About Us
St John’s and St Mary’s share a rich network of groups helping people deepen their spirituality, support families, and improve the environment of our town. All are open to everyone.
Enjoying Life & Faith Together
St John’s and St Mary’s share a rich network of groups helping people deepen their spirituality, support families, and improve the environment of our town. All are open to everyone, whether or not they go to our churches and wherever their faith journey has taken them.
We have a lovely bright Children’s Area in our church where we welcome children to read, draw and play during the service. It is well stocked with toys, puzzles and books, with craft activities supplied weekly.
Contact: Catherine Brown · 01380 739253
All are welcome to take part in this warm and friendly group as it journeys through the Bible together. You don’t need to be a churchgoer or even a Christian at all to attend. Recent topics have included Matthew’s Gospel and King David.
Contact: David Evans · 01380 721527
Our ‘Reflection’ group provides an opportunity to experience times of shared silence and gentle reflection. We sit in silent prayer, exchange views, share our journeys, and encourage and support one another as we reflect together on our spiritual lives.
Contact: Chris Cox · 01380 728716
A small group of volunteers working with the Churchwardens, meeting regularly in the churchyard to manage and develop it for the benefit of its wildlife. You don’t have to be a churchgoer to join in - and we always make time for tea and cake too!
Contact: Find us on Facebook
Contemplative prayer, ‘the heart’s simple repose in God’, enables us to commune and rest with God in silence and stillness. It has biblical origins and an ancient tradition within the Christian church. In his beautiful and practical book Into the Silent Land, Martin Laird reminds us that we are ‘built for contemplation’, that ‘communion with God in the silence of the heart is a God-given capacity, like the rhododendron’s capacity to flower, the fledgling’s for flight and the child’s for self-forgetful abandon and joy’.
Alongside mission and worship, a principal function of the parish is to nurture the spiritual education and transformation of its congregation. To cultivate an ‘inner life and faith’, we are collectively exploring what it means to be a ‘contemplative community’, so that the fruits of contemplation can emerge within ourselves, our parish and the wider community in which we live.
If you are interested in joining us on this journey, or wish to know more about the Christian contemplative tradition or contemplative prayer, please let us know.