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The Northstowe Church Network is a shared Christian presence in Northstowe: rooted in this new community and connected with the wider Church.
a network of missional and worshiping communities: you might find your primary home in Pathfinder Church, or Little Explorers, or the Compline Community… or be part of developing something new!
a local ecumenical partnership of the Church of England, the Baptist Union of Great Britain, and the United Reformed Church. We are working closely with the other Christian traditions involved in Churches Together in Cambridgeshire, including the Quakers and Methodists. But what unites us is stronger than our different denominational backgrounds: it's a rooted, growing and transforming faith in the ancient and eternal God who still changes lives today.
the charity that provides the umbrella for our shared mission and ministry in the growing new town of Northstowe, including developing the future Northstowe Lakes Centre and Chapel by the Lake as a place of faith, community and hospitality through collaboration with people of many different religious and non religious backgrounds.
Those of us gathering across the Network come from many Christian traditions, alongside people who are new to Christianity or simply beginning to explore.
"Together we are pilgrims on a journey, asking questions
and exploring the connections we find between everyday life and our spirituality and faith."
"Together we are pilgrims on a journey, asking questions
and exploring the connections we find between everyday life and our spirituality and faith."
At the heart of that journey is our desire to follow Jesus Christ — the Pathfinder.
You don’t need to have everything worked out before you come. There is room here for questions, discovery and difference. Come and walk a while with us.
Our vision: to be people who are praying, exploring, and sharing
Our vision: to be people who are praying, exploring, and sharing
praying
praying
Everything we do is grounded in prayer: in the conviction that the God who made us and loves us is intimately concerned with the practical realities of everyday life.
Prayer can look very different for different people. Across our communities you’ll encounter words and silence, music and creativity, ancient traditions and new ways of praying.
You are welcome to come and explore what helps you connect with God.
exploring
exploring
We are not following a blueprint for how to “start a church”.
Northstowe itself is still developing, and so are we. We listen to the people who live here, to one another, to the Christian tradition and to what we believe God may already be doing among us.
That means questions are welcome. We expect to learn, change and occasionally get things wrong as we grow.
sharing
sharing
We know we cannot do any of this alone.
We share faith, food, stories, questions, gifts and responsibility. We work with other churches and with neighbours, schools, charities, faith communities and community organisations.
We want to be known for a peaceful, prayerful presence in Northstowe: offering hospitality and loving service alongside distinctively Christian prayer and worship.
Praying. Exploring. Sharing.
Come and share the journey.
Praying. Exploring. Sharing.
Come and share the journey.
Our communities of hope
Our communities of hope
The Network is not one congregation trying to make everybody worship in the same way.
Instead, we are growing a family of communities of hope, each developing in response to its particular context and the people who belong to it. At present these include:
Sundays 10-11.30am
Sundays 10-11.30am
The Pathfinder CofE Primary School
Thursdays 9.15-10.45am
Thursdays 9.15-10.45am
The Pathfinder CofE Primary School
Thursday 8-9pm
Thursday 8-9pm
Local Homes
There may be other communities still to emerge. Part of our calling is to notice what is growing and make space for new forms of Christian community to develop.
+ Our current focus: Stretch wide the tent
+ Our current focus: Stretch wide the tent
In 2023, as we looked towards the next stage of life in Northstowe, our church community adopted a helpful image from Isaiah 54: “stretch wide the tent.” It expresses something important about the church we hope to become.
In 2023, as we looked towards the next stage of life in Northstowe, our church community adopted a helpful image from Isaiah 54: “stretch wide the tent.” It expresses something important about the church we hope to become.
Inspired by Isaiah 54, we will ‘stretch wide the tent’ – bringing together those new to faith with those of many Trinitarian Christian traditions – grasping missional and formational opportunities to allow everyone, from the youngest to the oldest, to develop our relationship and love of God, equipping us to fulfil God’s purposes for us in the places He has called us to be.
Therefore, we commit to sharing – partnering with those who live, work, study, or are called to love Northstowe, creating safe spaces where questions can be asked, confidence developed, and Spirit-breathed plans turned into action. We dare to explore new expressions of church as well as pioneering future inherited modes of church. These individual missional and worshipping communities will develop contextually and organically. Locally led, they will be part of a visible and sustainable network, not just sharing ecumenical governance but periodically coming together in prayer, worship, and to do things that could not be done alone. Across the network, we long to be known for our peaceful, prayerful presence, having the confidence to hold the ministry of hospitality and loving service alongside acts of Christian worship.
Through the ‘tent pegs’ of prayer and exploration of the still-unfolding story of God’s encounter with his people, we will be rooted, deep into the soil, which is slowly, person by person, house by house, school by school, and phase by phase becoming Northstowe.
+ The ecumenical relationships that help sustain us
+ The ecumenical relationships that help sustain us
The word denomination refers to a branch of the Christian family tree — the traditions that most shape a church’s life and practice. Ecumenism simply means Christians of different traditions seeking to live, worship and serve together.
The word denomination refers to a branch of the Christian family tree — the traditions that most shape a church’s life and practice. Ecumenism simply means Christians of different traditions seeking to live, worship and serve together.
Here in Northstowe, we are a Local Ecumenical Partnership, linking us formally with the Church of England, the Baptist Union of Great Britain and the United Reformed Church. Beyond that, we are glad to share in wider ecumenical relationships and commitments through Churches Together in Cambridgeshire.
Here in Northstowe, we are a Local Ecumenical Partnership, linking us formally with the Church of England, the Baptist Union of Great Britain and the United Reformed Church. Beyond that, we are glad to share in wider ecumenical relationships and commitments through Churches Together in Cambridgeshire.
