St Jude’s Church is self supporting. Many people think the Church of England must be funded in some way by the state, but this is not the case. Almost half of the funds we raise locally go into a Common Fund run by the Diocese of Exeter who pay for our clergy and their housing. (The following is a short 5 minute video explaining the funding of Exeter Diocese)
The other half is fully used each year as we pay for a full time Youth & Children’s Minister to oversee the very full young people’s programmes of the church (up to 170 under 18′s use the site each week!), our Administrator and a full time OFSTED approved Pre-School. The direct costs of the Pre-School are met by fees, but the building it occupies and our other hall, Youth & Children’s Minister house and not forgetting the Grade II listed church and grounds all need to be heated and maintained.
And all the funds for this come from the congregation.
But St Jude’s tries hard not to suggest that is only interested in money. For instance, we no longer take a collection at our Sunday morning service as it can make guests and visitors uncomfortable – we’re really pleased they have come to spend some time with us and we certainly don’t want them to have to pay for the opportunity! But to allow this to happen, to enable our share of the common costs of the Diocese to be met, to maintain these buildings and fund all the fantastic ministries we support we do ask those who attend regularly to think about their giving as part of being a disciple of Jesus Christ.
If you want to know more about this apect of life at St Judes, please click here to download our Guide to Giving.
If you enjoy being creative this group that meets in the Lower Hall one Saturday a month between 10am – 1pm is for you! Come along and see what is being demonstrated and have a go, or bring any projects you are currently working on. We are keen to enable the group to develop their own ideas and bring their own skills and experiences along. We love to see and share what others do and to learn from them. In order to cover the costs of materials a minimum charge each month of £3 is requested. Due to the wide range of crafts and availability of suitable materials the following programme is subject to change at short notice.
2012 Dates
Sat 31st March: Easter crafts
Various Easter themed crafts
Sat 28th April: Photography
Suitable for the most advanced levels to those who have never used their camera before
To view the Create Gallery just click on the frame now!
Contact Create:
to contact this group just fill out the form below
OUR ORGAN IS NOW UNDER CONSIDERATION BY A CHURCH ELSEWHERE AND A FACULTY HAS BEEN SUBMITTED FOR THE MOVE, THEREFORE IT IS CURRENTLY NOT AVAILABLE. (MAY 2012)
St Jude’s Church in Plymouth, UK, is needing to refurbish their buildings. As part of that refurbishment (Our Next Era Project can be seen here) the generally unused Chancel area needs to be fully utilised and our Organ sits within that area. In any future design, the Chancel will always therefore be acoustically seperate from the main assembly area of the Nave and the organ is just too large for the new seperated Chancel space to be used again.
The Organ is a large, spectacular and very early example of Hele & Co of Plymouth’s grand organ design. It is approximately 4m by 4m in plan and about 6.5m in height before any access space is required. There is not another space within our church complex it would fit! (Click here for a dimensioned sketch)
Therefore, we want to help find it a good home where its wonderful range and character can be used. So our Church organ is for sale – but where it goes and who can hear it is far more important than the price.
Among organs, this has an interesting pedigree. Its modest historicity arises from its build date. We understand that in their early years, Hele & Co of Plymouth assembled organs. Then, in 1875, they came up with their first grand design. Our organ was built in 1878 with seemingly the fullest specification they could offer.
It was originally a two manual instrument of 20 speaking stops that we understand are mechanical action. Then in 1920 a third manual was added, again by Hele’s, with their unique patented pneumatic system taking the speaking stops to 24 in total. (All of the stops and controls are listed as they appear below with photos)
The organ is built of very good materials and works beautifully – and moving it would mean it would be fully restored. It would need to be dismantled by an organ builder ready to ship and be rebuilt by them, replacing any smaller components that may need refurbishment. Once in its new situation it could be a fully restored perfectly operating organ with another 130 years ahead of it.
The Church Faculty process is now beginning with our detailed site design work initially, prior to submission around May 2012. ( A faculty is a type of Church of England Planning Application.) We were pleased to be given initial permission to find a home for the organ worldwide subject to important conditions – more information can be found here.
We would also be very pleased to work with anyone on grants to help. If you are an end user reading this, we believe you would need to engage an organ builder to dismantle, pack and rebuild it in its new location. If you are an organ builder looking at this page it is also being advertised on the Institute of British Organ Building website where some information is available and there are a few extra photographs lower on this page.
