Victoria Methodist Church was delighted to host the wedding of Holly Lerchundi Willis and Pippa Haggitt on Saturday October 8th. It was the first wedding for a same-sex couple to have taken place in the Church, and indeed within the wider Bristol and South Gloucestershire Methodist Circuit.

“It means a huge amount to us that we are able to get married before God,” the couple said, “and that Victoria Methodist has welcomed us with open arms. We are so grateful for the support and positivity we’ve received. It’s a double celebration for us and the church! Being Christians and part of the LGBT community, it was really important to us to get married in a church amongst a community where we felt we belonged.”

Church Minister, Rev Richard Sharples, commented: “I have waited 30 years for this day, and feel privileged and delighted to have been able to enable Pippa and Holly to commit themselves to one another in a Methodist Church. The Methodist people of the UK continue on our pilgrimage of faith, through which we journey together despite not always agreeing with one another.”

In June 2021, the Methodist Conference (the Church’s governing body) gave local Churches permission to register for same-sex weddings as well as mixed-sex weddings. Of the approximately 40 Churches in this local Circuit, a handful have now chosen to do so. The couple added: “We hope that this is the beginning of many more same sex marriages to be conducted at Victoria and that it inspires other churches to also offer same sex weddings.”

Although we have been back in the church for morning services for some time now, it wasn’t until the start of September the we have got back into a new routine for evenings. Every last Sunday in the month we are now holding a Taizé style service at 6.30pm. Wonderful to be singing and listening to the beautiful chants again and spending time in silence alongside prayers and readings and the chance to light a candle.

Delighted that we’ve just been award a Silver Eco Church Award, as we work to be a more sustainable community. Timely too, as our Eco Fair is on Saturday, where there will be opportunities to learn and share more about living sustainably and activism in our afternoon of talks featuring Tree Aid , WEAll – Wellbeing Economy Alliance , Cllr Carla Denyer, Christian Climate Action Bristol and Glasgow Blue Rebels. Free tickets via Eventbrite.

Suddenly the Church is full of artwork! We are giving a safe home to two large paintings from our neighbours, the RWA, whilst they refurbish the building, and until 29 May 2021 the Clifton Art Club are exhibiting work by members produced during the Pandemic.

Lovely to meet up with other Junior Church members today during the holidays to make some bug hotels as part of our Eco Church projects. The children had a lot of fun and the first residents have moved in! Now the grass is being mowed in preparation for sowing some wildflowers to attract lots of insects and pollinators.

Over the past year Junior Church has continued to meet each week over Zoom, and very occasionally, when it was allowed over the summer, even in person in a garden. Alongside our stories from the Bible we have done lots of fun actives including, craft activities, scavenger hunts, pictionary and even making our own play dough. Today, for Palm Sunday, we made Rice Crispy Cakes. Had we been at church we would have handed them out to members of the congregation to remember how people freely laid their valuable clothes on the ground before Jesus and even lent the colt for him to ride into Jerusalem on. Thank you, Helen, for your continued energy and creativity in leading Junior Church during this difficult time!

An exhibition of Gloucestershire’s Inside Out artists in the sanctuary opened back in March for Lent. The exhibition was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and the art has remained in the church all this time. We are delighted that we are now able to open up the church for people to view these amazing works of art once more from 7-19 September Mon-Sat, 12.30-2.30pm. Admission Free.