Bradwell St Barnabas – About Us
Welcome!
At St Barnabas we feel privileged that the church and its churchyard have been part of community life in Bradwell for many generations. We treasure our connections with the community, through traditional services such as Christmas and Remembrance, as well as through activities like Community Cafés, Ladies’ Fellowship Group and the popular St B’s Baby Group.
Whether you have just moved to the area, are a visitor to the village or have lived in Bradwell all your life, we hope you will feel welcome at St Barnabas. We meet most Sundays in church for worship, and share our Vicar, Louise, with St Peter’s, Hope and St Edmund’s in Castleton.
Our worship style is fairly traditional; most services include communion. However we have introduced a Worship Together service on the first Sunday of each month, that is short, relatively informal, and encourages interaction. This service is still evolving, and we’d love your feedback. We also have one service a month, on the fourth Sunday, that is a Benefice Celtic based service, which takes place outdoors from April to September and indoors in chilly months.
We seek to extend a warm welcome to all those who visit, whether joining us for worship or simply taking time to enjoy the peace and tranquility of St Barnabas during the week. We pray that all those who visit will find something of God in our church community, in the building itself or in its surrounding grounds. The church is open every day from 10am-4pm.
We feel strongly that St Barnabas belongs to everyone, as God welcomes all. If you have suggestions about how we could improve our service and witness to the community, or could better meet your needs, we would love to hear from you.
If you would like to receive our Benefice weekly newsletter via email, which contains details of services, news and notices, please email Jane (Churchwarden) on: churchwarden.stb@gmail.com or phone 01433 621172.
You can also use the links below to find out details of our service times and all our events.
Monthly letter from our Vicar.
LOUISE’S MESSAGE – DECEMBER 2025 “COMING, READY OR NOT”
I wonder how early you start ‘getting ready for Christmas’? I know people who prepare all
year by buying gifts that X would like throughout the year, when they see them. And
sometimes I wish I was that well organised. And many shops seem to start encouraging us
to shop for Christmas when it still feels to me like summer. But for me the beginning of
December is usually about the time when I realise just how quickly Christmas is
approaching, and how little I have done.
Amidst all my inevitable busyness at this time of year, I always make time during Advent to
reflect on what we are actually celebrating at Christmas. One of the names Christians use
for Jesus is ‘Emmanuel’, which means ‘God with us,’ As part of my preparation each year
for Christmas, I reflect on the awesome miracle that God loves the world – loves you and
me and all that he has made – so much that he chose to be born as one of us – as ‘God
with us.’ That miracle never ceases to amaze me, and many of my most treasured
memories connected with Christmas, are about ways in which people bless one another,
reflecting something of God’s love.
Before moving back to Derbyshire, I had years when I was able to volunteer as a Street
Pastor in Leicester City Centre. One of my greatest blessings in the approach to Christmas
was undoubtedly the time we were able to spend with the homeless of Leicester. Each
year they would teach me more about the true spirit of Christmas. I remember numerous
occasions sitting in doorways with homeless people while they spoke of the pain of being
cold and hungry, and the far greater pain of being completely ignored by busy shoppers
rushing about buying things they did not need. And of course, I remembered at these
times that Jesus was born particularly to show God’s love for the poor and neglected.
I remember too, the incredible generosity the homeless so often showed towards others.
On one particularly cold night, when the temperature had fallen to about -12C, we gave a
sleeping bag to a young girl shivering in a shop doorway. Her face lit up with pure joy.
‘You’re so wonderful,’ she told us, ‘Now I can give my blanket to X who doesn’t have one.’
So my prayer for us all this month, is that we can all be more touched by the spirit of God,
that shone so clearly through that girl who could fit all her possessions into a carrier bag,
and yet still had enough to give to others. And I pray that we may also share something of
the joy that radiated from her.
Yours in Christ,
Louise Petheram
rev.louise.p@gmail.com 01433 621918
If you would like to sign up to receive the regular newsletters from churches and Christian
groups across Hope Valley, please go to
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or email me and I can sign you up.
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