About Us

What we stand for

As a Baptist Church we do not define our faith by a list of things we all believe, such as a creed. Instead, we seek to explore discipleship as a living reality; our concern is to follow Jesus, and make that real in the way we live.  We tend to reject “Statements of Faith” and similar as they can never reflect our memberships diverse faith and spirituality. Our practice of meeting for worship and to share wisdom about our life together, our sharing of bread and wine in communion, our marking of discipleship by believers' baptism all explore our faith together, and develop ways of expressing it. 

How it works

Baptists work on the principle of “the priesthood of all believers” meaning that every member of the church has an equal say on matters concerning the running, conduct, ethos and direction of the church through the Church Meeting.

Baptists have no bishops or other hierarchy as such, there is a national organisation: the “Baptist Union of Great Britain” but they are servants of the individual churches and facilitate some of the practicalities as well as maintaining lists of ministers who individual churches may employ.

The Church Meeting appoints Deacons as well as a Secretary and Treasurer who are servants to the church meeting (and trustees for legal purposes) but deal with day to day matters as well as facilitating pastoral work etc.

The Minister of any church has an equal say to any other church member and is selected and appointed by the Church Meeting.

The Church meeting also appoints individuals and/or sub-committees to run our organisations.

Sundays

We meet on Sunday mornings for worship. Our worship together is the centre of our life as a congregation, and what we express there in faith is what we work out through our various activities during the week. We meet in the building and online; we are exploring what it means to be a "hybrid church", trying to find ways that those who join online are as much part of the community as those in the building. On the first Sunday of the month, we usually share communion. On the fourth Sunday of the month, we regularly welcome visitors from a variety of organisations seeking to make the world better, as a way of keeping us open and connected to a wider context. 

We also have activities for our youngsters during worship, which gives them space and time to explore faith for themselves. 

Wider Connections

We are part of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, of The Northwest Baptist Association, of Affirm, of Inclusive Church, of the Progressive Christian Network and of Churches Together in Cheadle Hulme.