A very merry ‘Lion in Zion’ Christmas - rediscovering my Methodist roots - Brickfields parkrun #30 - 25/12/25
- aqasanu
- Dec 28, 2025
- 3 min read
As we walked back to our car having completed Brickfields parkrun we passed the Zion Temple in Bath. On the building, a simple sign reads: “Methodist Free Church.”
That detail took me back to my Methodist upbringing and to my childhood, when Sundays were non-negotiable church days. As a boy, our family attended The Bourne Methodist Church in London every Sunday, and Christmas Day was no exception. Christmas morning began with putting on our Sunday best and gathering in community, grounded in faith, values, and singing, with a shared sense of purpose.
Seeing the Zion Temple and reading that sign felt like a timely reminder of the essence of Christmas that shaped my early years.
Today, my Christmas mornings look very different and yet, in many ways, remarkably the same as my boyhood days. Instead of polished shoes and pressed clothes, today I was in my running finery: my 500 customised club shirt 🙂
The temperature was below zero, the kind of cold that sharpens the senses yet makes shared warmth feel even more meaningful. Runners and walkers had gathered with much festive cheer; Santas, Elves, reindeer outfits and Christmas pudding jumpers all around! Everyone shivering yet brimming with excitement and goodwill.
Brickfields parkrun is relatively new, having launched earlier this year. According to a consultation done by Bath and North East Somerset Council, 2020, 79% of respondents stated they would be prepared to volunteer to support nature improvements and 39% wanted marked areas for walking and running routes all of this was in evidence today, with the events keenly felt community spirit. Christmas Day events usually have a greater sense of camaraderie among everyone there, choosing connection and movement as their way to start Christmas Day rather than a head-down attempt for a personal best.
The course started in the middle of Brickfields Park where today’s Run Director addressed us. After today’s milestones were announced, we were counted down, running to the exit gate, on grass, turning left onto the tarmac path heading down to Linear Park. Linear Park was originally part of the Somerset and Dorset Railway Line, which ran from Bath Green Park Station. Since the railway closed, it has become a ribbon of countryside through the city. We first ran along it to the most northerly point of the course before doing a hairpin loop on the former railway line back to the most northerly part and then a much longer run to the most southerly point of the course before coming back and a fierce climb up to the finish in Brickfields Park.
The two loops provide lots of opportunities to see other participants with cheers and festive greetings ringing out and the best dressed volunteer Christmas tree I’ve ever seen!
My Christmas ritual has changed, the essence of it hasn’t. The Methodist values I grew up with, service, encouragement, welcoming and community, were everywhere. In the volunteers giving up their Christmas morning. In the cheers for strangers. In the quiet understanding that showing up together matters.
I am deeply grateful for this new Christmas Day tradition. It nourishes me, and it provides me with reflection without standing still. And I am equally thankful for the reminder that faith doesn’t vanish when traditions evolve, it simply finds new ways to be expressed.
This Christmas morning, I hadn’t sat in a pew. But somewhere between Bourne Methodist Church, Brickfields parkrun, and the Zion Temple, I realised that the heart of Christmas, community, love and shared humanity, has been running alongside me all along.
A massive thank you to all the volunteers who put the event on and the person running in the inflatable reindeer costume deserves an extra mince pie!
A very merry Christmas and festive period to you all.
A lovely heart warming read.
Magical write up..As someone with a religious upbringing I’ve long felt that parkrun gives me everything I would have wanted from a church community..but I struggled and still do with attending church reciting prayers that seem to have any relevance to my life or theworldaroundme. Through parkrun I have a sense of community, wonderful friends, joy, mental tranquility, physical health and a sense of belonging…nobody judges me in anyway. I would argue parkrun has a spiritual aspect, giving me purpose & mutual love & friendship with all I meet at parkrun wherever it takes place. Reading this report makes me feel I am not alone in these thoughts of mine. Thanks Aqasa
Thank you for this lovely write up. Reading it took me back to my Christmases when I was a child. And well done on running a parkrun with family on Xmas day.
Such a beautiful post Aqasa. Great to share the memories with you. Parkrun does parallel our childhood values.