About Us
About Us
Our Mission
Sudbury Methodist Church exists to lead all people from all backgrounds to real transformation in Christ.
The Calling of the Methodist Church is to respond to the gospel of God's love in Christ and to live out its discipleship in worship and mission. It does this through:
WORSHIP | LEARNING AND CARING | SERVICE | EVANGELISM
Our Values
- Worshipping with other Christians
We will seek opportunities to pray and worship with people from other Churches regularly and invite them to pray and worship with us, looking to develop more opportunities for ecumenical expressions of worship and prayer.
- Learning and Caring with other Christians
We will seek opportunities to learn with other Christians about our common faith and heritage to support our growth as Christians, through mutual support and care.
- Serving with other Christians
We will seek opportunities to work in partnership with other denominations to be good neighbours to those in need and to challenge injustice, upholding the integrity of creation.
- Inviting all people
Methodists accept others because Christ accepted us, even when we didn’t deserve it. We strive to be welcoming, friendly, and accepting of others—as Christ is to us. This Value, however, is not an end in and of itself. It leads to the development of a community that is one in Christ.
- Evangelism with other Christians
We will seek opportunities to join with other Christians in sharing the Good News of the Gospel and to make more followers of Jesus Christ through together bearing witness to the unity of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
Our History
Sudbury Methodist Church is situated in the Harrow Road opposite Butler’s Green, just north of the Sudbury Town shops.
It was built during 1933 and 1934 and stands on the site of a previous place of worship called the “New Hall” which had been built by Sir William Perkin in 1876. Sir William Perkin was an eminent scientist and chemist who discovered and developed the aniline dye mauve, becoming a very rich benefactor to the village of Sudbury.
Concerned that there was no place for non-conformist worship in the area, he built the “New Hall” as an interdenominational church for the people of Sudbury.
After his death, his estate offered the “New Hall”, ancillary buildings and some land to the, then, Wesleyan Methodist Connexion, and in 1911 the “New Hall” became a place specifically for Methodist worship.
By 1933, it had become too small for the size of its congregation and it was demolished to make way for the building of the splendid traditional church building of today.
Then, in 1939, the present church hall was erected to the rear of the church, together with a suite of other rooms suitable for smaller meetings. The hall was used extensively during the war to provide temporary shelter and care for those who had been bombed out of their homes by the Germans.
Over the years, our congregation has changed considerably, reflecting the social and cultural changes of our times. From a wholly white, middle class family church, as it was immediately after the war, we were joined by many Caribbean members in the late 1950’s.
In recent years, many Africans, mostly Ghanaians, have also come among us. Sri Lankans and Indians, too, are also part of our regular membership. It is a reflection of the cultural mix in Sudbury in these days that many of our original white members are now elderly and fewer in number. Our current Minister is Rev. Nigel Wright.
Methodist Doctrine
The Methodist Church claims and cherishes its place in the Holy Catholic Church which is the Body of Christ. It rejoices in the inheritance of the apostolic faith and loyally accepts the fundamental principles of the historic creeds and of the Protestant Reformation. It ever remembers that in the providence of God Methodism was raised up to spread scriptural holiness through the land by the proclamation of the evangelical faith and declares its unfaltering resolve to be true to its divinely appointed mission.
The doctrines of the evangelical faith which Methodism has held from the beginning and still holds are based upon the divine revelation recorded in the Holy Scriptures. The Methodist Church acknowledges this revelation as the supreme rule of faith and practice. These evangelical doctrines to which the preachers of the Methodist Church are pledged are contained in Wesley's Notes on the New Testament and the first four volumes of his sermons.
The Notes on the New Testament and the 44 Sermons are not intended to impose a system of formal or speculative theology on Methodist preachers, but to set up standards of preaching and belief which should secure loyalty to the fundamental truths of the gospel of redemption and ensure the continued witness of the Church to the realities of the Christian experience of salvation.
