Church services

An important aspect of deepening our faith is worship, and we hold a range of Church services each month (click on “services & events” in the navigation bar above for details). All are very welcome to join in any of our services.

Other regular Church activities

Our other regular Church activities are described in more detail on other web pages (click on “groups and activities” in the navigation bar above to link to them). They include prayer & study groups, the Festival Choir, the Healing Ministry, and the production of a monthly parish magazine, the Parish News. Additional initiatives since our Growing Healthy Churches exercise include the setting up of a SPIRE (Study, Prayer, Interaction, Reflection, Encouragement) group by our Reader, a commitment to holding regular Alpha courses, the setting up of two afternoon tea clubs for our local community, and a pledge to raise money to help the small parish of Bobi in Uganda with various projects, and more recently to provide similar help for the neighbouring parish of Lakwana and the associated parish of Lela-obaro.

Our Church also holds regular social activities including coffee after the 10am services, an Easter breakfast. a Patronal Festival picnic and a Harvest supper. In addition we have regular fundraising social activities such as a Lent supper in support of Christian Aid. We aim to use only Fairtrade products for such events, and we also promote the use of Fairtrade products by our congregation.

We share regular services and other activites with our Vicar's other Parish, Wisborough Green. And though we are part of the Church of England, we have connections with other Christian organisations in the area. We work together with the local Chapel (a free Church based in Kirdford) in areas of common interest. In addition we are a member of Petworth Area Churches Together (PACT), an ecumenical organisation that fosters links between all the major Church denominations in the area and promotes joint activities and worship. Within the wider Anglican Church we are represented on the Petworth Deanery Synod within the Diocese of Chichester.

For details of forthcoming events associated with all our activities, click on “services and events” in the navigation bar above. All are very welcome to join us at any of these events.

As in all Anglican parishes, all our activities are agreed and administered by our Parochial Church Council (PCC) under the chairmanship of our Vicar. We pray that God will direct and guide our PCC in all its decision-making and move us forward according to His will.

THE LIFE AND WORK OF OUR CHURCH

Our Church Family

We are the local Anglican Church family in this ecclesiastical parish – to find out more about our faith as Christians and as members of the Church of England, there are links to various Church-related websites under “links” in the navigation bar above. We are a friendly and welcoming congregation who are involved in many activities in addition to services. Some of these are described on our other web pages (click the headings above for details). Meanwhile, this page gives a brief overview of the life and work of our Church family.

Ministry in our parish

Our Vicar is Rev Clive Jenkins, who is also Vicar of the neighbouring Parish of St Peter ad Vincula, Wisborough Green. There is also an active lay ministry in our Parish. Janice Taylor is our Licensed Lay Minister, and our two churchwardens and other lay members of the congregation play an active part in our services, providing sidesmen and lesson readers for all services and leaders of intercession prayers for the 9.30 am services. There are also several trained lay Ministers of Communion, and young parishioners are encouraged to act as servers following confirmation. Several lay members of our Church are also involved in the Christian Healing Ministry in our parish.

Our parish mission statement

‘Spiritual growth and service through

seeking and following God’s will’

The above statement was agreed at our Annual Parochial Church Meeting of April 2005 following earlier workshops carried out over a period of time as part of a ‘Growing Healthy Churches’ initiative that was facilitated by our Diocese. Discussions arising from the exercises resulted in a recognition of the strengths of our Church family as well as areas being identified for further prayer and development.

Exploring these led us to adopt the above mission statement, acknowledging that, as Christians, it is not enough for us to try to be good people in our own strength, but that individually and collectively we need to pray for God’s guidance, and then be open to the prompting of the Holy Spirit as He guides and directs our lives through prayer and circumstances. In this way we will deepen our relationship with God through Jesus Christ and be enabled to serve Him and the community in the best way possible. There is now an increasing desire expressed by Church members to learn and experience more of the Christian Faith in order to serve God and to spread the Good News of Jesus.

The life & work of our Church