The Healthier Churches Fund was created using money which has been freed up from investments alongside some Lowest Income Communities funding from the National Church. Parishes can apply for funding for projects to help make a difference in reaching out in their community and bring more people to faith.
Charles Hindley and Anita Mansell are based at Holy Trinity Old Hill and work closely on children, family and youth ministry. Anita swapped from a volunteer role seven months ago and is focusing on families and primary aged children.
All Saints Church in Sedgley held a pancake party in the church hall on Tuesday morning with over 85 children attending. Many of the parents present expressed an interest in bringing their children to other things, including potential New Worshipping Communities being planned.
Bishop Hugh visited St Stephen’s Church in Redditch on Ash Wednesday where they were hosting a ‘Lightbox’ drop in event for young people, followed by jacket potatoes for the community ahead of their Ash Wednesday service.
By 2030 we plan to renew around 12 churches across the Diocese so that every major population area has at least one larger church with 150 attendees. This film seeks to showcase and celebrate the progress so far.
Gornal and Sedgley parish have been very encouraged recently by a new member of their congregation. Since joining in September Andy has attended every week and within a few months sought to renew and affirm his baptismal vows.
Hundreds of people from across Worcestershire and Dudley gathered in Worcester Cathedral on Saturday to welcome Hugh Nelson to the Diocese as the 114th Bishop of Worcester.
Church of the Ascension in Wall Heath host ‘Soul Food’ NWC every other Tuesday evening from 5pm. In their last session before Christmas the theme was ‘joy and connection’. As well as discussing this theme, they also demonstrated it, filling shoeboxes with gifts for families in need.
On 17 January, we will officially welcome Hugh Nelson as the next Bishop of Worcester. As he joins us, he will be spending time getting to know Worcestershire and Dudley and its people as well as finding out more about what’s happening in our churches.
Many people will come into our churches for Christmas services who might not attend at other times of the year. This provides great opportunities including informing your local community of exciting things coming up. Here are some ways in which our renewal churches are planning to do that.
The Redditch Toy Appeal organised by the Redditch Mission Area has helped provide Christmas presents for over 1000 children this year! With more referred than ever before, staff from the diocesan team, including Archdeacon Nikki volunteered to help.
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.
As another year draws to a close, Archdeacon Nikki provides an update on our journey of transformation and change. Where have we reached key milestones? What does the next stage of the journey look like? Are we still heading towards the same ultimate destination?
Claines played host to a joyful family ‘Light Trail’ during the half term holiday, which ninety people participated in. Ten households in Claines decorated their homes as “light stops,” each displaying a word that formed part of a Bible verse, for participants to unscramble.
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’.
Former primary school teacher Emily Holmes has recently joined St Peter’s Bengeworth in Evesham as ‘Children and Families Worker’. Emily is keen to bring more families into church and has a real heart for creating neurodiverse-friendly spaces where all children feel safe and valued.
Each October, churches are asked to count the numbers of children and adults attending different services to feed into the Church of England’s Statistics for Mission which need to be submitted before the end of January.
Former Corporate HR Manager, Grace Wrigglesworth, has been Operations Manager for Kingswinford parish for just over a year and her work is already making a difference to the whole Kingswinford community about which she is so passionate.
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.
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16th April 2026