Waltham Abbey Church

Welcome

Due to the Covid-19 emergency, the Abbey Church is closed and, with the exceptions listed below, no services, activities or events are currently taking place. Our Services page has more details and resources that you can use at home.

We can currently open the Abbey Church for:

A limited number of worship services.
Baptisms, weddings and funerals. These can be arranged with the Parish Office.

In all cases, strict social distancing must be observed and face coverings must be worn.

Photograph of Waltham Abbey Church, viewed from the south east. We welcome you to the parish community of Waltham Abbey. We hope that you enjoy your visit to our website. Do share with us your views, hopes and concerns. You will discover a vibrant parish that tries to respond to the needs of others and to be of service to the local community. We are by no means perfect, but we do try to live and proclaim the Gospel message of Jesus Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

The parish of Waltham Abbey is part of the benefice of Waltham Holy Cross (which is itself part of the Deanery of Epping Forest and Ongar Deanery of the Diocese of Chelmsford). There are four Church of England churches within the benefice.

The Abbey Church, which is the church of Holy Cross and St. Lawrence and is the parish church of Waltham Abbey.
St. Lawrence Church, Ninefields, which is a district church within the parish of Waltham Abbey.
St. Thomas Church, the parish church of Upshire.
Holy Innocents Church, the parish church of High Beach.

Photograph of the interior of Waltham Abbey Church, viewed from the west end.

We are committed to Safeguarding Children, Young People and Vulnerable Adults. The PCC has adopted the Church of England’s policies and best practice on safeguarding which may be found on the Church of England website and also on the Diocese of Chelmsford website. Our Safeguarding Officer can be contacted via the Parish Office. Epping Forest District Council also has a safeguarding policy.

×Covid 19 Update

Dear Friends,25th July 2021

Following the government’s announcements on Monday and subsequent lifting of the COVID restrictions, we have reviewed our guidance around worship to ensure that we all continue to remain safe and approach these changes with caution. We understand that this may be a very anxious time for some people and would like to assure you of our continued commitment to enabling you to return to worship whilst providing a safe environment for you.

We will no longer be restricting the number of people at each service, nor asking you to book a place.

You are asked to use the QR code on entering the church or sign in on the register which will be provided in the porch.

Hand sanitiser will continue to be available throughout the church

Safety measures

We will continue to leave spaces between the pews to enable the continuation of social distancing and members of the congregation are encouraged to maintain a comfortable distance between each other.
If you are feeling nervous about returning to church and do not wish to sit too close to other people, please let the wardens know when you arrive and we will facilitate this.
While the government has advised that face masks are no longer required, the church is seeing increasing numbers of our church family returning to worship. This has been a joy to see and we look forward to seeing more returning, but this does mean that more people will be in the church. We therefore strongly encourage you continue to wear face masks if possible during the service to protect both yourselves and each other.
We will continue to share the peace in a non-contact way.
The use of the communion cup for distribution of wine is still not regarded as a safe option at present so Holy Communion will continue to be distributed in one kind only (just the bread of the Eucharist), for the foreseeable future

Singing

The church choir will be returning in their full capacity and we will gradually work towards the congregation joining in the singing of the hymns. For now, the choir only will sing hymns during the service, but all members of the congregation will be able to sing the final hymn, during which the south and west doors will be opened to enable fresh air to be circulated. Masks may be removed for the purpose of singing.

Should members of the congregation prefer not to participate in this, there will be opportunity to leave the service at this point.

We hope that these slight changes provide you with some reassurance both of your safety and the gradual return to singing and interaction.

If you wish to raise any concerns or make suggestions, please direct these to the churchwardens

With many thanks,
Beverely, Dianne and Mark,
Churchwardens,
Waltham Holy Cross