Notes for visiting preachers

Getting in touch

A week or two before your visit, the Church Secretary will get in touch by email (if your details are in the circuit directory) or by letter to let you know which of our stewards will be looking after you and how you can contact them. After that, it would be really helpful if you could let the steward know what hymns you have chosen and whether you would like members of the congregation to read or do anything else for you. It can take us a day or two to sort out music for the hymns.

Getting to the church

See the Where we are page for more information. The church is an easy two to five minute walk from the car park beside Tesco.

Our morning service is now held at 10.30 am - later than before, but now in line with almost everybody else in the Circuit.

The steward may not realise how far you have travelled - don't feel embarrassed to remind us to offer you a cup of coffee if you would like one before the service.

Resources

The Bibles in our pews are the Good News Bible and it is this translation that is used most often in our worship. We don't balk at other versions, though we like to understand the Scripture.

These days, we usually sing from Singing the Faith. We also have sets of Hymns and Psalms, Mission Praise Combined Edition (Nos 1-798) and Partners in Praise.

We have copies of the complete Methodist Worship Book.

Practices

Since Covid, we've stopped using the vestry. We begin with the steward welcoming you and the congregation and then giving out any notices. They may read what would have been the vestry prayer and after that, it's all yours. Expect a congregation of around ten to twenty. We aren't afraid of new hymns - though it's easier if we don't have to learn too many at once. Most preachers ask us to find members of the congregation to do bible readings and, with a few days' notice, we can usually find volunteers to lead intercessions or join in other activities.  Our table is open to everybody who wishes to receive communion.

We usually sing to recorded music and prefer to have a few days' notice of hymns to get the recordings in order.  If you prefer to bring music on your own device, we can feed that into the sound system - again, just let us know beforehand.

Layout

We have a traditional pulpit front and centre of the church and a lectern in the corner. You are most welcome to use either (or both). It is also possible to move the lectern to the centre of the church, but we'd appreciate quarter of an hour's notice of this to allow us to reconfigure the sound system. We will give you a radio mic, so if you prefer to move around the church that is fine too.

You'll be very welcome to join us for a cup of coffee after the service.