WHERE WE’VE COME FROM
OUR HISTORY
St Francis' Church was built in 1990-91 and dedicated by the Bishop of Winchester on St Francis' Day, 4th October 1991.
The Church is situated in a quiet location at the heart of the Valley Park community, on a campus site with the adjacent St Francis Church of England Aided Primary School.
We're an LEP: a partnership between several denominations, and that means we have a really broad range of traditions meeting together. We're a diverse bunch - and proud of it!
Technically, St Francis' is a 'Single Congregation Local Ecumenical Partnership' involving The Church of England, The Methodist Church and The United Reformed Church. We operate under a "Constitution" formally adopted on Sunday 19th September 2015, replacing an original Constitution which was established in October 1991.
OUR LEP
St Francis Church is a Local Ecumenical Partnership between three denominations, the Church of England, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church. Whilst our lead minister is Church of England, we rejoice in the diversity of traditions we represent - indeed it's wider than these three denominations! And we're so much richer because of it.
What does it mean in practice, apart from representing a broad range of traditions? Whilst the words we use at communion and other set prayers (liturgy) are often Anglican, we enjoy using prayers from other traditions too. In normal times our ministers swap several times a year to maintain a diversity of teaching and service styles.