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.
It is church. A regular gathering of up to 20 or so folk in homes, instead of the church buildings, who want to worship God, grow in Jesus and each other, find a ministry and be involved in mission - and are therefore open to folk joining them. (We also have several Fellowship Groups who have chosen, for a while, to be closed to new members – our definition of the difference between Small Groups and Fellowship Groups) Clergy are not needed for the groups. The life of the group and worship is defined by the group under the sole leadership of Jesus as they wait on Him.
Small Groups will form a major component of the life of St Jude’s across Plymouth as they evolve. While we are a parish church, we recognise we are also a city church, and we want to make provision for folk to have close fellowship in their own local area as we grow.
Planning for Small Groups
Across January and Febuary 2010 we ran a series called RNLI Small Group Church, and then in April we launched some material for our current groups to explore how they may evolve to fulfil the varied need of their group to be Rescuing, Nurturing, Loving and Including.
How do I join a Small Group?
The whole of our Small Group set up is evolving across the summer of 2010. The best thing is to come into one of our services and ask folk what is available. You can also get a feel for the character each of our group’s by having a look through our Small Group Portal.
If you are looking at this page – Congratulations! (We guess you’re reading it because you’re thinking about getting married. If you are just looking for information on Banns of Marriage click here . Also, if either of you have been married before and are divorced, please follow this link).
IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE FOR IMPRITANT INFORMATION ABOUT POSSIBE CLOSURE OF THE CHURCH SOMETIME IN 2013 FOR REFURBISHMENT
This is a big step that you both need to think through – how it will work out – how you will both care for each other after the first rush of love, wedding and honeymoon. So just to get you both thinking – here’s a comic video with a strong message – just for you…
If you want to talk through these things before the big step – do take the opportunity to do so. You can speak with the Vicar or show the video to close friends and ask them to chat about their experiences and you both need to find time to speak honestly to each other about how you would deal with these and other situations before you commit to marriage. Marriage is a big step, but so worth it if its right and you can get God at the heart of it.
Weddings in churches of the Church of England are covered by the law of the land and the local clergy operate as ‘Clerks in Holy Orders’ which gives them authority to marry folk under certain controlled circumstances. The rules for who local clergy can marry changed on the 1st October 2008.
An early step you’ll need to take if you want to get married at St. Judes is to contact the vicar, Tim Smith, to arrange to meet him for an intitial discussion. Before you do that, please take the time to read the information below to see if you are eligible to be married at the Church. The vicar will need to see certain formal documents, details of which can be found on the application form you can dowload below.
You have a right to marry under Banns (Churches involved read out your names in Church over three Sundays to make sure you meet the criteria below, in the hope that someone who may know you would confirm any irregularities – such as you’re married already etc!) in your local parish church if:
• You are both over 18 (or over 16 with parental permission)
• One of you has a qualifying connection (see below for what they are) with the Church and the Church’s geographic parish boundary. (If you want to check which Church of England Church parish you live in now, or have lived in, and know the postcode, follow this link to check.)
• Neither of you has been married before. If one of you has and is now divorced, there is no right to re-marriage, it is at the sole discretion of the minister. If this applies to you then we need to have a conversation about the circumstances of the divorce to see if re-marriage is possible at St Jude’s Church. Follow this link for more information that you will need to consider before you proceed any further.
After the 1st October 2008 you can marry in a Church of England church of your choice, subject to the conditions above, if you can prove one or more of the following connections:
1. You were baptised in the church.
2. You were confirmed in or from the church.
3. A Parent or Grandparent of yours was married in the church.
4. You have had your usual place of residence in the parish of the church for at least 6 months.
5. Your Parent has had their usual place of residence within the parish of the church for at least 6 months during your lifetime.
6. You have habitually attended public worship at the church for at least 6 months.
8. Your Parent has habitually attended public worship at the church for at least 6 months during your lifetime.
If you are thinking about getting married in Church, but you don’t go to one – why not look into why we find St Jude’s a great place to be part of by joining one of our Alpha Courses? Maybe the video above raised a question for you about faith and its impact for a relationship? We have discovered a very real relationship that’s available with God through Jesus and lives filled with hope and purpose. Ask about going on one of our Alpha Courses. Then if you did discover something new and exciting, you might want to join us anyway!
Fees for weddings are set by the Church of England nationally and in February 2012 a change to the structure of the fees was agreed to include more of the variable costs that can sometimes be confusing. The full details are not yet known, but it would seem if you are marrying at the Church in whose parish you both live and only one set of banns need to be called, then the cost for a 2013 wedding would be £405.50 and in 2014, £417.50 excluding things such as an organist or special requirements. If one or both of you live outside the parish boundarioes the cost may rise a little as banns will need to be called in those parishes too. This is only a guide and we can give you further details when we meet and the actual fees will always be those in force the year you marry, not when a wedding is booked.
If you want to know more about this or any of the things mentioned here, please initially contact the Vicar before you book anything to make sure a marriage is possible on the dates you prefer in St Jude’s Church (there is a ‘contacts’ link at the top of the page). Even if you qualify to get married in St Jude’s Church, it may not be possible to hold a wedding on a particular date or time – therefore it is crucial you do not book any other venues until you check with us that the date you require is available in the Church.
If you wanted to look at some general ideas about a service, hymn selections etc, why not try the Church of England’s ceremony planning web site. (The site is really helpful and gives some ideas on planning your service, but the actual service at St Jude’s might be in a different order to the way the site shows its results - so please don’t get anything printed until you speak with the Vicar!)
SPECIAL NOTICE
St Jude’s Church has plans for a building project. We do not yet know timings (the earliest will be a Spring 2013 start, and it could be closed for up to 12 months) so it is possible the Church may be closed for those works. If that happens at the date of your wedding we will still be able to hold your marriage ceremony, but it will instead be under a licence we obtain to carry out a wedding in an adjacent parish.
So much of church life is about being together and doing things with others. And if you like cute, you’ll like this short cartoon that helps to illustrate community…
Apart from the services, we also have a range of Small Groups that get together, a variety of social events across the year such as beach days, quiz nights, Sing-a-long film evenings, book clubs, film nights, the World Cup on large screen tv…
If you look at our News page you’ll get the most up to date events – or maybe just have a meander around the site!
