What we believe

whoever you are, whatever your journey, welcome.

We are your neighbourhood Methodist Church. We seek to bring our community into the all-encompassing ways of Jesus Christ, and take his love out into the world. We seek to offer hope and encouragement as we serve each other and the wider area, travelling together in faith.

Belief

We believe, and our experience tells us, that Jesus changes lives and gives us rich resources for living.

The core message of the Christian faith is love. We aim to show this in our local church community through worshipping God together each week, as well as in the wider community through what we do as individuals and church activities.

We believe that through Jesus we are brought back home to God, and can find guidance for our decisions, and a purpose in life. All the rubbish of our past is forgiven and the slate wiped clean. We believe that God loves each one of us, just as we are, and gives us the power (through the Holy Spirit) to change for the better.

Methodism

‍We love to sing and socialise together, to build up, challenge and stimulate our faith. Our teaching is based on the Bible, and we study it together to understand how to apply it to our daily lives in the 21st Century. The other sources of our authority are experience, reason and tradition – all four work together to give us guidance.

Methodists have a passion for social justice – for example, Methodists were among the campaigners against the slave trade in the 18th Century and for better working conditions for factory workers and farm labourers in the 19th Century. Visit The New Room in central Bristol to find out more about our history John Wesley's New Room - Museum, Café, Events, Hire (newroombristol.org.uk).

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We aim to keep up the work of social justice in many ways: nationally through the Joint Public Issues Team which works on behalf of several of the free churches including our own, and locally through Methodist projects such as Turnaround Bristol https://www.turnaround.org.uk/ in Lawrence Hill, providing services for people who are homeless and vulnerable.

We regularly collect donations for all sorts of charities, local and international including Carpenter’s Foodbank at the Withywood Centre (see its Facebook page).

Worship Style

‍Our worship includes a mix of traditional and new hymns and songs. We hold an informal cafe church service every 3rd Sunday of the month at Knowle and we welcome families and children particularly to this style of worship. There are activities, songs, Bible stories and messages for everyone to take away. Otherwise typical worship is an hour long, with hymns, prayers and a sermon. Tea and coffee are served after most services so we can socialise and reflect on the word together.

We celebrate Holy Communion about once a month in each of the congregations, as we remember that Jesus died for us by sharing bread and wine.  We keep an open table, welcoming all and we use non-alcoholic wine for Holy Communion. We are part of the UK and worldwide Methodist Church - https://www.methodist.org.uk