Our formal national partner denominations are:
Church of England
Baptist Union of Great Britain
United Reformed Church
Locally, however, we are not three separate churches working alongside one another. The Northstowe Church Network is one local ecumenical church which belongs within all three traditions at the same time. So when someone becomes a member of the Network, they belong to this shared local church rather than having to choose between an Anglican, Baptist or United Reformed congregation.
For most practical purposes we therefore function as one body, while receiving oversight, support and traditions from all three wider churches.
Supporting the three-way Local Ecumenical Partnership is a wider Shared Commitment, agreed by the Northstowe Church Network, the Diocese of Ely (Church of England), the Eastern Synod of the United Reformed Church, the Eastern Baptist Association (BUGB), the Cambridgeshire Area Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and the East Anglia Methodist District.
How our partnership is supported
How our partnership is supported
Our life together is local, but it is not isolated. The Northstowe Church Network is supported and held in relationship with the wider Church through our Partnership Agreement and an Ecumenical Support Cabinet, usually shortened to ESC.
The ESC brings together representatives of the Northstowe Church Network and our Church of England, Baptist and United Reformed Church partners. It provides a place for shared wisdom, honest conversation and ecumenical accountability.
The ESC does not run the Network or replace its Trustees. The Trustees remain legally responsible for governing the Northstowe Church Network CIO. Instead, the ESC helps the Network and its wider church partners to:
remain connected and accountable to one another;
consider significant questions affecting the partnership;
test proposals against our shared commitments;
draw on the wisdom and experience of all three traditions; and
agree shared principles before detailed legal or governance work is undertaken.
This enables us to act locally as one church while remaining securely connected to the wider traditions to which we belong.
[Read our governance documents →]
Wider Ecumencial Working
Wider Ecumencial Working
We also have longstanding friendships with Methodists and Quakers, and warm and growing relationships with local Catholics, supported by St Laurence’s in Cambridge. Catholics living in Northstowe are especially invited to join the Compline Community. While not a formal partnership, this relationship is helping us deepen friendship and understanding across traditions as our town grows.
We celebrate the different gifts these traditions bring. We do not expect everyone to agree about everything — Christians within the same denomination rarely do either! Instead, our differences give us opportunities to listen, learn and receive from one another.
Our unity is centred on Jesus Christ and our shared calling to participate in God's mission: in worship, witness and service.
The wider ecumenical relationships which helped give birth to the Network were built around a commitment
share together in the ministry of Christ, exploring what Christian unity means for worship, mission and service;
assess the resources of church and community — people, buildings and money — and use them well in relation to the aspirations and needs of local people; and
develop relationships both locally and with our wider churches.
That commitment continues to shape the way we work.
Rooted in Northstowe
Rooted in Northstowe
We understand church as something that is part of the life of the place, rather than something separate from it.
We understand church as something that is part of the life of the place, rather than something separate from it.
That has meant putting down roots in Northstowe from its earliest years: listening, building relationships, sharing community spaces, working with schools and local organisations, and helping new initiatives grow.
Our partnership with The Pathfinder Church of England Primary School is particularly important. Through the national Growing Faith movement, we have also been part of a Learning Hub exploring how church, school and household can work together so that children and young people are at the heart of Christian life rather than at its edges.
A church where people can belong
A church where people can belong
We want our communities to be places in which people are treated with dignity, respect and fairness, and where the diversity of the people around us is recognised as a gift.
We want our communities to be places in which people are treated with dignity, respect and fairness, and where the diversity of the people around us is recognised as a gift.
We are a member of Inclusive Church and are committed to continuing to learn about the barriers that can prevent people participating fully in church life. We also use the Honest Church framework to communicate openly about the welcome people can expect.
Inclusion is something we keep working at rather than something we claim to have completed.
Our separate Access & Inclusion page gives practical information about accessibility, neurodiversity, LGBTQ+ inclusion and what you can expect when you join us.
Leadership and governance
Leadership and governance
We believe the Holy Spirit is at work in all God's people, and we want leadership to emerge from within our communities rather than everything depending upon one minister. Each community of hope is developing its own leadership, while the Trustees of the Northstowe Church Network CIO hold responsibility for the governance and strategic direction of the whole Network.
Revd Dr Beth Cope
Pioneer Minister for Northstowe
Revd Dr Beth Cope
Pioneer Minister for Northstowe
Beth has lived in Northstowe since 2018 and has worked alongside local people and church partners as what is now the Northstowe Church Network has grown. Her ministry combines Christian mission and ministry with community development, partnership working and helping new communities take shape. Beth works closely with local residents, schools, community organisations and people exploring faith, and chairs the Network's Trustees.
hello@northstowe.church
Our Trustees and leadership teams
Our Trustees and leadership teams
Our Trustees and community leadership teams bring together people with different gifts, experience and perspectives from across Northstowe and the surrounding area.
Our formal charitable status
Our formal charitable status
Northstowe Church Network is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation and Local Ecumenical Partnership, registered charity 1206577.
Our charitable purposes bring together two things which are fundamental to our identity:
Christian faith, worship, mission and pastoral care, and
working for the benefit of people in and around Northstowe, alongside residents, public bodies and voluntary organisations, including through the development of community facilities.
Those two strands belong together for us. Our Christian faith is not simply something that happens inside our gatherings; it calls us into relationships of service, partnership and hospitality with the place in which we live.
Our story is still unfolding
Our story is still unfolding
Northstowe is a new town, and the Northstowe Church Network is still becoming.
What began as a small pioneering Christian presence has grown through relationships, experiments, partnerships, prayer, mistakes, discoveries and the gifts of people who have joined the journey along the way.
There is more of that story in our News & Stories from Northstowe archive — and the next part has not been written yet.
Come and walk a while with us.
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