What can you expect? Becontree is a vibrant, multicultural part of East London and Essex with good housing, schools and plenty of green spaces and parks. The parish is growing and is a dynamic and loving heart of the community. The churches value the Eucharist (also known as the Mass or Holy Communion).
St Martin's is a liberal Anglo Catholic or 'High" church with incense and full serving team in vestments. It has a core congregation of between 50-70 with some people travelling from outside the parish to worship there.
St Alban's is a Liberal Catholic church (middle of the road) within a similar liturgical service except incense is rarely used and vestments are slightly less formal. The congregation there is more locally drawn from the parish and numbers 50-80.
St John's is used less frequently by the Anglican Church and is a centre of worship for the Redeemed Christian Church of God, however we are expecting to revive some aspect of Anglican worship there later this year.
The services are led by either the Team Rector or the Assistant Priest. We also have an Authorised Lay Preacher. The sermons are fairly short (around 8 minutes), challenging, provocative, generous and joyous. The services at St Alban's and St Martin's are uplifted by glorious pipe organs with well-known hymns.
Members of the congregation lead the intercessions, read the Old Testament lesson and the Epistle. They assist at Communion by administering the chalice.
There is a Sunday School for children aged 3-12 at St Alban's and a supervised children's area at St Martin's. The parish has a proud history of supporting a diversity of ministry from all backgrounds. We delight in having students on placement as they discern their calling, along with ordinands and curates.
For any further information or to speak to one of the ministry team please go to the 'contact us' page.