Our vision for West Cheltenham is to see “communities and places buzzing with the extraordinary presence of Jesus”

Our History

West Cheltenham parish was created in 2018 by the joining together of three church communities that had worked together for many years, but who wanted to do something bigger that could really make a meaningful difference to the people who connect with West Cheltenham.

We launched our vision in April 2019, and we love it, because it reminds us that Jesus can transform every situation, and that most of that happens outside of our church buildings and throughout the week.

To realise our vision we identified four priorities for particular attention: Prayer, Small groups, Mission and Outreach, Communications and Operations.

The on-going story

Since then we have made significant progress on those priorities and have revised the list for increased focus in certain areas.

1. Prayer: We want prayer to be something natural, normal and foundational in every part of church life.

2. Mission and Outreach:

a) To encourage every member of our congregations to intentionally see themselves as a witness to the Good News of Jesus wherever they go.

b) as a church to intentionally connect with the various communities we live and work amongst and engage in ‘pioneer ministry’ throughout these communities.

3. Developing St Aidan’s church land: We are committed to seeing this space brought to life as a welcoming garden and an outdoor place of worship, at the heart of Hesters Way.

4. Reordering St Mark’s church: The aim of the reordering is to make our historic church better able to support worship, mission and community use in the southern part of the parish.

What next?

Prayer will remain a priority as it underpins all that we are as God’s co-workers in this part of Cheltenham. We will seek to develop a rhythm of prayer through the week to fuel our ministry and mission.

We are excited for the future as the physical projects at St Mark’s and St Aidan’s are completed and we can begin to develop missional activities from these centres to reach out across the Parish.

We are committed to developing our ministry and mission amongst the young people of the parish.  Since 2023, we have worked in partnership with The Rock to develop the youth ministry in the parish and have now recently appointed a youth worker in partnership with All Saints Academy to start in September 2026 who can continue and build on these foundations.

We continue to hold onto the vision of seeing “communities and places buzzing with the extraordinary presence of Jesus”.