Revd Catherine Bowstead - Minister

I’ve been minister at Wokingham since September 2015 and in 2019 became Superintendent of the Berkshire Surrey Borders Circuit.  Previously I have served churches in Epsom, Southend-on-Sea and most recently in Colchester.  I am pleased to be back in Berkshire to be near where I grew up in Slough.  I am married to Mike, and we have two adult children.  Before training for the ministry, I was a primary school teacher.

My passions in ministry are preaching, leading worship, and encouraging people to see God at work in their lives.  I enjoy enabling others to work in teams to achieve much more than we could as individuals.

In my spare time I enjoy walking, reading, tap dancing and going to concerts and gigs.

Updated July 2023

Dear Friends,

I’m glad to be able to commend to you our Annual Report.  As ever, it reflects the wide variety of activities of our Church Community.  Our work spans the age range, caters for various interest groups, and we offer significant support for some vulnerable people.  Much of our work is centred on hospitality and providing a welcome, and there is some really excellent work reflected here.  Some might be disappointed that we have fewer activities than we once did.  But it’s important that we concentrate on the things that we do well.  So, this report records some of good and worthwhile work that we are able to do as a church community.

The Methodist Church encourages us to be a “Justice Seeking Church” and the verse on our Annual Membership card from Isaiah 1:17a is an exhortation to:

“Learn to do right, seek justice.  Defend the oppressed”

This ties in well with our local Church mission statement that we are a place “where Christian love meets community need, for we are seeking to demonstrate God’s love and care in all of the activities of our church life.  This love is for all the people we encounter, and for all those who use our church buildings.

We’ve spent some time over this last year exploring “A Methodist Way of Life” and I hope that as we follow the 12 practices of stations, we will each become aware of the role that we can play in the life of our church.

There are always pleas for help from volunteers, but these seem to have taken on a new urgency.  We urgently need people to take on some key roles in the life of our church community as highlighted by Malcolm in the recent edition of “Greetings”.  Some volunteers have come forward, but we need more.  If everyone who is a member of our Church Community was able to take on a task – big or small – this would make an incredible difference to the work that we can achieve for God’s Kingdom.  Please do pray and reflect on what you can offer.

Our Church Community is effective in its mission to be a place where Christian love meets community need if we continue to work as a team, using each person’s gifts and abilities and value the contribution made by each one. 

I pray that this may continue, that our work for God’s Kingdom might grow and so I warmly commend this report to you.

Catherine Bowstead