A vibrant family church in Barnwell

In the 1962 St Mary’s Fen Ditton sent a group of Christians to start a new church on the new developing area of Barnwell. The parish of Holy Cross was born and the building as it is today was originally built to be the church hall. Although financial constraints meant the building project could not be completed, the building was used regularly for worship services and local community activities.

In 2004 Holy Cross joined with Meadowlands Methodist Church to form a Local Ecumenical Partnership with the joint church renamed Christ the Redeemer. This continued for 15 years and the name Christ the Redeemer became synonymous with the vibrant life of the church in the community.

In 2011, two couples moved from St Barnabas to form missional communities in Barnwell with a focus particularly on connecting with people who didn’t go to church.

Fast forward to 2020 and when the global COVID-19 pandemic spread, so too was a growing sense in a number of people from St Barnabas to commit to move to Barnwell and join Christ the Redeemer. Then in the summer of 2021, led by Rev. Danny Driver, a team of 19 adults and teenagers moved from St Barnabas to Christ the Redeemer and into Barnwell.

At the start of a new chapter in the life of the church, later in the summer of 2021 Christ the Redeemer was awarded national Innovation Funding for the next three years as a part of a project which seeks to use sport as a means to share the good news of Jesus Christ with young people in Barnwell.