We would love to talk to anyone who thinks they can give it a good home where it will be able to be played and heard.
YOU CAN ON THE ALPHA COURSE. OUR NEXT PLANNED COURSE BEGINS ON TUESDAY THE 15TH JANUARY 2013.
We want to give you an opportunity to explore what is probably the most important thing – life. You can’t easily do it with friends in the pub, or with collegues at work or family at home. They often think your questions aren’t serious.
But we offer The Alpha Course to help you do that, where no question is too simple or wierd. And we’re using a newer, shorter, punchier version from Alpha UK that’s been squeezed into 9 evenings. (It also avoids the need for a day away for the traditional course which was 13 weeks plus the extra day away) The talks are now just about 30 minutes. This picture is a still from the new DVD talks though we sometimes use live speakers.
Each time we meet we have some refreshments together – maybe a cake and a drink – have the talk to give us something to refect on, then chat. You can chat about anything and explore with everyone else. Its a cool time when no area is out of bounds because we all want to find what’s important – meaning.
If you want to get a feel for the material or really can’t make a course, have a look here.
If you want to come drop us a note here, we’ll get back to you with details.
We promise not to chase you, if you want to come along and try and don’t like it, that’s fine. We also promise to keep it relaxed and that we’ll give you space to explore the meaning of life for yourself.
The following links will open up download materials. The first group are the original teaching materials from our Sunday series that explains why our RNLI model of small group church is based on scripture.
To hear the short introduction to the series, click here.
The second set of materials are the initial discussion notes for new (or existing groups getting ready to evolve) small groups to help them discover their new way forward to suit their own mix of folk and local networks.
RNLI SMALL GROUP CHURCH TEACHING MATERIALS
TALKS & HANDOUTS (YOU MAY FIND IT HELPS MORE TO DOWNLOAD THE HANDOUT AND THEN LISTEN TO THE TALK)
Watch a short video for an intro to our ideas on Mission and Discipleship where settings are important – TheGarden, Dining Room and Kitchen with its Sink and Oven.
(If you want to download a higher quality version of it without any of the main text right click here and select save and then choose your destination folder. If you just want to watch it left click only)
An Intentional Outreach & Discipleship Strategy For St Judes
C4 is not just an explosive, it is also the shorthand for our aim as a church that if you read on will become unravelled. “Danger-Explosive!” signs warn of the potential to explode – not of an actual explosion. We believe St Jude’s is on the brink of something really exciting.
We might have a Vicar, a Youth Minister, a Curate, five Readers – two Church Wardens and a Parish Council – several missionaries overseas from our own congregation, last year trained and sent out to another parish a new priest but we have also enabled one young adult to be a Christian Youth Worker in Canada and a second to attend Bible College, but that is not all – because we aim to be a fellowship of ministers.
Our vision is to enable everyone to discover Christ and all that it means to grow in him as we commit ourselves to him and his Church. In growing we can all discover the gifts he gives us and use them within ministries that will suit our own God given characters to finally explore our mission in life – joining in with God’s mission to his world. Our aim is to be a church that is about “CHRIST and our COMMITMENT to grow in him and his COMMANDMENTS and COMMISSION”. C4 Church.
Our Mission Action Plan
Exeter Diocese is wanting to encourage individual and groups of churches to form Mission Communities – fellowships large enough to be self sustaining, discipling and outreaching – under its strategy called Moving On In Mission And Ministry. St Jude’s has now submitted its Mission Action Plan to be considered as a Mission Community in its own right.
It is built around the strategy of Gardens, Dining Rooms and Kitchens initiated by our Vicar, Tim Smith, that ties together Outreach AND Discipleship in a way we believe is crucial for growth individually and communally. (If you are interested in the book click on the image of the book cover)
It also means reviewing how we do church in our Small Groups – that has begun through our RNLI Small Group Church process – with lots of exploration to come! We are also looking at all of our church buildings in our Next Era project to adapt a Victorian set of buildings into a unified site which can work for us in varied and flexible ways. St Jude’s is on the edge of something new and exciting – following Jesus has never been dull!
(Special thanks to Architects Design Group in Plymouth for generously producing the walkthrough video for us and in giving permission for it to be freely used publically.)
This group may be up to 30 folk some weeks, but it has a small intimate feel, where fellowship and friendship are encouraged. People regularly join us and you would be given a warm welcome.
