Weekly Prayer Focus

Great Notley is a village to the South-West of Braintree with a population of just under 8,000.  The Church in Great Notley is a Local Ecumenical Partnership (LEP) formed between Anglican, Baptist, Methodist and URC.  The current Minister is Rev Rachel Prior, who is the Anglican Incumbent.  She is supported by Rev David Sebley a URC Minister.  There is a Church Council that performs the functions of Trustees. The vision for an ecumenical church in Great Notley, emerged from a woman’s prayer group in 1994. The group gained the support of Churches Together in Braintree, and Churches Together in Essex and East London (CTEEL) became the sponsoring body. The first service was on 13th Jan 1998, meeting in a leaking portable cabin in the centre…

Situated in the relatively small village of Great Leighs, between Braintree and Chelmsford, is the Fellowship of Great Leighs Free Church. The Church used to be on the main road between the two towns, however, the village was bypassed a number of years ago. The church has not had a minister since 2005/6 and is now led by a Ministry Team – Evelyn Hornsby is the secretary and the other leaders are Andrew Tustian who is the Church Musician, Julia Hornsby, Bruce Dannatt and Geoff Green the Treasurer. Great Leighs Free Church is an active fellowship of 30 members and a regular Sunday congregation of around 40. Activities, other than the usual Sunday morning service (with activities for children) and a monthly Sunday afternoon ‘get…

Hawkwell BC was formed in the early 1920s and was a plant from Clarence Rd/Avenue BC in Southend. Richard Iles came to the church in 2006 as an Associate Pastor and has held various roles since. He and his wife Sue are now on the team along with other leaders. As a fellowship they have a real heart for community and passionately desire to be a place where people are cared for, accepted, encouraged, helped, healed and forgiven. They long to see transformation through the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit which they see increasing and this is the most exciting aspect of where they are at just now. The outworking of these principles is seen in the various groups they run, including Nostalgia, Men’s…

Somersham Baptist Church is a small village church with a vision to provide opportunities for the village to get to know Christians with a living, dynamic relationship with Jesus. They are in a new chapter of life as they appointed a new minister, Joshua Ross, after 7 years of vacancy. In this new season, they hope to deepen bonds within the church and together grow closer to God. As the church learns to partner with a minister, Joshua is also learning new skills. He brings 25 years of cross-cultural experience into the new ministry role. He does this alongside his wife and 3 children, one of whom is still at home. God is at the centre of their Sunday services with about 20 people worshipping…