Welcome!

Welcome to St Mary’s East Barnet.  We are a parish in the Diocese of St Albans of the Church of England, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus.  Our church has stood here since c.1080 bearing witness to the love of God in this place.

Today we are committed to being an inclusive Christian community where all are welcome and we seek to serve all in our parish.  We gather on Sundays and other days to hear God’s word and break bread together.  Our main acts of worship are drawn from the Church of England’s Common Worship and Book of Common Prayer, but we are a ‘mixed economy’ church with a variety of activities and styles of worship.

Since 2008 we have been committed to serving our parish in partnership with our Methodist friends through the East Barnet Anglican-Methodist Partnership.  We are part of  the Inclusive Church network and are a Fairtrade parish.  Currently, we are exploring new ways in which we may serve our community through the Bishop of St Albans’ initiative “Living God’s Love.”

See the Latest News section on the far right of each page for the most recent news and information from St Mary’s, and the Pages list to help you find your way around. The latest edition of our monthly parish newspaper, The Herald can be read here. [You can download free Adobe Reader software using the link at the bottom of this page.]

Other than at service times, the church is open for private prayer, reflection and visiting on Saturdays between 10am and 2pm. The noticeboard outside the Church carries the following WARNING:

Here we practise the inclusive Gospel of Jesus Christ. This means you may be mixing with tax collectors, adulterers, hypocrites, Greeks, Jews, women as well as men, female and male priests, homosexuals, lesbians, the disabled, thieves and other sinners, the dying, white people, black people, Asians and people from other races, Muslims, Bishops, bigots, people of other faiths, strangers, heretics and people with no particular faith etc. etc. In fact, anyone like those with whom Jesus himself mixed.

So beware—this is not a private club. Welcome to all.