Home > Baildon Methodist Church
Baildon Methodist ChurchContents: At the Centre | Wesley's Cafe | Booking a Room | Worship | Fellowship | Children | Young People | A little bit of history | An eco-congregation
Newton Way
Baildon
BD17 5NH
[map]
Minister: Rev Alistair Newton
Email:
Services:
| 9.30 am | Holy Communion (3rd Sunday of the month) |
| 10.00 am | Morning worship |
| 6.00 pm | Evening worship |
Details of preachers are given in the Circuit Plan (pdf)
Everyone’s welcome at the Methodist Centre, a friendly community resource that hosts a wide variety of activities.
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A section of the Millennium Banner produced by members of the Church. It hangs in the Church and shows many of the activities connected with us. |
The Methodist Centre, which includes the chapel, Wesley’s café and our hall and other rooms, is user friendly to the disabled. We have ramped access from Newton Way into Wesley's Lounge. Within, there is ramped access to the Church. There is a toilet for the disabled. A loop system is installed for the hard of hearing. A Data Projector is used in morning worship.
All sorts of organisations from the Baildon Music Festival to Cardio Fit classes to Weight-Watchers and a Pre-School Group meet in our extensive Centre. We have a room set aside for those who want to be quiet, to pray, or just be on their own for a while. Follow the ‘Quiet Room’ sign in Wesley’s.
Wesley’s, our cafe, is open every week-day for snacks, and lunches (no lunch on Saturdays). Why not call in and see for yourself.
If you or your organisation want to use our premises for your meeting, please contact us. Please note that activities, including gambling or the consumption of alcohol are not allowed on Methodist premises.
Worship Our worship is the focal point of the Church's life. Whether it's in small groups, cells, home communions, old folks services, within children's activities or on Sunday, worship is seen to be of greatest importance.
On Sunday 10.00am is the time of our Sunday Morning Worship in which the whole family can be involved. All ages are encouraged to be together for the first part of the Service, though a crèche for the under threes is available. Crayons and quiet toys are provided for younger ones. During the second part of the service on most Sundays the children and young people have their own ‘Adventurers’ groups designed to provide an exciting and stimulating introduction to the Christian faith. Once a month the younger ones join the adults for Holy Communion.
6.00pm sees a smaller congregation and usually a more traditional style of worship.
Holy Communion is celebrated regularly at both morning and evening worship but not every week.
After Church. Tea and coffee are served after each Morning Service. It's a good opportunity to exchange news and meet people.
The Church arranges many meeting points for a wide range of ages. Meetings for women, supper clubs for both men and women; Guides, Brownies and Rainbows; Parents and Toddlers and a ‘See and Know' group for the very young are just a few of them. We have small, usually home-based, Cell Groups meet for fellowship and Bible study. So there are lots of meeting points, formal and informal and opportunities to make new friends, whatever age you are. Single, married, divorced or widowed, all are welcome.
Bringing your children to one of the many activities especially designed for them is a good way of meeting others. Besides ‘Adventurers’, the uniformed organisations are very much a part of what goes on in the life of the Church, along with midweek activities for toddlers and preschool children. There are usually toys about in Wesley’s if parents with children come in.
Young people are important and they are a part of today's church as well as tomorrow's. We have an active WAY group for youth, the varied activities of which are focused on arts and music. The Church's aim is to put children and young people first in the whole life of the Church.
Baildon Methodist Church is a big family and it's not easy to get to know everyone. That's why we put so much emphasis on belonging to one of the many groups. Then, at least, you will know some folk.The Minister is always willing to talk to you about a problem you may have, your spiritual life, or how you feel God is calling you to serve him either through the Church or elsewhere. A phone call is all that's necessary. There is lots more we could say but sometimes it's best to experience it for yourself. If you do come along, you will find this a friendly and welcoming Christian community and one in which you will find a spiritual home.
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The excitement of a wedding. |
How did the Methodist Church begin? John Wesley was born in 1703 and died in 1791. Few men during a lifetime can have had such a great influence over the religious life of this country. It was John Wesley's evangelical zeal as a clergyman of the Church of England that enabled Methodism (originally a society within the Established Church) to grow at an amazing rate, especially among working people, the coal miners in County Durham, the tin miners in Cornwall and amongst those moving into the towns and cities at the beginning of the industrial revolution.
And in Baildon? One of Wesley's co-workers, Benjamin Ingham, first brought Methodism to Yorkshire. In turn, it is probable that Thomas Colbeck, a young grocer and draper in Keighley, introduced Methodism to Baildon about 1744. It was on August 23rd, 1748, when John Wesley himself first visited the village. He preached at Baildon again at 1766 in the old Chapel which preceded the present St. John’s Church, though the pulpit is the same one that Wesley used. By this time a Methodist ‘Society' had been formed. Wesley visited another two times, in 1784 and 1786. There is a tradition that on the final occasion he preached from the window of number 9, Browgate, now an Asian Restaurant. By 1866 it was decided to build a Wesleyan Chapel.
Many of the Sunday Schools in the district were established by Joshua Briggs. In a pamphlet of 1788, he states that one had been opened in Baildon. This was probably as a result of John Wesley's 1784 visit, as he relayed the news of a thriving school in Bingley. Soon the Methodist Meeting House in Browgate could not contain the numbers and so in 1815 a new building was erected by subscription under the direction of the Wesleyan Methodists. All denominations used the school. The building can still be seen in Binswell Fold, marked by an inscription. During the early part of the nineteenth century some of the Wesleyans came to the conclusion that their Church had lost its enthusiasm for evangelical preaching. The year 1807 marked the beginning of Primitive Methodism. Hymns singing and vigorous preaching were the main features and earned them the name 'Ranters'. The Baildon Primitive Methodists began their meetings in 1821 at a cottage in Kellcliffe. In 1824 a Chapel was opened and can still be seen on Bank Side with a memorial stone over the door ‘Primatil Methodist Chaphell 1824'. This building eventually proved too small and a new structure was erected on a peculiar site in Kellcliffe. In 1874 the Primitives built a chapel at Low Hill. The Wesleyans, the Primitives and various other ‘Methodist' strands continued to grow.
Then in 1907, the United Methodist Free Church, the Methodist New Connexion and the Bible Christians came together to form the United Methodist Church. In 1932, the Methodist Church as it exists today came into being with the union of the Wesleyans, Primitives and United Methodists. Today, in Baildon, the work of the Methodist Church lives on in the restored buildings nestling between Westgate and Newton Way. The emphasis on the preaching of the gospel and on community involvement, so clearly seen in early Methodism, continues. Methodist are ‘the friends of all and the enemies of none' and long may that continue to be so.
‘Eco-congregation’ is a new word. It means a church that is combating global warming by its actions.
On Sunday 1 February 2008, Baildon Methodist Church became the first church in the area to be formally inspected and recognised with a national Eco-congregation Plaque. Cllor John Cole presented the plaque to Rev Alistair Newton at Morning Worship. John D Anderson, the Church Eco-officer, said, ‘Many church workers have contributed to this pioneering achievement: they have worked with the young in putting on a green drama; planted fifty fruit trees in our unique garden; included in our worship challenges to act to reduce our carbon footprint by controlling our gas and electricity usage; and worked in our eco-friendly kitchen, where up to a hundred meals are served daily.’
