Churchstoke & Sarn

The village of Churchstoke has a population of 1700 and nestles on the English/Welsh border. We have a Primary School (47 children), a village hall, two pubs, a Chinese takeaway, a care home, a large spring water bottling factory and several small businesses.

There is a Bowling Club, a Tennis Club, Over 60s group, Mums and Tots and Pre-school. Churchstoke has a supermarket with petrol station, post office, cafe and launderette. The village is growing with 85 new homes built since 2020.

Our church is a Grade 2 listed, substantial stone building situated in the centre of the old village, next to a pub, opposite the care home and very close to the school. In 2021 we completed a major building project in the interior of our building, the funds for which were raised through prayer over three years. We received some money from Christian grant making trusts, but most came from gifts from our Church Family and local people. It was truly miraculous. We now have excellent facilities: a carpeted dais, a Coffee Lounge, two toilets (one disabled and baby change) and a kitchen area, enabling us to enjoy spending time together, to run our various activities and to live out our hospitality as the people of God in this place.

Our vision is to be disciples of Jesus Christ, to grow the Church and to extend the Kingdom. Our two Churchwardens and PCC are committed to growth and mission.

Our normal pattern of Sunday worship is to have Holy Communion once a month and morning praise on another three.

Our worship has developed to include both modern songs as well as traditional hymns. We have two worship leaders who lead our sung worship, a band and an audio-visual system, which ensures our worship is always lively. We endeavour to provide a warm welcome and consider this to be extremely important to create an inclusive community atmosphere. Our services focus on the teaching of the bible and how this applies to our everyday lives and God’s kingdom. Time is set aside for people to respond to the teaching, share testimonies and receive personal prayer. The Church family comes from a wide range of local villages, all of whom have been drawn to the church by the style of worship and the quality of the teaching. People often comment on a sense of God’s presence in the church and people have reported experiencing healing during the services.

In addition to this we have other weekly groups that meet in church.

Prayer meeting - Friday at 9 - 9.30 a.m. Everyone is welcome.

Ignite – Wednesday 7 to 8.30p.m. Secondary aged children meet for games, food, worship and teaching.

Coffee Craft – Thursday 10.30 – 12.30, Local support group that engage in many charity raising events and open to anyone.

Monthly events

Men’s prayer breakfast – 4th Saturday of the month 9.30 – 11a.m.

Prayer and Worship evening – last Monday of the month 7 – 9pm

Kidz Klub – Second Sunday of the month in the church service for primary aged children

We have held 12 Alpha courses, and these have been a significant factor in the growth of our Church. We also use this as a preparation for Confirmation and 20 people have been confirmed here in the last 8 years. We have a good relationship with the Care Home and residents are at most church services. We have seven people who are commissioned as lay leaders. During this period with no vicar these people are leading all services except Holy Communion.

We look forward to refreshing our involvement in the wider Benefice: we have representatives on the Ministry Support Group and hope to host more Benefice events moving forwards. We also look forward to returning to worshipping with other churches for Benefice Services on 5th Sundays.

We are committed to establishing and developing relationships with the children in the local area. We have organised craft mornings in church, invited the school over to take part in an Easter experience, hosted the mother and toddler group and this year the holiday club visited for the first time. A member of our congregation is a school governor, who is keen to initiate Open the Book in the school if they are willing.

We have enjoyed blessing and growth over recent years. We have 69 people on our electoral role, most of whom attend church on a regular basis and our weekly attendance has been 47 on average since our mission priest left which includes adults, teenagers and children. We have received so much from Jesus, and we are looking to extend His Kingdom in this area and beyond.

The village of Sarn has a population of c500 and is situated on the A489, 5 miles into Wales from Churchstoke, in the Kerry Vale. Like Churchstoke, its parishioners opted to remain Church of England when the province of the Church in Wales was formed in the early 1900s, hence their being part of Hereford diocese. Sarn has the highest density of council tenant farms in Powys and was originally a spread-out agricultural community with a tiny village centre including a chapel, church, school, pub and village hall. Only the chapel, village hall and pub remain, Holy Trinity church having closed on 1st August 2026 after five years of consultation. Sarn parish was formally merged with Churchstoke on the same date. Conversely, the domestic housing stock has expanded enormously, with 44 new homes having been built since 2023, alone. The strong agricultural identity remains, with a very active Young Farmers Club and two enterprising farm businesses which have featured on national television. The village is now also home to many retirees, home workers, small businesses and commuters, including school children bussed to Kerry and beyond.

Since Holy Trinity church closed its doors in 2021, occasional services have been held in Sarn village hall, often in partnership with friends from the Baptist chapel. Holy Trinity’s electoral roll was about 14 strong at the time but numbers attending seasonal services at the village hall have been much larger, which has been very encouraging for members of the community. Formerly led by a local priest and a small group pf parishioner, who has been faithful to the village over many decades, lay leaders from St Nicholas Churchstoke have taken increasing responsibility for those services in the past two years. They have also hosted prayer meetings for the village and are looking with others for ways to encourage local people in Sarn on their faith journey in the days to come. Sarn parish is represented by two members on the new joint Churchstoke and Sarn Parochial Church Council.