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 coffee mornings and Lent lunches and our newly formed 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 recently 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 Outdoor service, which people join either in person or via Zoom.
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.
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.
Please use the links below to find out details of our service times and all our events.
Monthly letter from our Vicar
March 2023: Ecochurch
Last year, the churches in Bradwell, Castleton and Hope all joined thousands of other churches across the UK that have signed up for the A Rocha Ecochurch program. Ecochurch helps churches embody their calling to care for all God’s creation, through their worship, how they care for their buildings and their land, how they engage with their communities, and through the individual lifestyles of worshippers.
Last November, a church in the Wirral became the 30th church in England and Wales to achieve their Ecochurch Gold Award. A quote from the Ecochurch website news says that:
‘To achieve the award, Christ Church developed a woodland walk and a memorial orchard, created two ponds, planted hundreds of trees, and transformed its churchyard into a space where wildlife can thrive. The planting scheme encourages bees, butterflies and birds, there are bird and bat boxes and bug and hedgehog hotels, and the hedges aren’t cut when birds might be nesting. The land is used for outdoor services and learning about creation, and events such as Bonfire night, the Queen’s jubilee, the scarecrow festival, and a recent autumn fayre selling locally grown produce. There is regular community litter picking and people are encouraged to walk, cycle or car share to attend church.’ *
One thing I love about the Ecochurch journey is that it embodies the values of God’s Kingdom, of flourishing for all. By working to protect God’s Creation, we are also enriching life for ourselves and others. Hope church have been working to enhance the wildlife value of Hope Churchyard, with things like bird boxes and wildflowers, and changing the mowing regime slightly. One of the delights of doing so has been the strengthening of links with other individuals and groups across the community who also value the churchyard as a special place, including the Hope Wildlife Group, Hope Historical Society, and Hope Valley College.
Our three churches have a long way to go, before they embody the care for people and creation shown by Christ Church, although two of them have recently received their Bronze Award. But we are working together to try to make positive changes. I am reminded of a comment I heard many, many years ago, that we all change the world simply by being in it; by eating, using energy, by interacting with people and creation. We can also all choose whether our impact on the world is positive or negative. I have chosen to try to tread lightly through this life, harming as little as I can. Because I believe God loves all that he has made, and longs to see his whole creation flourishing.
Yours in Christ,
Louise Petheram
[email protected] 01433 621918
*https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/a-beacon-of-hope-30th-gold-eco-church-award/
If you would like to sign up to receive the regular newsletters from churches and Christian groups across Hope Valley, please go to
https://mailchi.mp/f29b1286b3df/2t1gk3uwy2
or email me and I can sign you up.