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 now open the Abbey Church for:

Worship services for up to 30 attendees.
Private prayer.
Baptisms, weddings and funerals, with a maximum of 30 attendees. These can be arranged with the Parish Office.

In all cases, strict social distancing must be observed and, from 2nd August, face coverings must be worn.

Unfortunately we still cannot welcome tourists.

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

30 Jul 2020Dear Friends,

Since I last wrote we have enjoyed our first services with face coverings. I must admit Joyce and I were a little concerned about how this would work particularly for those of us leading the services, thankfully we are not using face masks but Perspex visors. This may give the impression that we are just about to engage in some light welding but from a safety perspective they are working well. The visors also have the added benefit of not muting the sound and allowing people to see our lips move. As I get older (and deafer), I find that sort of visual sound reinforcement more and more helpful.

One of the more interesting guidelines to implement has been what has become known as the sotto voce rule. We have been asked to discourage everybody from speaking above their normal speaking volume level before, after and during services. Given the propensity of both Joyce and I to enthusiastically project our voices during worship this has felt a little pot and kettle-ish. Needless to say the good folk who come to worship, (with very few exceptions), are rather better at it than we were at first. Thankfully, the visors and the sensible distancing measures kept everybody safe while we got the hang of things.

We still very much miss singing and hearing the Abbey Choir and the Choristers as they lead our worship but Jonathan has done a splendid job in choosing appropriate pieces to play as organ interludes at various points during the 10.30 Eucharist on Sunday mornings. This has really contributed greatly to our worship and, after all this time it is so good to hear the organ play again.

On the subject of organs and the organ project, you will be saddened to hear that Manders, our organ builders have just ceased trading. This is sad news indeed for the entire organ industry, they truly were one of the best builders in the country, (and highly regarded internationally as well). Over the last two or three years their staff had become friends to many of us here and we can only wish them well as they have to try to secure employment elsewhere in the industry. It is quite sobering to reflect that the Abbey organ is one of the last instruments to be completed by them in this country and is regarded by many within the organ world as their very best work to date.

As we move into August and what is normally considered to be the holiday period I hope you will have an opportunity to enjoy a little down time yourself and that, by the time September comes seeing one another more regularly and in larger numbers will be achievable.

Hoping this short letter finds you well and in good spirits.

With every blessing,

Peter