Welcome to Wokingham Methodist Church

We are now part of the Blackwater Valley Methodist Circuit, formed by the merger of our previous circuit, the Berkshire Surrey Borders Circuit, with the circuit to the south of us, the Hants-Surrey Border Circuit, effective from 1 September 2025.

Our previous minister, Revd Catherine Bowstead, has retired.  We welcome her replacement Rev Wes Hampton, from 1 September 2025.

Starting on Sunday 21^st September, evening service (with Holy Communion) will resume on the third Sunday of each month at the new time of 6.15 pm (new time chosen so you can park in the Rose Street car park without having to pay both an afternoon fee and an evening fee).

Future worship and recorded services are on this page.

10.30am Morning Worship - Mrs Doreen Murgatroyd

from Rev Wes Hampton

Dear Friends,

What is your favourite part of the New Testament?  If we were all to compile a ‘top ten’ of best-loved passages, the parables of the Good Samaritan and of the Prodigal Son would probably feature on many lists.  Some parts of the nativity, such as the angels appearing to Mary and, later, to the shepherds, might be included as well.  If we add the parables of the rich fool and of the rich man and Lazarus, we begin to make a collection of stories we find only in Luke’s Gospel.  On top of that, we could add the whole of the Acts of the Apostles, also written by Luke, which means that this one writer has given us about a quarter of the New Testament.  The Feast of St Luke is celebrated on 18 October, so we may choose to take a moment to appreciate his work.

There are, of course, many elements shared by Luke with at least one of Matthew and Mark, and other episodes missing from Luke’s Gospel altogether.  Furthermore, John’s Gospel looks very unlike the others.  If we dig a little deeper, we see that the differences are not just of content, but also of emphasis and style.  A picture of the ministry of Jesus is given by four different writers in the canon of the New Testament and, while the central object of their work is the same, the impressions they give can be quite varied.

So, what we can see of Jesus is coloured by which Gospel we are reading.  In the same way, what others see of Jesus will be coloured by which Christians they encounter.  We cannot all be the perfect harmony of the four gospel pictures – nor should we be – but we are responsible for the sort of Jesus people see when they see us.  We do not opt to be ‘more Luke’ or ‘more Matthew’, but we do share in their endeavour to reveal our own picture of Jesus.

Wes

from Malcolm Ray-Smith

Dear Friends,

Gardening is sometimes very pleasing because seeds respond well to soil conditions and the weather is beneficial and we rejoice at generous harvests and beautiful displays.  The autumn is usually a time of much satisfaction as we count our blessings for bountiful crops.

At other times the weeds flourish while our crops wither and it rains just when we wanted warmth or frosts spoil blossoms and we experience disappointments and frustrations.  Crops which we have found very excellent in previous years are suddenly no longer growing as we hoped and we can feel discouraged.

For me 2026 has been marked by a series of disasters with very poor results for onions, runner beans and courgettes which are normally so productive that I have lots to give away.  For me these failures are disappointing, but we have not starved and I can try again next year.  However the exceptional dryness and heat of the summer has caused major issues for many farmers to whom the financial consequences may be very severe.

As we celebrate the harvest season, we are thankful that supermarket shelves still provide our needs and we are not dependent on the crops that we ourselves produce to survive.  I am mindful that when I first came to live in Wokingham, I worshipped with people who ran farms, tended poultry, grew seeds and were millers.  We are no longer living so close to food production as earlier generations did.

The late John Arlott 1914-1991 the author and cricket commentator wrote:

God, whose farm is all creation, take the gratitude we give,
take the finest of our harvest, crops we grow that all may live.

Take our ploughing, sowing, reaping, hopes and fears of sun and rain,
all our thinking, planning, waiting, ripened in this fruit and grain.

All our labour, all our watching, all our calendar of care,
in the crops of your creation: take, O God, they are our prayer.

StF 122 - © The Trustees of J. Arlott deceased
Used by permission, CCLI Streaming Licence 583214

Some previous Pastoral Letters are available here.