Who we are
St Bartholomew’s is a small church in the borderlands between England and Wales. Our church building is our only facility and while its limitations shape the support that we can offer, it does not limit us in any way. We have identified our community as an agricultural, sparsely populated area with isolated clusters of housing built to accommodate people drawn to the area through industrial employment. The three main clusters are; a council housing estate, an ex-steel workers estate and MOD houses sold off after the closure of RAF Sealand. New housing has been added as land has become available. There is no central point which draws the residents of Sealand together apart from the church and we see St Bartholomew’s Church as a beacon that provides the services of the church for people when they are needed.
We try to make use of our “smallness” and stop worrying about it. We believe there is value in smallness. So rather than worry about what we do not have, we try to focus our attention upon what we do have by the grace of God and make use of it. We are trying to turn these traits, gifts and resources into the foundation blocks of our life in and for the community in which we are set. For that way we believe we will thrive and grow.
We also believe that:
“Churches grow when they intentionally reach out to people instead of concentrating on their own institutional needs. Churches die when they concentrate on their own needs.”
We have a programme of events that are designed to get people of all ages into the church so that we can interact with them and develop a broader relationship with our community. This is also how we pay the bills. We have a new lighting system thanks to a grant from Cadwyn Clywd and we are now working towards upgrading the heating and installing a kitchen and toilets – a great improvement from the current situation of a single standpipe.
Once we have these facilities in place we then plan to introduce activities designed to combat loneliness, harness agricultural expertise in the area to facilitate the development of a community allotment scheme and draw elements of the community together through events such as our Heritage Project. Even though we are small in number we feel that we are very much part of the wider family of God and in working together we can achieve anything.
God’s beacon in the community