Open to God - Open to all

Wesley Memorial Church seeks to be an open, welcoming space where each is valued and where the love of God is shared.

Our vision

"Open to God - Open to all" is the title of a report exploring the vision of Wesley Memorial, produced in 2003. This is the latest point on the church's journey as it tries to understand how best to be church in Oxford city centre. In the late 1970s at the time of the centenary of the present building, a long debate took place about the future of the church. Among other ideas, the possibilities of amalgamating with another city centre church, or relocating in the suburbs, were discussed. In the event it was agreed that we should remain where we are, and respond positively and actively to the unique opportunities for mission and service arising from our prime site in the heart of Oxford.

Since then there has been a determined and successful policy to make our church more open to the community, and to alter and adapt the premises to meet the challenges of the late 20th, and now, early 21st century. We offer accommodation to Cruse, Christian Aid and Aspire. Other organisations use rooms on an occasional basis, while the church itself has opened up a weekly coffee morning, a lunch break opportunity, Oxford Phab Club, and Rainbow House, (a drop-in centre for pre-school children with an adult). We also are home to the student John Wesley Society.

Hundreds of people come into our premises every week. Many enter the open church sanctuary itself in search of peace, a space in which to pray, or find a listening ear. This outreach has been successfully operating since 1988.

To facilitate this work and modernise our church building, many alterations and additions have been carried out. We have a Link Porch to join the church and the adjacent premises, a second kitchen, a disabled toilet, an office for the lay workers. Chairs replace the original pews in the church, making its use much more flexible, and the organ has been rebuilt. We have renewed our heating system, renovated our roof and upper spire, cleaned our exterior stonework and installed glass doors and a round window at the front of the church to enable people to see into the sanctuary from the street (and vice versa!), upgraded our lighting and recarpeted the sanctuary.

Our vision is that we should remain in the city centre as a lively, worshipping, witnessing and caring community, ever open to the new directions in which God may be leading us. We are particularly concerned to provide a spiritual home to young people. We believe that we must continue to encourage the growing number in the church in their twenties and early thirties to accept positions of responsibility so that they can have a major influence on the life of the church, to which they bring their gifts, fresh ideas, and enthusiasms.

So our mission statement is that we will remain committed to exploring ways of taking full advantage of our position and extensive premises in order to serve the many people who come into the centre of Oxford from all over the country, and indeed the world. We will continue to offer them Christ in appropriate ways. To this end, we are always seeking to discern where God is leading us. We invite all to join us in the quest.

See also a prayer and a hymn about vision.