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).

We now aim to open Little Fishes every Thursday throughout the year when Café Mosaic is open - including school holidays, but not Christmas/New Year.

Future worship and recorded services are on this page.

10.30am Morning Worship - Mr Stephen Clay

This was our Easter Cross decorated on Easter Day 5 April 2026

from Rev Wes Hampton

Dear Friends,

King Charles has opened the new session of parliament, amid all the accompanying ceremony and pageantry.  While the words of the King’s Speech and the observance of tradition all give the impression that His Majesty is in charge, we all know that what has been delivered is really the government’s plan for the coming months, and that the king is required to read what is given to him.

All this comes just a week after the elections to local councils, and in Scotland and Wales to the national parliaments.  In such elections, we are in collective charge, as we decide who should be given the privilege and responsibility of representing us.  In contrast to all the ‘pomp and circumstance’ of the state opening of parliament, others have to bend to our will expressed in the silence of the voting booth.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus invited people to decide who should be in charge, as he announced “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”  The first Christians proclaimed as a statement of faith “Jesus is Lord!”  By implication, they were shouting that Caesar is not Lord.  We may very rarely feel that we need to stand up for our faith by defying the temporal authorities today, but we do need to know where our allegiance lies.

Most importantly, Christ’s resurrection demonstrates that Death is not in charge, and that the powers that lead to hopelessness are inferior to those that lead to life as life is meant to be.  As we wait in the period between Christ’s Ascension and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we recall the power that enabled, and enables, Christ’s followers to show the world that the reign of which Jesus spoke is a reality in our lives.

In this season of Easter, when we ask “Who is in charge?” it is enough to reply “Alleluia, Christ is risen: he is risen indeed, Alleluia!”

Wes

from John Williams

I do like Isaiah chapter 40.  In the 6^th Century BC, God’s people were in exile in Babylon and the prophet Isaiah was trying to encourage them and prepare them to return to their own land.  They were in the midst of a pagan culture, maybe even tempted to worship foreign gods as idols.  Maybe they had even forgotten who their God was.  In this chapter the prophet was giving them a message of hope.  (Can you read the words “Comfort ye my people” without the music of Handel’s Messiah running through your head?)  His message was based on his realisation of God’s power and greatness.  Supremely for Isaiah their god was the Incomparable God.  Isaiah reminds the people of this by describing their God.

He was the Lord of creation and so much greater than nature in all of its wonder and immensity.  He was supreme among the nations and in control of powerful rulers.  He was a God who was able to work through history – how relevant this thought is today with all the upheavals in the Middle East.  He even commanded the comings and goings of the stars themselves and even knew how many stars there were and called each one by name!

This was their God and this is our God.  Isaiah ends the chapter by reminding them, and us, that for all his greatness and power, God is not remote.  He helps us all, whether we are rising to the heights or plodding along in our everyday lives.  And we, 2600 years later, have more; for we have seen God in Jesus Christ; who is risen and is alive today, helping us wherever we are and whatever situation we are in.

John Williams

Some previous Pastoral Letters are available here.