Our faith

Holy Trinity is part of the Church of England, the parish church for about 13,000 people.  The Church of England covers a wide variety of 'flavours' from Anglo-Catholic to Evangelical - we're somewhere in the middle. 

We recognise that different members of our congregation don't all believe exactly the same thing, but we are united around the core belief to which our name, Holy Trinity, refers.  We believe in one God seen in three different ways.  A God:

• who lovingly creates us & all we see around us;
• who forgives our shortcomings & gives us second chances time & time again;
• who is present in creation, & sustains us in our lives. 

In all that we do we try to follow the teaching of Jesus Christ, especially his command that we should love God, & love each & every human life. 

Because we are committed to the being the church for all the people living in our parish, we try to make our worship as open & welcoming to all 'flavours' as we reasonably can. We try to be a place where everyone can meet with God.

We tend to have a fairly modern outlook on life.  For example, we are quite happy with women as vicars and bishops; we don't mind baptising children whose parents aren't married; we'll usually take weddings where one partner is divorced ...  I'm sure you get the idea.

We believe God wants us to build a just world here & now.  Faith isn't just about belief, but belief put into action.  So we are committed to supporting people less fortunate than ourselves.  That includes giving to charities both local & overseas every year - we hope fairly generously.

Much of this is expressed in a statement of Our Vision which was written a few years ago ...

Holy Space

First and foremost we are about God, and about offering a setting in which people may encounter God and in which the life of the spirit may flourish.

So here we're talking about the building (open, available etc); about worship, prayerfulness, development of spirituality; about celebration.

Open Space

Themes of welcome, acceptance and outreach come to mind. Its about the building again, but also about the people, and about the groups that make up our church life. We want people to find the ways in and belong: people of different ages, backgrounds and traditions. An important aspect here is that we want to offer an environment in which people feel that they can ask questions, can explore what they believe; they can seek and enquire

Learning Space 

This is about opportunities for learning; providing a place where faith and understanding are explored, discovered and nurtured.

This may not be just for us, the congregation, but for the wider community and wider church.

Caring Space

This is about the community in which the grace of God in Christ is shared through words and deeds. We seek to offer pastoral care widely but specifically to the bereaved, the ill and the lonely. Offering people somewhere where they can belong. The ministry of intercession and prayer for healing is part of this, as may also be our prayerful and financial support for the world church.