100th anniversary of Axbridge War Memorial

Download the November Catch This 

If you have some time to help edit  future issues of Catch This, please talk to Sue or a Churchwarden.

See the latest Benefice Recordings

Praying for the Vacancy

The Benefice is currently in a Vacancy and we are looked after by our Associate Priest Rev. Sue Hoskins supported by Rev Julie Simms from Cheddar and our lay worship team.

We are focused on prayer and praying through the vacancy which aligns well with Bishop Michael's special focus on prayer throughout the Diocese this year.  There is a prayer booklet which you may wish to use to support your prayer whilst we remain in vacancy.  It can be found here.

We are preparing to advertise for a new Priest-in-Charge, following the processes of the Church of England.  Please pray for those in the Benefice and Diocese who are creating the profile and the advertisement and for those who are called to come and work in our Parishes.

Our Churches

We are a Benefice of three Parish Churches working together in our local communities, the rural town of Axbridge, the villages of Shipham and Rowberrow and the hamlet of Star. We worship together and our services move between the Churches so do check Upcoming Services to see which services are happening where and when. 

St. John's hosts school and civic services and supports traditional community events.  St. John's also hosts a drop-in, Warm Spot, providing a friendly space for cake and chat every Monday. 

St Leonard's hosts school and village services, including the Harvest Home service.  Shipham also hosts a drop-in, Lenny's Community Cafe, fortnightly, alternating with the local Save the Children lunches, at Shipham Village Hall.  

Our churches are open daily for private prayer and visitors, the links below show how to find our church buildings and their accessibility, facilities and opening times.  Well-behaved dogs are welcome inside.

If you are visiting, there are Church Guides for adults and Trails for younger visitors which give the histories of our beautiful buildings and detail the features you will find in and around them.  Click on the Church links to view them. 

St. John the Baptist
Axbridge

A Church Near You

St. Leonard
Shipham

A Church Near You

St. Michael & All AngelsRowberrow

A Church Near You

West Mendip Churches

Axbridge, Shipham and Rowberrow Benefice with
Crook Peak United Parish

The Churches in West Mendip - the Parishes of Axbridge, Shipham and Rowberrow and Crook Peak United Parish - are coming together to form a new West Mendip Benefice.  While we are at an early stage and the legal merger will take some time, we do have a joint service plan, worship together on fifth Sundays and some Festivals and are working together in the search for a new Priest-in-Charge.  Please hold the Parishes in your prayers.

Safeguarding

We take the safety and wellbeing of everyone seriously.   

Michelle Hacker is our Safeguarding Officer for all parishes in the Benefice.  If you have a concern about someone, please contact her on 07942 993563 or asrsafeguarding@gmail.com.  Alternatively, please contact the Diocesan Safeguarding Team (led by Ben Goodhind) on 07834 514842 or 01749 588917, or ben.goodhind@bathwells.anglican.org.

Weekly In Touch newsletter

You can receive In Touch, the weekly notices and readings newsletter, by email.

To subscribe click on this link, and complete and submit the form.  You will receive an email with a confirmation link and a final email with your details.  Please sign up by Thursday to receive the next Sunday's sheet. Subscriptions are run by Andy Goddard.  If you have a query about a subscription only, please contact him by email: intouch@acgnleg.org.uk. 

For submissions to In Touch, please contact intouch.asr@gmail.com. 

Please contact the Benefice Office: axbridgebeneficeoffice@gmail.com. if you have any other queries.  Thank you.

We are a Fairtrade Church

The Fairtrade movement aims to changes the way trade works through better prices, decent working conditions and a fairer deal for farmers and workers, particularly in developing countries.

St John’s is registered as a Fairtrade Church with the Fairtrade Foundation and we only use fairly traded tea, coffee and sugar at all church events. We try to raise awareness of fairtrade by encouragement to choose fairly traded goods and by promoting the meaning of fairtrade through our prayers and worship.

In addition to refreshments served at church events, we also sell fairly traded goods through direct sales and through stalls, including a regular monthly stall in the Axbridge Farmers’ Market. 

From the small profits made from our sales in 2023 we were able to donate £850 to the fairtrade charity Transform Change and we also made donations to St. John’s.

Buy where you see this logo!

Eco Church

We are a silver Eco Church.  This is 'A Rocha UK’s award scheme for churches in England and Wales who want to demonstrate that the gospel is good news for God’s earth.'  For more information, please see the Eco Church website.