With some short worship and a variety of gatherings, each week follows one of the following styles:
Book of Common Prayer Communion
A thought for the day
Common Worship Communion or Morning Prayer
We always finish with some tea or coffee and other bits like cakes or biscuits while we stay with time to chat.
Social events regularly follow the Midweeker, including bring and share lunches, trips to properties and buildings of interest, and even skittles and bar lunches. Our Spring programme of events are:
8 February
A local history slide show with a bring and share lunch
14 March
A trip to Buckfast Abbey with lunch in the refectory or take some sandwiches
25 April
An outing to Tavistock. The lunch venue isn’t picked yet, but the afternoon is for wandering around the town with your friends.
Sunday evenings at St Judes are from 6.30pm each week in our Upper Hall that faces onto Beaumont Road behind the Church…
Reflections
REFLECTIONS
These evenings are an opportunity to reflect on a passage of scripture that might not have been that obvious or needs deeper study and it will be in a context of sung worship and prayer.
We also have various resources available each week to help us explore more and a downloadable data sheet on the particular book of the Bible we will be in will be available from here (or a printed version in Church the Sunday beforehand) so you can pre-read and prepare a bit. See below for the downloads against each week.
Hopefully, we can learn from each other in how we approach and interpret what we read. You can gain confidence in reading your Bible as we try to allow the Bible to speak to us more and more of God’s love and character.
And, is there a passage you would like us to look at? Let us know on one of the evenings and we’ll try and slot it in. We want to use different books of the Bible each time as you will also be able to build up a free resource of backgrounds to each book of the Bible.
(Click on the reading below to download the background to the book the reading is taken from. They are all in pdf text versions to keep files smaller – if you need to download a pdf reader for free, click here)
PROGRAMME
No Evening Services over Easter Holidays 8 Apr and 15 Apr
St Jude’s tries to be relaxed and friendly. We don;t use hymn books, but instead project all the words you will need to take part onto our large screen. If you think church is somewhere you can’t smile and where you have to know what to do to join in, you will have a nice surprise with us. We really do want you to feel welcomed and comfortable the moment you arrive.
Our main family worship time on Sunday mornings is at 10.30am. With Kids Church for school ages & Starfish for older toddlers running at the same time in the Lower Hall except for the second Sundays each month when we get together for All Age services.
There is also a crèche area at the back of the church, were you can supervise your child and still partake in the service.
The service talks sometimes follow the readings from the Church of England lectionary and other times themed weeks. We have a number of speakers on a rota, each with their own style. We take Communion together on alternate Sundays. Kids Church rejoins the main service towards the end in order to share in communion and the final part of the service.
After the service Refreshments are available with time to stay and chat.
Our Prayer Ministry Team is available to pray for people after each service, in confidence and with some privacy if you wish.
We hope we have everything you may be wanting to find linked from this page or above – please do explore!
We also love to showcase good videos ( there are several in different parts of this site) and this next one gives a great insight into humanity’s problem and the cost of the solution to our broken relationship with God.
At our Sunday morning services we offer worship suitable for all with Kids Church most weeks too (except some of the main school holidays and a monthly All Age service normally on 2nd Sundays of the month). Kids Church is at the same time as the adult gathering, a different group for the toddlers called Starfish and a creche in the church for the youngest members of the community.
Our Sunday evenings are at 6.30pm in our Upper Hall – see here for more!
We’re also going through lots of changes – buildings and services, small groups and kids. It isn’t just blind busyness, but we are following a firm strategy based on outreach and discipleship – C4. And all this pressure this year is reflected in our chosen verse for the year – check it out here.
We have great childrens’ times across the week – not just Sundays – see whats on offer here. Families can find space, Youth can gather in different ways, folk who want to grow more in their relationship with Jesus often meet up Sunday evenings and our older community are encouraged, especially at our Midweeker. A new after school drop in is up and running too, do check out our Roots Cafe
Parking is easy in our own car park and nearby streets. We hope to keep up lots of social activities. All folk of any age or background can find friendship here. Together we try to follow Jesus, welcome the Holy Spirit and bring glory to the Father.
We encourage members of the community to support ministries in the city, not just in the church. And it isn’t uncommon for individuals and families to feel a call further afield and we have several of our church family in overseas ministries and missions.
If you want to know more about giving at St Jude’s, have a look here.
