St John’s has a welcoming, hospitable, enthusiastic congregation that works hard to serve our community and our world, and to work in partnership with others. We are a Gold Eco Church with a real concern for the environment, which we attempt to embody in the way we try to live out our lives, in our worship and in our sustainable plans for, and management of, the church land and buildings. We are an outward-looking, inclusive church, with a mission to transform our church land and building into a thriving community hub, with a strong worshipping church family at its heart. We would dearly like to see growth in the engagement of younger people with the church.
We work closely with other parishes that form the South West Chelmsford Mission and Ministry Unit (MMU). These parishes are St Michael’s Galleywood, Widford Parish which has two churches (St Mary’s Widford and Church of the Holy Spirit), and St Luke’s in Moulsham Lodge. MMU clergy meet regularly for prayer and mutual support, and we enjoy joint rambles as churches. We also work in partnership with Christ Church (URC) in running Messy Church and our Crib services, and we have good relationships with local schools and the City Council.
As the church family of St. John the Evangelist in Moulsham, Chelmsford, we have worked on discerning our vision as a church to love, grow and serve. This recognised that as Christians we are called to love God, to love each other and to love our world. We are asked to grow as followers of Jesus, and out of that comes our Christian service. We’d probably be best described as a liberal catholic church – we are a diverse and inclusive church, offering community outreach as well as a warm welcome to all who enter our doors.
Our vision for the future is that we can be:
- a thriving, joyous church with a growing congregation of people of all ages, securing our future in Old Moulsham
- a place where we continue to develop as an environmentally sustainable church
- a church that is a resource for our community through its people and buildings
- a church that nurtures its congregation spiritually and pastorally, and where laity are actively involved and encouraged to work in partnership with clergy
- a church where we reflect the character of God in how we live and what we do – creative, compassionate, loving and welcoming. Made as we all are in God’s image, we long to grow more and more into the likeness of Christ.