7pm St Matthew's, Widcombe (St Matt's)
In 2009 we felt led to start an “emerging generation” congregation and started to look for a venue more conveniently placed for students and young adults than Combe Down. As we had a very good relationship with the neighbouring parish of Widcombe, both our vicar and curate having regularly led services during Widcombe’s period of vacancy, and they had a church building which was vacant on Sunday evenings and on a bus route from the centre of town to the University of Bath, we arranged to rent St Matthew’s from 6pm on Sunday evenings during term time. We share the building with several non-denominational fellowships which rent the premises on Sunday mornings or afternoons, as well as various community groups which rent it out during the week. Our associate minister, Tim Buckley, leads the St Matts team with the help of several volunteers and the youth and worship teams.
The evening service at Holy Trinity was moved to St Matthew’s in Spring 2009 and also changed in format slightly. “New Wine” in style, with an emphasis on dynamic, vibrant band led praise and worship, “Trinity” at St Matts has been a visible and tangible expression of the heart of Holy Trinity to plant out and seek to be a blessing within the wider city of Bath. We have enjoyed both the physical space and longer time available for preaching and powerful weekly ministry times that this large building offers.
The last 18 months since the launch of the initial evening church service in Widcombe has seen this new, exciting and dynamic congregation quickly developing. The three-fold vision at Trinity is simple: Upward (Radical worship of God) Inward (discipleship and community life) and Outward (missionally focused: towards friends, family, our community, the city and beyond).
In figures that massively contrast with national statistics for this age group, St Matts has experienced really encouraging growth. With a core group of some 15-20 people initially committing to the service, regular weekly figures have now grown to between 100 and 140 people. A considerable proportion of these people (though not exclusively!) tend to be in the 18 -30 age bracket, including those from both Bath Spa and Bath University. It has been a privilege to see many “de-churched people” finding a worshipping community to call home and also many people finding new faith, encountering Jesus for the first time. We are looking forward to planning our first Baptism services for some of these people in the near future.