The Magazine

Almost every time we talked to someone new, and we asked them how long they’d been at St Ed’s, we got the same sort of answer, “I was in a difficult place in my life, and when I came here I was made to feel so very welcome.” It became sort of litany of thankfulness.

Our vicar, Paul and his wife, Rachel, are such open and welcoming people that they have set the tone. Now they have set the ball rolling, the welcoming process seems almost unstoppable. And other things have worked here to support this welcome.

An open policy on weddings and baptisms.

At St Ed’s, while we explain very clearly the significance of the promises that people are about to make, we then allow them to be involved on their own terms – just whatever they feel comfortable with.

A wide variety of services.

People are individuals and have varied tastes in music, service styles and different time commitments. The church therefore puts on many (very) different services on several days of the week: 8am and 10.30am Sunday communions, all-age services, all-age communions, Julian meetings, café services, Messy Church, evening prayer, and compline, as well as running a range of home groups. The Revd Seabrook has built up a team and shares the ministry with three retired or part-time clergy, a Reader and three Authorised Worship Assistants (AWAs), plus other lay helpers.

A strong pastoral ethos.

As well as these service leaders, there’s a pastoral team of seven people, plus a ministry team that offers prayer after every morning service, and there are teams going into care homes locally.

But how do we have so many people actively involved? The answer is largely just what I said earlier: make people feel welcome, and the chain reaction of welcoming will continue, as they feel committed to sharing with others all that they have received.

Having been made so welcome ourselves, we’re now helping to run a welcome café in the church on a Tuesday morning – anyone, church attender or not, is welcome to join us for a cup of tea or coffee, plus a slice of toast or something sweet, and in the middle of the morning there’s a well-attended toddler tunes session.

In this past 12 months I’ve come to experience, in a new and wonderful way, that God is welcome. What I mean is that I’ve rediscovered (after almost 50 years as a Christian!) that God, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, embodies relationship. And because that love within the godhead is the very essence of what God is, he welcomes us into that deep relationship of love.

To know and experience welcome personified: “By this will everyone know you are my disciples: if you have love for one another.” It’s true that, as Jesus knew well, real love is very costly, but thankfully real love is amazing and wonderful and life-affirming! For me, that’s what’s at the heart of “Welcome”.