Join us this Sunday 13th September at St Bartholomew’s Church for the #Meltham Civic Service & Procession as we celebrate all things Meltham and welcome our 2026/27 Town Mayor – Cllr Lisa Coates.
Everyone is invited to join us as we celebrate our vibrant community, local volunteers, emergency services, and community groups.
Procession Gathering: From 10:15 AM between The Carlile Institute & St Bartholomew’s Church
Procession Departure: 10:30 AM led by the brilliant Meltham & Meltham Mills Brass Band
Church Service: 10:45 AM at St Bartholomew’s Church
The service will feature performances by the Meltham Community Choir, readings from local youth and voluntary groups, and a musical selection to bring our town together. Whether you’re marching in the procession, watching along the route, or joining us inside the church, we would love to see you there! Everyone is welcome!
There will be a short service of Holy Communion beforehand at St Bartholomew’s – 9:30am. No other services in the parish.
Come & Dine Church – Friday 4th September – 6pm onwards at the Church Hall
After the long hot summer, the school hols are finally over and it’s already September with the nights getting darker rather early now. The good news is that Fellowship Fridays will be restarting with Come & Dine Church on the first Friday and Pizza Church on the third Friday of each month. Everyone is welcome, whether you came previously or not. If you’re not sure if it’s for you, come along and give it a try anyway – you can read all about it below.
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What are Fellowship Fridays?
These are new sessions that will take place in the parish at #Meltham Church Hall between 18.00 and 19.30 on Friday evenings, aiming to provide a welcoming and comfortable environment for anyone who’d like to come and share food, socialise, explore and talk about their faith with friends.
There is no cost to attend, although donations towards expenses will be gratefully accepted.
There will be two different sessions………….
Come & Dine Church: 1st Friday of the month – restarts on Friday, 4th September
Come together to share a simple cooked meal—examples include shepherd’s pie or chicken casserole. Following the meal, there will be time to discuss and explore a biblical topic using a video to stimulate thinking, to pray together, and to enjoy each other’s company. While teenagers/young adults are welcome, there are no specific activities provided for children under 11. Continuing the ‘How to pray’ course, if you’ve not been before, you are very welcome. The course can be dropped into as and when as each week is a self contained subject so don’t worry if you can’t make it every time.
Pizza Church:3rd Friday of the month – restarts on Friday, 18th September
Similar in spirit to the one above, Pizza Church will serve finger food such as pizza or hot dogs. In addition to discussion, prayer, and socialising for the adults, there will be a fun activity planned for children during the discussion time. However, please note that Pizza Church is not just for people who’ll bring children—anyone is welcome to attend.
The previous sessions were enjoyed by many and we hope that more from across the parish will come along to join together for fellowship, and that it will continue to become a firm favourite on everyone’s monthly calendar.
TGI Friday! See you there!
PS – Added bonus, you don’t need to think about what to make for dinner/tea at home!
Yep. You can come to church in your pyjamas (if you wish).
Join us for a special ALL-AGE PYJAMA PARTY SERVICE. PJs, onesies and dressing gowns encouraged Teddies welcome Music and Worship Bible story Games Something for every age!
Sunday 6th September 10am at St James’ Meltham Mills (the church by the park)
If you enjoyed Lego Church last month, join us again for this! If you missed Lego Church last month, don’t miss this!
Please share our facebook event and invite your friends and family along too! https://fb.me/e/4Mkg4G12H
13th Sept 9:30am St Bartholomew’s Holy Communion 10:30am St Bartholomew’s – Civic Service / 11:15am St Mary’s
20th Sept 10:00am St James’ / 11:15am Christ Church Helme
27th Sept 10:00am St Bartholomew’s / 11:15am St Mary’s
Fellowship Fridays
Come and Dine Church – 4th September – Church Hall 6pm to 7.30pm Pizza Church – 18th September – Church Hall 6pm to 7.30pm
Come and share some food and talk about and explore your faith with friends. There is no cost to attend although donations towards expenses will be gratefully accepted. Pizza Church will include a fun activity for the children.
