St John’s Church

The Church of St John the Evangelist
Hall Cliffe, Baildon, Shipley, BD17 6ND

Our Parish Church is situated in the heart of Baildon centre. We seek to tend to the spiritual, cultural and social needs of local residents. We welcome you to join us at any of our church services, social groups and regular fund raising events. We mark the Church year with special services like Christmas, Easter, Harvest, All Souls’ Day. We’re there for the important times too and can help you arrange Weddings, Christenings and Funerals.

Services
St John’s main church service of the week is on Sundays at 10.00am. Everybody is welcome. The types of our main service follow a monthly pattern:

1^st Sunday of the month – Family Worship, an all-age, informal service that is suitable for everyone, young and old. It includes prayers, a reading, hymns, activities and a short talk. The service is themed and will include interaction between ministers, the congregation, adults and children. We don’t offer bread and wine at this service and it usually lasts under an hour.

2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th Sundays of the month – Holy Communion Service with prayers, readings from the Old and New Testament, a Gospel reading, hymns, a sermon and the giving and receiving of Communion (bread and wine) or a blessing. Everyone is welcome but younger children might prefer to join our Sunday School, Sparklers, for the first part of the Service.

5^th Sunday of the month – Joint Parish worship. When we have a fifth Sunday in the month, all three of our church congregations join together to enjoy Holy Communion. We rotate between St John’s, St James’ and St Hugh’s.

Evening Service – An evening Service is offered every Sunday (except the third Sunday of the month) at either St John’s or St James’ churches. Please see the diary section of our weekly pew sheets for venues and dates.

Mothers’ Union
We have an active branch of the Mothers’ Union. We meet on the second Wednesday of the month at 2.00pm in the comfort of St James’ Lounge. We also hold an occasional evening meeting. Members attend deanery and diocesan services and have links with other branches in the UK and overseas. We enjoy our fellowship together and there is a speaker at most meetings too. The age of members ranges from fifty to a hundred years old.

Sparklers – our Sunday School
Our Sparklers children’s group meets on Sunday mornings in St John’s Church Hall. We enjoy stories, crafts and singing all themed on that week’s worship. You are welcome to leave your child(ren) and join the main Sunday worship. Children come into church for the last bit of the service so that they can take Communion or receive a blessing.

Music
The Parish of Baildon has always had a strong tradition of church music, with music playing a central role in worship. The parish has a dedicated team of three organists led and coordinated by the Director of Music.

St John’s had a brand new pipe organ installed in 1997 by Principal Pipe Organs of York; it also has two new Yamaha pianos, the result of a recent bequest. St James’s church has a very good, up-to-date electronic organ and St Hugh’s is equipped with an electronic organ and piano. Our Parish Senior Choir sings and practices weekly at St John’s Church as does our Junior Choir. If you love singing and are interested in joining either of our choirs, please contact us by email at: sandrabenham@btinternet.com

Messy Church
On the third Sunday of the month we hold Messy Church at 4.00pm in St John’s Church Hall. This is an activity afternoon for the whole family with child-focussed activities including crafts, songs, lots of sticking and gluing, learning about a particular story in the Bible and all finished with a light tea. Children of all ages are very welcome. No booking is necessary – just turn up.

Travelling Crib
Every year we organise a Travelling Crib where figures from the nativity travel around Baildon in search of a place to stay, symbolising the journey that Mary and Joseph took from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Families offer a home to the crib for one night from the beginning of Advent until 24^th December. It is brought to each new home by the family who hosted the crib the day before. A service in St John’s marks the start of the crib’s journeys and it returns to church at the Children’s Nativity Service on Christmas Eve at 4.00pm.

The Flower Guild
If you are interested in flower arranging you are welcome to join our Flower Guild. The ladies and gentleman of the Flower Guild ensure that there are floral displays in church every Sunday (excluding Lent and Advent) and decorate the church for all the major festivals. We also arrange flowers for weddings, when asked. A reasonable price is charged and all profits go to the flower fund.

The Graveyard Gang
Any willing gardeners will be very welcome in our Graveyard Gang. We meet at 6.30pm at St John’s churchyard each Tuesday evening during British summertime. The Gang works for an hour or two, generally keeping the churchyard tidy and fairly weed free, weather permitting! The results of our efforts have been amazing and are much appreciated by parishioners and townspeople alike.

Fair Trade and Traidcraft
Baildon is a Fair Trade Town and all three of our churches are Fair Trade Churches.  Members of our congregations support Fair Trade Baildon by encouraging businesses and schools to ‘sign up’ to Fair Trade; we also contribute to ‘Fair Trade Fortnight’ held each year.

Room Hire
St John’s Church Hall can be hired for single or regular activities. To book or for more information please see our Room Hire page for more details..

Rainbows
We have a weekly meeting of Rainbows which is a fun and exciting programme for girls aged 5-7, which is all about learning by doing.
Venue: Upper Room, St John’s Church Hall
Day and Time: Tuesdays (term time) 16.45 – 18.00
If you are interested in a place for a girl in the Unit or in becoming a volunteer contact Heather Hows (01274 427239).
For more information about Rainbows see: www.girlguiding.org.uk/what-we-do/rainbows-5-7/