Welcome to Wokingham Methodist Church

We are now part of the Blackwater Valley Methodist Circuit, formed by the merger of our previous circuit, the Berkshire Surrey Borders Circuit, with the circuit to the south of us, the Hants-Surrey Border Circuit, effective from 1 September 2025.

Our previous minister, Revd Catherine Bowstead, has retired.  We welcome her replacement Rev Wes Hampton, from 1 September 2025.

Starting on Sunday 21^st September, evening service (with Holy Communion) will resume on the third Sunday of each month at the new time of 6.15 pm (new time chosen so you can park in the Rose Street car park without having to pay both an afternoon fee and an evening fee).

We now aim to open Little Fishes every Thursday throughout the year when Café Mosaic is open - including school holidays, but not Christmas/New Year.

Future worship and recorded services are on this page.

10.30am Holy Communion - Rev Wes Hampton

from Rev Wes Hampton

Dear Friends,

Over these last four weeks, we have heard some of the great encounters with Jesus that people have in John’s Gospel.  In their own ways they have each approached the subject of the life that Jesus would offer his followers.  This week, however, we begin Holy Week, where Jesus’ impending suffering and death overshadow the events of these last days.

In John’s Gospel, the six days from Palm Sunday to Good Friday take up just over a third of the entire book, and more than half of this section tells the story of the day we call Maundy Thursday.  As important as all the meetings and teaching are, the writer puts enormous focus on this one week and this one evening.  Clearly, it is not to be passed over quickly.

We cannot do justice to this crucial period if we pass straight from Palm Sunday to Easter Day.  The Passion of Jesus deserves our time and attention, as we read or listen again to these events which help to form our understanding of why Jesus died in the way that he did.  Some of this great story will form our focus when we come together to worship this coming week, especially on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.  Some of it we can read and reflect upon for ourselves, as we look at the Gospel accounts of the Passion.

Although the story may be old and very familiar to us, its significance is ever new and worthy of our contemplation.  Let us all find the opportunities to recall and to journey with Jesus.  Only by entering into this week shall we be ready for the new week, and the new life, to come.

Wes

from Rosi MorganBarry

If you have time to read through the book of Revelation you will have to face the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, cope with plagues and earthquakes, fire and brimstone, beasts and dragons, battles and burnings, bowls of wrath, thunders, lightnings and hailstones and the pit of hell.  But in the end, you will come to the beautiful vision of the City of God coming down from heaven with the announcement “Now God's home is with mankind! He will live with them”.

There are three gates on each of the four sides of the city of God. (Revelation 21, 13)  William Barclay has a lovely comment on these gates.

“There are three gates on the east. The east is the place of the rising sun and the beginning of the day. These gates could represent the way into the holy City of those who find Christ in the glad morning of their days.

There are three gates on the north. The north is the cold land with a certain chill in it. These gates could stand for the way into the holy city of those who come to Christianity by the intellectual exercise of thought and have found the faith through their minds rather than through their hearts.

There are three gates on the south. The south is the warm land where the wind is gentle and the climate soft. These gates could stand for the way into the holy city of those who have come to Christ through their emotions, whose love ran over at the sight of the cross.

There are three gates on the west. The west is the land of the dying day and the setting sun. These gates could stand for the way into the holy city of those who come to Christ in the evening of their days.”

No matter how or when we come to him, God will let us in.

Some previous Pastoral Letters are available here.