Debra Hill is Children, Families and Youth worker for five churches in the Worcester South East team with St Barnabas, in a post that is in part financed by the Healthier Churches Fund. Here Debra reflects on her first year in the role.
St John’s church in Halesowen welcomed over 90 people on Saturday 15 November for a special Messy Church, which included a film-showing of 'The Snowman' by candlelight, bringing the whole community together!
Parishes across the Diocese working with Kirsty Pierson from iSingPOP this year, have reported how much this support has helped them reach new families and children. We hope it will be possible to extend the pilot to see how this initial success can be further embedded and built on.
In January 2026 Claines Church, will be launching a new and exciting church service for children called ‘Bubble Church’. This has been made possible thanks to a grant from the ‘Healthier Churches Fund’.
At St Thomas’ Church in Stourbridge, members of ‘Chewsday Church’ have recently unveiled a large cross, intentionally crafted with a rough and imperfect surface to reflect the brokenness of our world.
The Revd Steve Hollinghurst has been appointed as our New Worshipping Communities Lead. Steve is joining our Transformation Support Hub team, which is funded by the national church, replacing Kim Brown.
Former CE primary school teacher Louise Hicklin recently started as Children and Families’ Worker at St John the Baptist Church in Halesowen. Thanks to this appointment and the installation of new toilets, St John’s Church have been able to launch their first Messy Church.
In this short film Paul Wilcox from West Worcester Beacon Benefice shares how their three New Worshipping Communities have led to the growth of their main congregation at Hallow.
During the first week of August, Kingswinford parish hosted an exciting iSingPOP holiday club at St Mary’s Church featuring iSingPops catchy worship tunes and dance moves. The club proved hugely popular, with attendance peaking at 53 children.
Back in May, St John’s church in Halesowen which is one of our Renewal projects, launched a post GCSE exam chill-out space for year 11s nicknamed 'Donut Club' which was really popular. They're now building on that success by offering a Bibles and Brunch session to the same group.
A new half-hour monthly act of worship is taking place at St Kenelm’s Church in Clifton-on-Teme, with people of all ages gathering outside for Welly Church!
As we continue on our seven-year journey of transformation to ensure our churches are growing healthier and more sustainable, real progress is being made in our Transformation programme priority areas. Churches across the Diocese are starting to see the green shoots of growth.
Teams of people from churches across the Diocese looking to start or grow a New Worshipping Community have been part of the Myriad learning community since January 2024. In this video we hear about what's it's like to be a part of a learning community.
‘Sparkle Tots’ is church for pre-schoolers and their parents or carers. It takes place at St Nicholas Church in Droitwich on Mondays during term time.
St James Church in Hartlebury village near Kidderminster has launched a new monthly energetic church service called ‘Jamie’s’ for children and families featuring ISingPOP’s catchy worship songs and dance routines. It takes place on the second Sunday of the month in the church at 4pm.
St John’s Greenlands in Redditch has a thriving New Worshipping Community for families and children called ‘Activity Church’ which runs at the same time as their traditional Sunday morning service, in the adjacent church hall.
In conversation with local groups supporting adults with additional needs, St Mary’s church in Oldswinford has created a service, which is designed to be accessible for all.
Kirsty Pierson has been recruited by iSingPOP and seconded to the Diocese to work with seven churches initially as part of a pilot project to strengthen links between schools and churches, bringing local families into this one community.
An exciting new partnership for 2025, between the Diocese and iSingPOP, was launched at a breakfast event at St Wulstan’s Worcester on Thursday 6 February.
On the last Saturday in January, teams from churches who are part of the Myriad learning community, and are hosting and developing New Worshipping Communities, met together for the next session. This group first met this time last year.
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5th December 2025