our manager Jan and some of the residents.”

“She met various other church groups, including folks from our Knit & Natter club, the cafe team and other community ministries, plus families from our tots ministry.”

So what was it like hosting a Queen? “She was lovely,” says Jamie. “I greeted her and showed her around the church. The first people she met were my family – our five-month-old baby and our two boys – and she was really good; getting down on their level to talk to them.

“She seemed genuinely interested in the various ministries she saw here too. She must do these sorts of visits all the time but she was really attentive and kind.”

Newquay’s quiet revival

“You’re probably familiar with the quiet revival? Well we’re seeing a real move like that among our young adults right now,” says Jamie.

Wave House set up a prayer and worship space called The Firehouse last May and has seen growth accelerate recently thanks to an influx of young people.

“It’s really exciting to see what the Lord’s doing there,” Jamie says. “It’s led by 20-somethings and in the past four months it’s really started to build. We’re seeing a load of young people and young adults coming in.

“The research that came out about the quiet revival looked particularly at Gen Z, and what we’re seeing here is definitely tracking what they found. There’s a real spiritual hunger or people just questioning what’s going on.

“Gen Z is the first generation that’s been raised predominantly by non-Christians so they’re almost like a blank canvas in terms of faith and spirituality, without the hangups that millennials and other generations might have.

“We have a few who’ve come from New Age backgrounds who are now finding the Lord. There’s spiritual hunger, questioning, and as that’s happening they’re finding church and Jesus accessible to them.”

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.