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HOPE FAMILY CHURCH
About
The Network
Family for Everyone, Sharing Hope, Following Jesus
Hope Family Church Network is a mutually supportive group of churches that have joined together on mission to share resources, ideas, and faith as we seek to grow the kingdom of God.
United around 3 core values of Family for Everyone, Sharing Hope, and Following Jesus, we long to reach communities with the gospel and see towns and villages transformed by the love of Jesus. This means that churches in our network will be places of radically inclusive hospitality, and that we will be people who celebrate both the big and small, and who draw close to each other in the hard times. We try not to just tell people about Jesus, but as his people we hope to be the story of Jesus.
As a network we are collaborative in leadership, and are passionate about raising up new leaders in order to establish new worshiping communities or social enterprises which benefit their local communities.
Really it’s all about mission, it’s all about being unified around one goal, helping people become disciples of Jesus, offering everybody a place to belong and discover the amazing radical love that God has for them.
Our Churches
Hope Family Church: Washington
Originally called Oxclose Church, our Church started in the 1970s as an ecumenical project involving the Church of England, the Methodist Church, and the United Reformed Church. Over time the church became solely Anglican, however those ecumenical roots still influence the way we worship today as a church which worships freely and follows the leading of God's Spirit.
More recently, we became a 'Resource Church' in Durham Diocese meaning that we do our best to support other local churches across the region, as well as having a mandate for planting new churches and worshiping communities, such as in Christ Church, New Seaham.
As a Church, we're very family-focussed and charismatic, meaning we place a strong emphasis on welcome and hospitality, love having children and young people, and are certainly less traditional and liturgical than other churches in the Church of England.
Christ Church, New Seaham
Christ Church, New Seaham is a Grade II listed, 19th century church with a strong mining heritage and connection with the local community spanning generations.
In Autumn/Winter 2023, Hope Family Church began the process of working with the existing congregation to revitalise the church. We are delighted that under the day-to-day leadership of our Curate, Rev'd Anita Burke, the church is now a thriving congregation in its own right.
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