We are a vibrant and growing ‘Word+Spirit’ Anglican church family of some 400 adults and 200 children and young people, linked to the New Wine Network of churches. We are a warm and friendly family of committed believers with a passion to see people transformed by the proclamation of the Word in the power of the Spirit to the glory of God. Most people’s first experience of our church is at one of our four Sunday Gatherings. In each one, our aim is to provide an opportunity for everyone to have an encounter with the living God through worship, teaching and ministry.

What we are all about

htcd is an evangelical church, which simply means we seek to shape our individual and corporate lives to the Bible, which we believe to be the ‘Word’ God has given to guide us through life.

What we mean by 'Word+Spirit’

Jesus pointed out that the so-called religious leaders of his own day spent their lives poring over every word in their scriptures (what we call the Old Testament), but failed to recognise him, the Saviour promised in those very writings (John 5:39,40). So it is quite possible to know the bible well and yet not understand who Jesus is.

We believe that God’s ‘Word’ only comes alive to us through the work of his Holy Spirit. Jesus told his followers that, when the Holy Spirit came to live within them, he would lead them into all truth. Just before he left them to return to heaven, Jesus also told them to wait until they were ‘clothed with power from on high’ (Luke 24.49). This is why, in our Sunday gatherings we always take time after the Word is proclaimed, to invite God’s Spirit to minister to us; because we believe that everyone can experience what one of the writers of the New Testament described as having the Word of God living in us richly.

What we believe

God designed and created the human race and everything else,
and that he loves everything he ever made – this is why our
world is such a beautiful place and why life is often full of joy.

Human beings, deceived by God’s Enemy,
rebelled against him and tried to make a go of things on their own
– this is why our world can also be such a cruel place and why life
can also be very painful.

God loved us all so much that, even though we turned away from him,
he sent his only son, Jesus, to rescue us from all the darkness in life
through his death on the cross.

Human beings can find peace with God simply by trusting Jesus and
believing that his death sets us right in God’s eyes – we believe that
Jesus wants to transform us into the people and communities we
were originally designed to be.

God places his very own Spirit within all those who trust in Jesus
for salvation and that, through his Spirit, God speaks to his people today
– in our teaching and ministry on Sundays, and in our small groups,
we encourage people to discover this truth for themselves.

Christians are given gifts to use in the service of others
– as a church family, we encourage everyone to discover
and use the special gift God has given them for the good of others,
in our church family and out in our communities.

God will one day send Jesus back to earth to sort out all our problems
once and for all – the whole cosmos will be recreated and Christians
will live with God for ever.

Christians, while we wait for Jesus to return, have been commissioned
by him to fight back against God’s Enemy, and to restore the people
and things the Enemy has stolen or corrupted – so we pray for the
sick to be healed, for those oppressed by spiritual darkness to be set free,
for relationships to be restored and for the power of Jesus’ love to transform
situations which humanly seem impossible.