St Paul's Family Church, Wibsey

Getting here

TOGETHER: GROWING, CARING, SHARING IN GOD'S LOVE

Introduction - Worshipping at St Paul's - Worshipping as a Family - Children Activities - Booking a Wedding - Booking a Baptism/Christening - Nurturing your Faith - Sick and Bereaved People - Retired and Elderly People - Service to our local community - Social events

INTRODUCTION: By God's grace, we are a lively, friendly and growing congregation led by a French vicar. We describe ourselves with these words: WHO are we?  “Our growing church family is a fellowship of Jesus’ disciples, from all ages and backgrounds, transformed by him".   WHAT do we do? "With God’s grace, we worship him as 'our Father in heaven' and want to grow closer to him, listening to his Word, caring for one another and serving everybody, with generosity."    WHY do we do it? "We believe that only Christ, our Saviour, can give the fulfilment of people’s deep desire, and offer hope and true inspiration for our lives."    HOW do we do it?  "Our vision is to proclaim, in the power of the Spirit, by our lives and words, the Good News of God’s love and renewal proposed to us in Jesus and offered in the Church.”

We are fortunate to worship in an attractive and very light building, surrounded by a beautiful churchyard. The building has recently been re-ordered to add toilets, a kitchen and a meeting room and has been provided with an efficient heating system.

WORSHIPPING AT ST PAUL'S: Our services are a mix of traditional and modern prayers/hymns, to permit everybody to pray God and be nurtured. Our main Sunday worship is at 10.30am, and follows a BCP Holy Communion  at 9.15am. The monthly pattern of our main service is: Holy Communion on the 1st, 2nd and 5th Sunday; All-Age Worship on the 3rd Sunday (service without Holy Communion); Family Holy Communion on the 4th Sunday. During the week, we celebrate a Holy Communion every Wednesday at 10.00am (once a month with children and teachers of the school). But this pattern may vary some months because of special services (check with the 'Calendar of forthcoming services and events' on 'Services and Events').

All our services are projected on a giant screen, with attractive PowerPoint Presentations, to permit everybody to be more involved in the worship. And we are also blessed to have an organist (1st, 2nd and 4th Sunday) or a Music Group (3rd Sunday) to accompany our singing, as well as a traditional choir and/or a modern singers group.

WORSHIPPING AS A FAMILY: All our worships are family friendly. But in some, children will be more involved: in the monthly Sunday Family Holy Communion (usually on the 4th Sunday of a month) and the monthly All-Age Worship (without Holy Communion, on the 3rd Sunday of a month) with the Uniformed Organisations (Rainbows, Brownies and Guides). Our school is also regularly invited to our Sunday worship for special services during the year. Children receive instruments of music and activities sheet with colouring pens if they want to stay with their parents during the service; otherwise, they are welcome to go to play in our Children Corner in the back room, under the supervision of one of their parents/guardians. Messy Church is held on the first Sunday of every month at 2.30pm, allowing parents and children to worship together during stories and activities.

CHILDREN ACTIVITIES: we have special activities for children during our services as well as a 'children corner' full of toys in the back room. Children are also actively involved in some services (cf. above: 'worshipping at St Paul's'). Our children leaders organise also a 'Toddlers Group' every Tuesday morning during school terms from 9.30am to 11.30am and  an 'After school Christian Club' every Monday during school terms from 3.45pm to 4.15pm (biscuits and drinks served from 3.15pm with quiet activities). Girls can be part of the Rainbows, Brownies or Guides. Children can also develop their dramatic talents in the AODS which organise two performances a year in Bradford.  We have also strong links with our church school (weekly collective worships in our church; monthly HC for Years 5-6 and Service of the Word for the other years; special celebrations for important Christian feasts). For more information about our children activities, contact the vicar who will address you to the right person. For our church school, go to the website: www.stpaulsceprimary.com.

