Vision and plans

"And I pray that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”  Ephesians 3 v17-19               

These Bible verses from Ephesians 3 which support our Vision statement are first and foremost a prayer.  Paul begins:  ‘And I pray that you….’   He prays for the church family at Ephesus, and likewise we can pray this prayer for one another and for our church family at St. Mark’s.

The tree in this image has the cross of Jesus as its backdrop, and we too are called to live our lives together within the context of God’s love as shown through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The circle reminds us that God’s love and the fullness of life he calls us to are eternal and never end. All our joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, frailties and failures are held safe in God’s grace and forgiveness.

This was explored more in the Sunday service which launched the vision:

Our plans

During early 2019, we spent a few months thinking and praying about what we thought God had for us next. The whole church - all ages, congregations and abilities - took part as we gathered ideas on post-it notes, and the PCC and others then prayed, thought about and discussed these in order to bring them together in a plan.

In 2019, St Mark's launched a road map to develop keys areas of church life over the following five years. Our ideas covered five main areas: Community outreach, Community inreach, Worship, Premises and Governance. You can see the full church development plan by clicking here.

In 2020 some of our projects were paused while we grappled with COVID-19 lockdowns, new technology and the immediate needs of our church community and parish.

Rather than continuing with our main plan during the last few years of turbulence, we identified some priorities in order to keep moving forward despite the curtailments and complexities that the pandemic brought. 

We looked at the plans we were able to bring to fruition, and those that we weren't; we looked too at the way that our community is changing. 

Follow this link for the Church Development Plan Priorities - 2023

This short video explains the priorities a bit more:

The eight essential qualities of a healthy church are:

• encapsulated in our Vision statement, Believing, Belonging, Becoming.
• expressed through how we enact our vision statement in the Church Development Plan and key priorities
• demonstrated through what we do, for example in the decisions and everyday habits we have as a church and the substatements in the CDP priorities.