OASIS
The next OASIS quiet day will be on Tuesday 15th September at St James Meltham Mills. 10.30- 2.30 Coffee available from 10.00 The theme will be – How do we care for God’s Creation? Rev Elizabeth Snowden will be our guest speaker.
Please bring a packed lunch if staying all day. Everyone is invited.
Crisis Fundraising Morning
Saturday 21st November: 10am until 12 noon: The annual charity fundraising morning for ‘Crisis’ and other charities will take place at St. James’.
The Christmas Journey
What could be better in August than looking forward to Christmas?
Meltham Churches Together are looking for volunteers to help run the Christmas Journey this year. We are planning to offer eight sessions from Tuesday 8th December.
For those who don’t know about it the Christmas Journey is an interactive re-telling of the story of the Birth of Jesus. We invite classes from the local schools to come and take part. There are six scenes that the children visit; In the Beginning, Mary’s Kitchen, A Hillside near Bethlehem, In a Stable, The Wise Man’s Palace and a New Beginning. The session lasts about an hour and a half and we offer refreshments to the children and staff. There is also a Christmas card making craft activity for the children to make something to take away.
We plan to have one session in the morning and one in the afternoon in the Methodist Church. The event is aimed for children in years 2 or 3. We will need about 12 people for each session. There are various roles; welcoming, guiding around the scenes, storytelling, narrating the scenes, preparing and serving refreshments, chatting and helping with crafts. We have had a really positive response from the children and schools when we have done this in the past. If you are able to help at one or more of the sessions, please let Sarah G know (Tel: 07946593498). It would be good to have a team of volunteers in place by the beginning of September so that we can make firm plans with the schools.
Church Flower Rota
6th Sept – Jane A 13th Sept – Mrs Val P 20th Sept – Vacant 27th Sept – Freda W 4th Oct – Glover Family
Contacts
Vicar: Rev John Dracup: email: revjohndracup@gmail.com
Fellowship Fridays will continue during April in #Meltham, but due to the Easter holidays, both events will be pushed back by one week as follows:
Come & Dine Church will take place on Friday 17th April from 6pm onwards. Pizza Church will take place on Friday 24th April from 6pm onwards.
Here’s a reminder of what these sessions are about. If you’ve not tried it yet, come along!
What are Fellowship Fridays? Read on, and you’ll find out………………………
These are new sessions that will take place in the parish at #Meltham Church Hall between 18.00 and 19.30 on Friday evenings, aiming to provide a welcoming and comfortable environment for anyone who’d like to come and share food, socialise, explore and talk about their faith with friends.
There is no cost to attend, although donations towards expenses will be gratefully accepted.
There will be two different sessions………….
Come & Dine Church:
Come together to share a simple cooked meal—examples include shepherd’s pie or chicken casserole. Following the meal, there will be time to discuss and explore a biblical topic using a video to stimulate thinking, to pray together, and to enjoy each other’s company. While teenagers/young adults are welcome, there are no specific activities provided for children under 11.
Pizza Church:
Similar in spirit to the one above, Pizza Church will serve finger food such as pizza or hot dogs. In addition to discussion, prayer, and socialising for the adults, there will be a fun activity planned for children during the discussion time. However, please note that Pizza Church is not just for people who’ll bring children—anyone is welcome to attend.
We hope that members from across the 4 churches will embrace this new initiative and come along to join together for fellowship in this new setting, and that it will quickly become a firm favourite on everyone’s monthly calendar.
TGI Friday! See you there!
PS – Added bonus, you don’t need to think about what to make for dinner/tea at home!
A long standing tradition in #Meltham was that the choir of St Bartholomew’s would sing Stainer’s Crucifixion or Olivet to Calvary by J H Maunder. The choir is sadly no more, but we do however, have a recording from 2003 and 2004 which are available to listen to online.
