A beacon of God’s transforming love, peace, and hope

What kind of church is God calling St Paul’s to be? That was the question at the heart of our PCC away-day last Saturday, when we gathered at Turvey Abbey to spend time together, to worship together and, most importantly, to listen and pray about the future of St Paul’s.

Supported by the Rev’d Nick Smith from the diocesan Flourishing Churches Team, we began by reflecting on what “church” is for, considering our parish context here at St Paul’s and the findings of the 2025 Bishop’s Review. We then shared what we love about St Paul’s, as well as some of the challenges and opportunities we face.

After a bring-and-share lunch, we turned our attention more deliberately towards the future. Beginning in prayer and seeking to be attentive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, Nick led us through a series of exercises to help us imagine what St Paul’s might become.

One exercise invited us to imagine that we had emigrated to Australia for five years. What would we hope to find when we returned to a St Paul’s where our hopes, dreams and prayers had all been answered?

Inspired by our conversations, we then turned our minds and prayers to discerning a vision for our church: something that might help us channel our precious energy, avoid distractions and keep our focus on God and God’s mission here in Bedford.

This is the vision we settled on:

“A beacon of God’s transforming love, peace, and hope, at the heart of our community.”

Over the coming weeks and months, we will build on this vision by exploring the values that underpin it and discovering what it might mean, in practice, for St Paul’s to be a beacon of God’s transforming love, peace, and hope, at the heart of our community.

Before ending our away day with a Eucharist in the Abbey chapel, the PCC also identified four initial areas where we believe we should focus our energy and action:

• Providing for young people in worship

• Welcoming those who are seeking faith, including visitors to our building and churchyard and those in the wider community

• Growing our fellowship and hospitality, including finding more opportunities to bring people together around food

• Caring for God’s creation especially in our churchyard

  
  

These are not intended to be the only things we will work on as a church. Rather, they are a beginning: some initial steps as we seek to discover how God is calling us to respond.

And this is something in which we all have a part to play. Over the coming months we will be looking for ideas and encouraging people to share their gifts, passions, interests and resources as we seek together to follow the Spirit’s direction.

It feels like the beginning of an exciting new chapter for St Paul’s, as we make plans for the future and as we seek to be faithful partners with God in God’s mission here in Bedford.