Rosedale Community Church and Wormley Free Church joined forces on Sunday 15 November for a special joint service, delivered virtually for our whole Connexion community.
Click on the You Tube link below to join them.
And if you missed the brilliant Connexion wide service on Sunday 22 November, click on the You Tube link below to view. Enjoy!
Following the success of last week's brilliant Connexion wide virtual service, we look forward to this Sunday's service, which brings together our Connexion churches and their congregations for online worship.
The service contains news updates from our churches, a Connexion history of our churches in Sierra Leone, prayers, bible readings, an inspirational sermon and sung worship. Just click on the You Tube link below to join in and enjoy!
A special Thanksgiving Service was held over the weekend at Jerusalem Avenue School in Sierra Leone, to celebrate the completion of the building's extensive repair and refurbishment programme.
The service took place in the newly constructed second floor, complete with a brand new roof!
Thanks are conveyed to The Sierra Leone Mission and our UK Connexion churches for helping to raise funds to enable the works to take place. The building had been standing empty and ruined for almost 15 years, and will now be a huge asset for the community.
If you would like to contribute towards the important work of The Connexion in Sierra Leone and the UK, please click on Donations. All contributions, no matter how small, are of huge value to enable us to continue the legacy of the Countess of Huntingdon.
Welcome to the first Connexion wide virtual service, bringing together our Connexion churches and their congregations for online worship.
The service brings us news updates from our churches, a Connexion history of our churches in Sierra Leone, prayers, bible readings, an inspirational sermon and sung worship. Just click on the You Tube link below to join in and enjoy!
With a second national lockdown in place until December, churches have once again needed to close their doors for Sunday services.
During the previous lockdown our congregations were invited to join in with a variety of brilliant virtual services and meetings, either live on Zoom or pre-recorded and released each Sunday morning.
Many of these have continued, either as a supplement to resumed in-person services, or a temporary replacement. Several of these recordings have borne unexpected fruit, reaching an even larger number than our regular services.
For the coming lockdown, we are planning to connect people and churches again with a variety of services, worship songs, prayers, bible readings and messages from throughout our network of Connexion churches.
We plan to include new recordings from Sunday 15 November, running through 22 and 29 November.
The first You Tube Connexion wide service is below.
Below is a list of the services that are being broadcasted. We will publish and update details of all available recordings with links for you to access. We look forward to reaching even more of our church members, some of whom do not currently have a service to join.
So watch this space and look forward to joining in with our growing Online Connexion Community!
Bolney Village Chapel is also running an online Alpha Course. The course started on Tuesday 29 September from 8pm to 9pm, and runs for 10 weeks on Tuesday evenings, concluding on 1 December. On Saturday 7 November the online group will also meet for an additional session from 10.30am to 1pm.
Each week a link is sent out for a 25min video introducing that week's topic, together with a link to join the meeting via a Zoom call at 8pm for discussion and questions.
For further information, or to join the course, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
What the people of our Connexion community have in common is a sense of belonging, a shared faith in Jesus and a need to connect with and support each other.
During the Coronavirus pandemic, our churches have been sustaining these values with the creation of online Connexion services, readings, gatherings, prayer and worship.
Over the past seven months the team at Wormley Free Church has also been creating video and audio recordings of worship music for congregations and friends to enjoy. Now these recordings have been brought together in a dedicated website The Official Site of Wormley Lockdown Band! Click here to access the songs and videos created during these times.
We are grateful for the innovation and dedication of so many individuals from the Connexion community in keeping us together online. It demonstrates and reminds us of God’s presence and provision for our lives, when we come together in worship and prayer. Whether our church buildings are open or closed, we are one body:
Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to us. (Romans 12: 4-6)
We thank God for the ways in which He has enabled the many gifts evident within our church communities to join in praise and worship as members of one body.
During this period where many of our buildings have needed to remain closed, our Connexion churches have created new and effective ways to enable you to join together for services, gatherings, worship and prayer. These are available via church websites, Facebook, You Tube pages and Zoom meetings.
The Connexion is welcoming applications for new trustees to join our existing team. Due to recent retirements our numbers have been reduced to five, and we are looking to recruit four new trustees, from among our church members.
If you feel prompted to join us we would be delighted to hear from you for an informal chat about how you may become involved.
The Connexion includes 22 churches, spread across the UK as far afield as West Cornwall, Manchester, Gloucestershire, and Kent. Each has its own distinctive situation, personality, and ways of ‘being a church’, yet bound together, not only by a shared love of Jesus and desire to follow Him, but also by an extraordinary history and legacy inherited from one woman.
The Countess, Selina Hastings, established The Connexion in the 18th Century, using her resources to build new churches and train preachers to spread the Gospel as far and wide as possible. She was highly respected by people from every ‘level’ of society, from slaves to royalty, and she had the courage to challenge and break the rules of an intensely patriarchal and prejudiced social system. She was a good friend and confidante of John Wesley, Charles Wesley and George Whitfield, who were celebrated advocates of the Methodist Revival, and she dedicated her life to spreading Christ’s mission.
The Connexion today is a strong family community that is brought together with shared intention to continue and build on Selina’s faith and achievements. Our members forge deep and often lifelong relationships between entire families that may span several generations. And this emphasis on genuine friendship and caring becomes all apparent when there is a chance for the whole community to meet at the annual Connexion Conference. The Connexion’s aims to welcome, network and support are deeply embedded in our culture.
Our trustees attend four formal trustee meetings a year, quite often held in London, but sometimes at one of our churches, and between formal meetings, we keep in touch by email, phone and online platforms. Agendas for discussion and decision-making are varied, but our main focus is to find ways to help our congregations and ministers to effectively share Jesus with their communities. Resources are limited, so a key role of trustees is to establish how best to apply our assets and modest income to help our churches to thrive.
