Firstly, welcome! If you’re new to St Mary’s or just checking out the site hello to you. Feel free to have browse and hopefully you’ll get a flavour of who we are. We’ve got a plethora of things you can get involved in, from small groups and CLUSTERS (slightly larger gatherings), to courses that will introduce you to God, the church and our community. If you are thinking of making St Mary’s your home or just want to visit, do say hello at the Welcome desk on a Sunday or send us an EMAIL. We also run a course called LIFE which is one of the best ways of finding out about us and getting to know who we are. For a better understanding of our core beliefs and where we’re coming from here’s our ‘Big Idea’:

Church belongs to God We believe that God must be allowed to do with his church what he wills. In other words, we try and let him be in charge.

Church belongs to the people of God Obviously all people are different and this poses a challenge when bringing individuals together for a common purpose. We aim to establish a diverse community life that enables everyone to get involved, take ownership and play.

We believe that people are wired with certain sets of principles that inform their behaviour. Some people are motivated by risk- taking, impact- making and stimulation and we call these ‘Adventurers’. Others are wired with relationship, friendship and acceptance at their core- ‘Carers’. Lastly there are those who major on integrity, honesty and authenticity- we refer to them as ‘Truthtellers’. People reflect these important drives or expressions in different proportions and although we should aim to grow in maturity towards them all, we probably associate ourselves more readily with two out of the three. These traits can not only be indicative of temperament but also help identify gifts. They can decipher aspects of spirituality you might find easier and even the types of people you will connect with more naturally.

In our view church is church We think its important that a church should try and reflect these elements as much as possible to ensure a holistic expression of all three. At St Mary’s we aim to ensure Adventuring (apostolic and evangelistic), Caring (pastoral) and Truthtelling (teaching and prophetic) gifts are all utilised. Really, none are optional and the lack of one can cause immaturity, so we’re trying to grow up...

Church must be religion free In today’s culture Church has a bit of a reputation for being dull, legalistic or irrelevant; an outdated institution even. Our theory is that Religion is the height of rebellion against God. We believe the content of the gospel should and does remain the same as when it was originally written... we just work out how to live around that truth in today’s societal context. This has led us to try and soften traditional church culture so that people who don’t normally attend, or those who have been disaffected by past church experience, have the opportunity to find what we do in as accessible a manner as possible.

A brief history We began to meet as a church in July 1997 at St Paul’s Onslow Square knowing that we would have to find a permanent home with the help of the church authorities. Our congregation had grown significantly in five years and with the active support of the Bishop of London we decided to come together with the existing congregation of St Mary’s. We were delighted to officially open here on Sunday 16th June 2002. We have since grown, evolved and have also been involved in numerous church planting ventures across the world, details of which can be found in FRIENDS.