BOOKING A WEDDING: to book a wedding, just give a call to the vicar or send him an email (cf. 'contact us'). You will be invited to meet with the vicar in the church at the day and time of your convenience, receive all the informations you need with a complete 'welcome pack', and fill the booking form. Please, bring with you a piece of identity and a proof of address for the legalities. As our church is very requested for weddings, we also ask for a non-refundable deposit of £100 to give when you have decided firmly to got married at St Paul's (within a month of the booking).  The deposit is then deducted from the total of your wedding fees. The statutory fees for getting married at St Paul's in 2018 are the same than in any parish in England: £484 (covering the reading of banns: £29, marriage service: £441 and marriage certificate: £14). You can also ask the church to provide you with supplementary options: organist, special wedding decoration etc. Finally, we organise each year a 'wedding preparation day' to which you are invited to come if you want. Note: if one of you is divorced, our vicar can accept to marry you providing to check with you that you are ready to do so.

BOOKING A BAPTISM/CHRISTENING: to book a baptism (or christening), just give a call to the vicar or send him an email (cf. 'contact us') and you will be invited to meet with him in church at the day and time of your convenience to receive all the informations you need with a 'welcome pack', and be able to fix the date and time of the service (you have the choice between celebrating the baptism during the 10.30am morning service with the congregation, or after at 12.30pm. It is also possible to book a baptism for a Saturday). There is no charge for a baptism.

NURTURING YOUR FAITH: We have a weekly group, meeting every Wednesday evening (from 7pm), for an in-depth Bible Study, or a Christian nurture course. Every year, we have a 4 evenings course ('Go Deeper') which can also prepare adults for baptism and/or confirmation. For more information, contact the vicar (cf. 'contact us') who will address you to the right person.

SICK and BEREAVED PEOPLE: We hold 4 times a year a Sunday service with prayer for healing and anointing (in Advent, before Lent, during the Easter Season and in Autumn), and 2 special Memorial services a year for bereaved families during a Sunday service (in November and during the Easter Season): for more information, look at the calendar of events. If you want to be visited by the vicar or a member of our 'Pastoral Team' to chat and/or receive the HC, or if you just want people of our 'Prayer Chain' to pray for you, please, contact the vicar (cf. 'contact us'). If you have lost a member of your family or a close friend, do not hesitate to contact the vicar for a visit.

RETIRED and ELDERLY PEOPLE: if you want to make new friends and have a chat around a cuppa, you can come every Wednesday morning from 10.30am to 12.30am to our 'Place of Welcome'. You can also develop your craft skills every first Tuesday of a month, from 2pm to 3.30pm, and come to our 'Open Door' activities; or our 'Knitting Club', the first and third Tuesday of the month, from 2pm to 3.30pm. Finally, if you just want to help us maintain the churchyard or the building, we have a monthly 'Work Day', on the 2nd Saturday of a month, from 10am to 1pm: there will always be something adapted to your ability to do. For more information, contact the vicar (cf. 'contact us') who will address you to the right person.

SERVICE TO OUR LOCAL COMMUNITY: A 'Food Bank' is run in partnership with the Metropolitan Food Bank every Wednesday 10.30am to 12.30pm. It is open to people living in the BD6 area and having received a voucher from a professional carer. At these times, the church is also operating a 'Place of Welcome', when anyone can come into the church for a chat or some quiet time privately. We have temporarily suspended our CAP Job Club and Money Management Course, as we are re-organising our team to expand our services.

SOCIAL EVENTS:  We organise regularly social events. The most important are the Family Fun Day (usually in July) and the Christmas Fayre (usually at the end of November). But also Coffee Mornings for the profit of different charities (e.g. MacMillan nurses, Help the Heroes, Christian Aid, local charities), Concerts, Table Top Sales, Exhibitions etc. Look at the 'Services and Events' and 'Calendar of forthcoming services and event' to know more about it.

WeWikipedia: We is the first-person, plural personal pronoun in Modern English. →

St Paul's Avenue
Wibsey
Bradford
BD6 1ST

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