It is extremely valuable for our trustees to regularly attend one of our Connexion churches, but apart from that no qualifications are necessary, other than a love of Jesus Christ and willingness to follow Him. All of our ministers and trustees accept The Connexion’s Articles of Faith.
The amount of work you would be expected to contribute entirely depends on your personal circumstances. Our trustees are all volunteers and some have full-time professions.
If you would like to find out more about what’s involved in being a trustee please contact David Lockett, Chair of Trustees at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. If you would prefer, get in touch with any of our trustees or your minister/church leader.
We would be delighted to give you more details about our activities and hope to be able to welcome you to our team!
For those who are unable to attend Sunday services by visiting our church buildings, you are warmly invited to join with us online to virtually attend a range of available services and gatherings.
A number of our Connexion churches are participating in this initiative, and you are able to to join them through church websites, Facebook, You Tube pages and Zoom meetings.
Some of our churches have been able to open their doors, carefully following Covid-19 guidance for places of worship. Please contact individual churches for details. Safety guidelines are periodically updated on Gov.uk: Covid-19 Guidance.
It's a great way to keep our strong community together during these challenging times, and our churches welcome you to join in!
Bolney Village Chapel is also running an online Alpha Course. The course started on Tuesday 29 September from 8pm to 9pm, and runs for 10 weeks on Tuesday evenings, concluding on 1 December. On Saturday 7 November the online group will also meet for an additional session from 10.30am to 1pm.
Each week a link is sent out for a 25min video introducing that week's topic, together with a link to join the meeting via a Zoom call at 8pm for discussion and questions.
For further information, or to join the course, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Ben Quant is a Connexion Trustee and Minister of Wormley Free Church. He was born and bred in a small fenland village outside Ely. It was through the invitation of The Countess Chapel, Ely in 1990 to join in an Easter musical, that he became a Christian.
Shortly after he left for university, studying Biochemistry at Imperial College, with dreams of going on to become either a perpetual student or a rock guitarist. God had other plans!
During the 90's, he slept on many of our church floors with Youth Conference, joining their committee and ultimately running it. In August 1992 he cycled 1,100 miles around our churches, visiting all but Middleton, in order to raise funds for a new school in Foofoo Water, Sierra Leone. (One day he will remedy the omission of Middleton). This led to a deep affection for the Connexion family and his becoming part of the Sierra Leone Mission and its chair for nine years.
After university, Ben decided to take a year out and work for The Connexion, and he was offered a post at Westcott. This stretched and he remained at Westcott until 1999 when he moved to Wormley. He retains his interest in science and its relationship with faith. He is currently studying for a DMin (Doctor of Ministry) at Spurgeon's College, researching preaching as testimony. Outside of church and studies, he is a keen cyclist, guitarist, reader and tabletop-gamer. He is still on his year out!
As you may have noticed, Ben is sharing the bench with Gromit!
The Connexion is currently seeking four new Trustees to join their existing team. Click here for more details
We are among the old stagers in the Connexion, and it is great to see younger folk joining the “family”, and these newer ways of keeping in touch. We love the revamped website!
As for our stories, here’s the quick version. Work brought us closer geographically and then our involvement in Mortimer West Chapel led to a more permanent entanglement. But there are a lot of years to fill in before that.
Brian was born in Yorkshire, brought up in Lancashire, and went to school in Manchester. He became a Christian at a Crusader camp in Wales at 14; and was actively involved in the Christian Union when at Liverpool and then London University. He studied biochemistry. There was also a stint in the Royal Army Education Corps, towards the end of national service.
Brian met his first wife, Marjorie, in Liverpool and, after moving to Berkshire, two children, Alison and David, followed. By this time Brian was a research scientist at Jealott’s Hill, Bracknell, with the family becoming involved in the Countess of Huntington chapel where they lived, nearby Wargrave.
In 1968 Brian became a Trustee of The Connexion, eventually becoming Chairman and General Secretary, before handing on to Noel Valelly and Dave Sweetman in 2008.
Brenda was born in Plymouth and spent most of her early years in the south west, before studying history at Reading University. She never quite escaped, obtaining a job on graduation at the Museum of English Rural Life. This was idyllic, combining bombing around the country in an old Bedford van collecting old agricultural equipment and archives, with teaching responsibilities in the University. Brenda was baptised when a student but had a period of doubt afterwards. She had recovered her faith by the 1980s and started to attend Goring Free Church.
The two met after Marjorie died in 1990, and at a time Brenda had recently lost both her parents. Mike Ward at GFC suggested that she join a team to re-establish the chapel at Mortimer West. Brian, as connexional trustee, was also on the team. Both were very slow on the uptake, but eventually decided that the other was a good thing and married in 1995. That is 25 years ago! Wow!
With a brilliant restoration team, led by Max and Ros Rowe, the chapel was rededicated in 1993 and continues to be a place that glorifies God and has a wonderful chapel family. Both of us have undertaken various roles, and are still part of the preaching team, and try to encourage and support others where we can. Of course, we are now all doing things by Zoom, but look forward to when it is possible to come back together on site.
A joy for us has been our involvement in Together in Mission, an initiative by local Christians to show Christ’s love within our local communities, by setting up a befriending service, a community café, and a School Pastors service. All have been running now for several years and are greatly appreciated. Brian served as a Trustee for this and Brenda as fundraiser, though have handed the baton on to a very capable team.
To complete our personal story, we have seven grandchildren, all different in personality and interests. Two are married and the youngest about to start university. Employment includes working on a new Shaun the Sheep video game, fitness training, and IT support. As the faith dimension, one is working for a big Plymouth church, another about to start Bible College, and another volunteering for Caring for Life in Leeds. What a great lot!