St Mary the Virgin Church

A Place to Grow in Faith

Our Vision at St Marys

We are called to be

A Christ-like Church for the sake of God’s world: contemplative, compassionate, courageous.

We would like to be known for six things:

The depth of our spiritual life
Our commitment to bring life to others
The stepping-stones we put in place for those who wish to journey with us
The vibrancy of our common life
The beauty of our church building
Our ability to work together

The Rhythm of Worship at St Mary’s

Worship lies at the heart of our Christian life together at St Mary’s. Worship at St Mary’s draws on a number of liturgical traditions; we value music and silence, word and action, the ancient and the contemporary. The rhythm of liturgy gives shape to the year, the month, the week and even the day itself.

Our main Sunday service is a Parish Eucharist at 10 am. We sing many parts of this Common Worship service together. Children come for the first part of the service, and then can join in with the Fish and Chip Club, returning in time to come up to the Communion rail for a blessing. From time to time, prayers for healing with the laying on of hands are offered during this service.

Once a month we have Choral Evensong (Book of Common Prayer) sung by the St Mary’s Choir, and we hold an occasional Evening Prayer with hymns.

Once a month (3rd Sunday), there is a meditative Taize service, at 8pm, drawing on music from the Taizé community in France.

We deeply value the riches of the Church’s year and run seasonal events to help us reflect on the wider story of which we are all part. From time to time, there are evening services of Music and Readings to mark special days in the church’s year.

Life Events

Countless generations of families have come to St Mary’s to mark important steps in their life journey. Although a member of the clergy would be happy to pray with you whatever you are going through, there are three particular rituals that have been a central part of the church’s life for centuries.

About Eco Church

Throughout the Church of England, groups and parishes are taking action under the Anglican Church’s Fifth Mark of Mission: to safeguard the integrity of creation. To help us raise our awareness, knowledge and commitment to the climate emergency as a parish, St Mary’s has signed up to the ‘Eco Church’ scheme.

Eco Church is an environmental awards scheme that aims to guide and help churches implement ideas about caring for God’s world through worship, teaching, buildings, personal lifestyles, and community involvement. The awards are a way of measuring achievement and communicating our response to climate change to the wider community. We have recently been awarded a Bronze Eco Church award from A Rocha, and are now working towards the Silver award. However, awards are only milestones on the road to our true goal: being a carbon neutral church by 2030.