New To Church?
What should you expect when you come to Holy Trinity for the first time?
We are a very varied congregation in terms or age, social grouping and even nationality, so come as you are! Most weeks we welcome people who have come to our church for the first time, so if you are a newcomer, you won't be alone.
Most people dress casually, but really there is no particular code and everything from shorts and a tee shirt through to suits and ties have been known to appear, so wear whatever you're most comfortable in.
When you arrive, you'll be welcomed in the Meeting Place by one of our Welcome Team who will give you a Green Sheet which contains items of church news and our daily prayer points. They'll also show you a seat if you are not sure of where to go. There's an upstairs as well as a downstairs. You can choose where to go. In the evening most people will sit downstairs in the main body of the church.
There are toilets (including a disabled toilet) located behind the kitchen area in the meeting place, accessed via the blue side door out to the left of the serving hatch. There is a toilet with baby changing facilities to the left of the main entrance. Please ask someone if you get lost.
Holy Trinity is a family church. We welcome children of all ages. If you are bringing pre-school children with you to church, you may find that downloading the attached guide helpful (link). Families with small children often choose to sit in the Hinde Chapel on the right hand side of the church, but you can sit anywhere.
Normally children are in church with the adults for the first 20 minutes of the morning service. Most Sundays, the children and young people (from ages 0 to 14) then go out to their own groups. The groups meet in the church hall (Cambridge Street), the Essex Rooms (Essex Street - opposite the church) or in the basement of the Rectory (next to church). The children are never too far away. When there are All Age services, all age groups stay in church for the whole service. These services are designed to be engaging and interactive for all ages, and we aim to keep them to around 50 minutes.
The morning service normally has a mixture of music - hymns played on the organ as well as more contemporary songs played by one of our music groups. The Evening service has songs played by a music group. Services tend to last about 1 hour 20 minutes. Some people just sing, some people sing and put their hands in the air, sometimes people clap - sometimes people don't. In other words, all types of people worship at Holy Trinity and you are welcome to worship in the way that suits your desire to glorify God best! The words are projected onto the big screen at the front of church.
We normally preach from a passage in the Bible following a series in a particular Bible book, although we occasionally do something topical. Sermons are normally between 20 and 25 minutes in length. We believe the Bible can speak to us directly today through the Holy Spirit and therefore we always try to apply our preaching to our daily lives. The preacher will normally be one of the staff or one of our team of Lay Preachers (see Who's who?), but occasionally we have guest speakers who will be announced in the programme.
Once a month there will be a service of Holy Communion. We welcome anyone to communion who professes Christ as Lord and would normally take communion in the church from which they have come. Gluten free bread is available for those who require it.
There is usually a financial offering taken up during one of the songs during our service. This is for people who consider Holy Trinity to be their home church. We do not expect first timers and visitors to give anything at all to our church. Please just pass the bag along when it comes to you. You'll find that the majority of people do the same thing, often because they give in other ways.
After the service, most people stay around to drink a cup of tea or coffee either in the meeting place or within the church. This is a great chance to meet others in the church. If you don't know anyone, please introduce yourself to someone who looks like they might know their way around. We're quite a large church and we don't always spot newcomers as easily as we would like!
If you decide that you'd like to make Holy Trinity your home church, please speak to one of the staff and fill in a small yellow card found at the back of the Meeting Place and we'll invite you to a welcome event.