About

About us

Welcome!

The Methodist Church's main building is at the heart of the community. It has been standing there for over 150 years but was extended and refurbished 35 years ago to provide a modern multi-purpose base. There is a community garden at the front of the church building to provide space for all the village to relax and meet in a peaceful setting.

The morning service is a family friendly affair led by our worship band and featuring many modern songs, as well as the more traditional hymns. This is live-streamed via our YouTube channel. The Junior Church and creche meets at the same time.

In the week there is a wide range of activities which are detailed elsewhere on the website. This includes cell groups, youth activities, wives and friends group, social groups and activities.

The church also has a centre just up the road called Croft View Halls. This has a sports hall, small hall, kitchen and band room and this is a place where many activities take place including many external lettings.

Our Plan for Growth

Over the last few years we have continually reviewed and developed our Plan for Growth, and have recently adopted the four headings of the Evangelism and Growth team: We are called to be a growing, inclusive, evangelistic and justice-seeking Church. For 2024-2025 we have identified responses under each heading:

Growing: We believe this means deepening. Building on last year’s Lent Groups and the expanded cell group network which resulted, we will hold four Encounter events for cell groups and others at Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost.

Inclusive: We believe this means open hospitality to all. We welcome the diversity within our gatherings. We support same-sex as well as male/female marriage; we rejoice in having people of differing ethnic backgrounds and others who have neurodiversity and dementia; we are at the hub of ecumenical activity in the village. We are looking to expand our welcome at our Tuesday lunches and Open Church on Thursday mornings.

Evangelistic: We will always seek to find ways to share our faith. Our “Open the Book” team goes into five local schools and runs two after-school clubs; we had 50 children at our Summer Special Holiday Club, but for adults we are intentionally going to suggest that the congregation consider bringing a friend or neighbour with them to worship, and to advertise our livestream YouTube worship in the Village Voice magazine.

Justice-seeking: We are developing a range of transformative initiatives. We are growing our EcoChurch programmes; a toilet-twinning project is one of our church charities this year; we will continue to support refugees, asylum-seeker detainees and families in need; we are a collecting point for the local Foodbanks; we will encourage everyone to become more aware of justice issues.