St Mary's offers a wonderful community resource with its medieval church building and its parish centre.
It is undoubtedly the Church which has provided the driving-force over several decades for all community activities which take place at the Parish Centre. Owing to a comprehensive refurbishment over the past six or seven years, the Parish Centre has never been so well used. We are glad to be able to provide this facility thus enabling the wider community to make use of its resources which we are glad to share. We see this as vital part of our mission to the parish and beyond.
Worship of God and service to people, first and foremost, is what the Chursh is about. Here at St Mary's the Holy Eucharist (Mass) is celebrated four times, and sometimes more, a week. Although Sunday remains the focus of our worship, we recognise that for many people this is no longer possible for a variety of reasons. Working patterns, split families where children visit one or other of their parents, make Sunday worship difficult, if not impossible for some. We aim to try to overcome this difficulty by providing alternatives.
We run three weekday faith activity groups so that children can come with a parent or carer to participate in worship and learning. Our special childrens faith resources area is designed for this purpose. From time to time we also run children's workshops at Easter, Christmas and the summer holidays.
Being of such historical importance, St Mary's Parish Church is frequently visited by the children of the three state schools in the parish. They come to look, to learn and to take in the spiritual atmoshphere of this very beautiful building. Who knows, perhaps spiritual seeds are sown here which will one day bear fruit.