The choice is yours! We know some people prefer one to the other. Hopefully you will enjoy either or both. There’s no need to login, you should just be able to press the play button.
We also have a powerpoint file containing images and the music for Olivet to Calvary. This will not work on all devices (you may get images but not audio), but if you wish to try it, the link is here. It is advisable to download the file first (approx 90MB) and then commence the slide show.
We’d love you to come join us in #Meltham Parish on Easter Sunday to celebrate together that Jesus is Risen!
For those early birds, there is what we hope will be a glorious Sonrise @ Sunrise Service at the Cock Crowing Stone – Wessenden Head Rd – arrive earlier to ensure you don’t miss it! Join together for this very special time. It really is worth getting up for! Meet at 6:15am. A short reflection focused on the discovery of the empty tomb for about 20 minutes. Wrap up warm! Bacon butties and cereal will be served afterwards at the Church Hall in Meltham.
Joint services will take place in TWO of our four churches as follows:
10:00am St James’ – Meltham Mills (by the park)
11:15am St Mary’s – Wilshaw
PLEASE NOTE THERE WILL BE NO SERVICES AT ST BARTHOLOMEW’S – MELTHAM or CHRIST CHURCH – HELME.
Do join us as we worship and celebrate together at one of the other churches listed above.
EASTER TRAIL for all the family – Easter Saturday 4th April from 10am til 2pm
Follow the Easter Trail from the Turning Circle on the Meltham Greenway to St James’ Church by the park at Meltham Mills.
Updated for 2026, follow the clues along the way to learn about the Easter story told by those who lived it.
On completion, there’s a free Easter egg to the first 100 children to complete the trail. There’ll be refreshments at St James’ Church where the easter eggs can be collected.
We hope this will be a really enjoyable community event and hope you can come along – it’s perfect for all the family especially those children in Primary schools.
If you’re a facebook user, please share the event below to help spread the word or invite friends and family who may be interested. https://fb.me/e/6GaYZg3zT
Join us on Palm Sunday at St Bartholomew’s #Meltham for our joint Parish Communion service – Sunday 29th March @ 10:30am.
Everyone is invited to a buffet lunch and fellowship afterwards whether they have been in the service or not – ALL WELCOME! Please bring and share – can be dropped off at the church hall before the service.
NOTE! – there will be no services at the other churches in the Parish as we’ll be joining together as one.
Join us at one of our special services and events happening across the #Meltham Parish as we make the journey through Holy Week:
Holy Week (Mon 30th March to Sat 4th April 2026)
Monday to Friday: 8am – 8.30am, Holy Week Morning Reflections, at St James’ Church, Meltham Mills
Monday to Saturday: 12noon – 1pm, Holy Week Easter Labyrinth – a time to explore and take a quiet reflective break at Meltham Methodist Church
Wednesday: 10:30am, BCP Holy Communion at St Bartholomew’s Meltham
Maundy Thursday: 7.30pm, Holy Communion Service at St James’ Church, Meltham Mills
Good Friday: 11.30am, Service of Witness in St Bartholomew’s Meltham Churchyard, followed by soup lunch at the Methodist Church. 2.00pm, An Hour at the Cross – a time of reflection at St Bartholomew’s Church, Meltham.
Easter Saturday: 9:30am – noon, Christian Aid Coffee Morning at the Church Hall. 10.00am – 2.00pm, EASTER TRAIL for all the family – 4th April from starting at Meltham Greenway Turning Circle.
Follow the Easter Trail from the Turning Circle on the Meltham Greenway to St James’ Church at Meltham Mills. Refreshed for 2026, follow the clues along the way to learn the Easter story told through the eyes of those who were there! On completion, there’s a free Easter egg to the first 100 children to complete the trail. There’ll be refreshments at St James’ Church where the Easter eggs can be collected. This is a really enjoyable community event and we hope you can come along – it’s perfect for all the family especially those with children in Primary schools.
