St Augustine's Church
Thorpe Bay
Welcome to St Augustine's Church
Welcome to the website of St Augustine's parish church in Thorpe Bay, Essex. In the site you will find something about who we are and what is important to us.
There has been a church in Thorpe Bay since 1913, seeking to express the love of God in our local community. At the heart of our life is a pattern of worship, day by day and week by week, which supports our ministry of baptisms, weddings and funerals, our work with Thorpedene School and our mission as a place of encounter with God at the heart of Thorpe Bay.
Our building, with its pleasant situation and cheerful neo-gothic interior, helps to create a wonderful atmosphere during services of worship but also enjoys excellent acoustics and is increasingly used as a venue for concerts and meetings. Over the past few years the interior has been extensively restored and we're very lucky to have flexible seating which allows different configurations whatever the occasion.
Please feel free to explore our website and to come along in person to explore what we have to offer and help us create a community within our community.
Our Services
We aim to provide a wide variety of services for parishioners and visitors alike:
Monday to Friday:
9.00 am Morning Prayer
5.00 pm Evening Prayer
Wednesday:
10.00 am Holy Communion*
Sunday Services:
8.00 am Holy Communion* - a traditional language service lasting about
40 minutes.
10.00 am Parish Eucharist - with our choir, a junior church, and a small area at
the back of the church with books/crayons etc where parents can sit
with their younger children if they wish. Service lasts for about an
hour, followed by refreshments.
6.30 pm Evensong - a smaller reflective service using the Book of Common
Prayer and lasting about an hour.
*Gluten free communion wafers are available, please just ask when you come up to the alter rail.
We also hold a 'First Steps' service for tots. For those of you with pre-school children we have a monthly tots service here at St Augustine's at 10:45am, with songs, craft activity, story and Jaffa cakes. This service generally falls on the 2nd Wednesday in the month but there are two exceptions this year between now and the summer. So for your diaries here are the dates for the first half of the year - 7th February (to avoid half-term) 14th March, 18th April (to avoid the Easter Break) 9th May, 13th June and 11th July.
The Blessed Sacrament is perpetually reserved for the Communion of the sick and dying. Please inform the vicar of parishioners who are sick or in hospital.
Summer Evensong
There are only two away day summer evensongs this year all the other weeks will be at St Augustine's as usual.
July 29th will be at Holy Trinity Southchurch at 6:30pm and
August 19th will be at St Andrew's South Shoebury at 6pm
Youth Trip to Sweden - July 2018
Our youth group have just returned from their trip to our twin parish in Ostra Amtervik, Sweden where they planted a Medlar tree outside the church to mark our link between the two parishes. Below is a photo of Fr Jonathan and Judith and Fr Joakim and Maria along with Megan and the youth group.
Fr Jonathan offends the whole St Augustine's congregation!!...... link
The Weekly Newsletter is now available online by clicking on the document below:
Adobe Acrobat document [110.3 KB]
Adobe Acrobat document [135.7 KB]
And Finally ....
Fr Chris and his wife Laura get a first anniversary wedding blessing link
Follow the link to see pictures of Rachel and William's wedding here at St Augustines in May 2018 link
An Update on the Proposed Extension.
Hello All ........... I've been made aware that parishioners may not have been updated about what's happening with our proposed new extension, so in a nutshell:
After much debate we have finalised our initial plans with the church architects and formal drawings/plans have been produced. We submitted those plans to the DAC (The Diocese Advisory Committee, who have to approve all changes to church buildings) who met on the 17th July and looked over our proposals. They have made various comments/suggestions and rather than engage in an endless stream of letters/emails etc I have asked the DAC to visit the church to discuss our plans and hopefully hasten the approval process. Once approved by the DAC we will go public with our plans and hold some kind of open day where the plans can be viewed. The architects will then start the local authority planning process and once that's approved we can appoint a builder and start the build.
We are obviously going to have to raise the necessary funds for the build but the consensus is that we need plans and all approvals finalised and a firm estimate of cost before we start fundraising proper. I hope to hear from the DAC about a visit date shortly and I'm continually prodding to get that arranged asp. In the absence of anyone else providing updates I will let you know via the Website when 'stuff' happens. Best wishes to you all. Pete Barron
Chelmsford Cathedral. The Dean of the Cathedral produces a quarterly events guide with the aim of encouraging everyone to discover what the Cathedral has to offer. To find out more and to view the guide, please click on the link below:
If any of you would like to find out more about baptism, confirmation or marriage, please don't hesitate to contact me at
jonathan.collis@cantab.net
Where to find us
Google says we're right here!
We are located in the middle of Thorpe Bay, about two miles east of Southend on Sea and just a short walk from the sea front. We are easily accessible by train (Thorpe Bay station is on the main line from London Fenchurch Street) and bus (Nos 1, 7 and 9), and there is ample on-street parking around the church. The church itself is on an island site at the junction of Johnstone Road and St Augustine’s Avenue.
Our address is:
St Augustine’s Church,
St Augustine’s Avenue,
Thorpe Bay, Essex.
SS1 3JH.
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Last Update: 13th August 2018
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