Whiteparish, All Saints

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All Saints Church, Whiteparish

All Saints Church, Whiteparish

A village of 1400 people, Whiteparish is the most southerly of the Clarendon parishes. It has the usual large village amenities as well as a doctors’ surgery.

The Church in Whiteparish is situated in the centre of the village and dates from the 13th Century.   The original church was very small, consisting of just the whitewashed chancel from which the name of the village, Whiteparish, came. The Church is never locked during daylight hours and is available for individual prayer and contemplation.

The Church’s congregations have lots of services to cater for a wide variety of styles of worship.  Breakfast Church with Family Communion was recently introduced to encourage families and to give them another Sunday with an all-age focus. We hold an annual Pet Service at the local stables and a ‘Songs of Praise Service’ in the Village Hall.  The Church has a large and very talented choir of equal numbers of both men and women and music group which plays for the All Age Service.  There is also a Church group for young children to meet and sing. They give regular concerts and take part in services. This encourages them to join the church choir once they are old enough.

All the work of the Church is upheld by prayer. We have an intercessory prayer group and a Julian Group. We operate an active prayer chain which prays for individuals in need when requested.  There is a thriving Home Group which meets twice a month and more frequently in Advent and Lent.

Our Mission statement is ‘Pray, Serve, Grow…. Reaching out’.  Our aim is to serve the community.  We try to reach out to everyone:  the youngest members, through our thriving Baby and Toddler group; their mothers, with our MUMA – ‘Mothers Union Mothers Active’ ‘social’ group; and many other groups of people through the Church Lunch Club, coffee mornings and our social afternoon…‘Creativitea’ .

Church members have been instrumental in organising village-wide picnics and other events for national celebrations and, together with the school, organise the annual Fete.  There is a very active group of Lay Pastoral Assistants in Whiteparish who care for all those in need and welcome newcomers to the village.

Our links with Whiteparish Voluntary Aided Primary school are very strong. All members of the Open the Book Team are church members and the Foundation Governors run the ‘New Start’ program for new parents each year. The vicar leads worship in the school on a very regular basis.