Events

Living in Love & Faith is a five-week course offering a ‘safe and brave’ space in which people with different or undecided views can listen to the Bible and to one another, in a spirit of honest and open enquiry. Everybody is welcome.

The Church of England has provided this course which promotes good conversations around matters of gender, sexuality and marriage. It is for those with different views and those who are undecided – the aim is not to convert anyone but to have a conversation in which we listen to scripture and to one another. The merit of a course which welcomes people from different traditions of the church is that we learn what it means to be ‘one in Christ’ both with those we agree with and those we disagree with. The national church invites participants to give feedback on their experience of the course to help guide the next steps.

The course is hosted by Revd Jacky Wise of St John’s Within, Magdalene Chapel and by Revd Philip Hawthorn of St Mary’s and St Stephen’s. It takes place on Wednesday mornings from 10:00 to 12 noon in the St Stephen’s Church Centre on Lansdown Road, Bath, BA1 5SX.

The full course dates are: 9th, 16th & 23rd of February and 2nd & 9th March 2022.

To book a place on the course please contact Revd Philip Hawthorn.

Deanery Synod

At the Deanery Synod meeting on Wednesday 18th May, 7.30pm (venue TBA), we shall be considering the 5 year plan proposed by the Diocese of Bath and Wells.

In the light of changing patterns of church attendance and giving, and challenges arising out of the pandemic, the Diocese is having to take the opportunity to realign its resources for mission. This will mean putting less money into stipendiary clergy and more money into other forms of church leadership – lay, licensed and ordained. These changes will affect every parish in the Diocese, this meeting will be an opportunity to understand the thinking behind the changes and to consider how it will impact us locally.

Every parish is being encouraged to think about creating partnerships with leadership teams from other parishes and to consider how and where to pioneer new forms of church to exist alongside the existing.