About us
St Luke's Cranham with Moor Lane Church is part of the Church of England. The Church of England is organised nationally into regions, each called a Diocese; we are in The Diocese of Chelmsford led by Bishop John, assisted by Bishop David (the Bishop of Barking). The Church of England is itself part of the worldwide Anglican Church, which has more than 70 million members spread across 161 countries.
St Luke's and Moor Lane may not look like traditional Anglican Churches from the outside - but we are very much part of the local and national Church of England. In practice, that means we have certain local responsibilities - such as baptisms and weddings - and it also means that we have a financial responsibility towards the Diocese and other parishes. We aim to be actively involved in both local and Diocesan church matters.
Why two churches?
One parish, same overall Vicar and we do many things together (eg our youth work), so why are there two churches here?
St Luke's is the Parish church, established in the 50's as Cranham began to grow from a tiny hamlet to an established large village. The parish now has around 13,000 residents - more than enough for any one church to try and serve effectively. In the 80's, a church building became available at the other side of the parish and the decision was made to 'plant' a congregation into it. Since then, Moor Lane Church has grown and thrived and serves its part of Cranham effectively as well as being part of the parish-wide ministry.
Our values
If you are considering joining us at St Luke's or Moor Lane Churches, it's helpful to know something of what we stand for and how we do things. On this page we've used a few key words and phrases to try and describe our core values:
- Bible-believing - we put a high priority on teaching and learning from the Bible since we believe it's God's word for today. Our preaching aims to be lively and relevant to modern day living and we encourage church members to read the Bible for themselves during the week as well as on Sundays.
- Telling others - we believe it's our responsibility to give as many people as possible in Cranham the chance to hear and respond to the good news about Jesus Christ.
- God's presence & power - our conviction and experience is that the God we know in and through Jesus is with us by his Holy Spirit and answers prayer to change lives and situations for good.
- Informality - our worship and service styles are informal. We have neither choir, nor organ, nor do our services have a sombre tone. We use an instrumental group to lead the music and sing many modern worship songs as well as well-known hymns.
- Missionary work - we believe that one of our responsibilities is to support those working overseas to introduce people to Jesus. We currently have special links with missionaries working overseas - and support some other organisations committed to the same goal.
To turn these “core values” into reality we engage in practical events and activities, explore this website to find out more.
If you want to know more about Jesus and Christianity then contact us, come along and see us, or visit one of the links below:
