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Welcome to St Thomas à Becket

All are welcome at our services. We accept that everybody encounters God in a unique and special way, and acknowledge that some people who come to our church have yet to encounter God, but are looking for spiritual nourishment. Warmth, kindness, informality and stability are important aspects of the church experience for our regular congregation. Many visitors have found comfort in this special place and from the fellowship they have encountered at times of personal need.

St Thomas à Becket offers something that is becoming increasingly rare within the City of Bath – one or two traditional services each Sunday. The 08.00am spoken service on the 2nd and 4th Sundays is quiet and reverential; the 10.30am service, with more conversation before and after, has an emphasis on traditional hymn singing, with organ accompaniment. Yet we are very much a single congregation, with some members alternating between the two. These traditional services are cherished by our members and integral to our identity as a church community.

Service Times and descriptions

1st Sunday
10.30 Sung Eucharist (Common Worship )

2nd Sunday
08.00 Holy Communion (Book of Common Prayer)
10.30 Holy Communion (CW, occasionally this will be a Morning Prayer service)

3rd Sunday
10.30 Morning Prayer (CW)

4th Sunday
08.00 Holy Communion (BCP)
6pm Evening Service (new format – we will be exploring various forms of contemplative service)

5th Sunday
10.30 Holy Communion (BCP)

As well as the regular Sunday morning services, the church is usually open to visitors each Sunday from the beginning of May to the end of September, between 2.30 and 5.30pm. Covid restrictions may change this in 2021.

The most up-to-date information about services is always available from our home page.

Our vision & mission

Vision: God is calling us to be a Christian community that reaches out to the parish and beyond, to invite people to encounter God’s grace.

Mission: we are an open, welcoming and inclusive Christian community, who combine contemporary attitudes with traditional worship.

Our values

The church community at St Thomas à Becket, Widcombe, Bath, is traditional in its worship and open in its outlook. We value a traditional liturgy for its time-honoured beauty and its reverence, which we find uplifting to the mind and spirit. We are strengthened by a sense of Christian continuity, remembering those who have worshipped on this spot for many hundreds of years. We offer a quiet, safe place to encounter God, where everyone has space and time to think – and hear the ‘still small voice of calm’. We are an attentive and thoughtful congregation, open to a range of ideas and scholarship. We like to be challenged, both intellectually and spiritually, appreciating authentic and heartfelt interpretations of scripture.

Our building

St Thomas à Becket is the Parish Church of Widcombe and the oldest city church in Bath, built between 1490–1498 by John Cantlow, Prior of Bath Abbey, reputedly on the site of a previous Norman chapel. Situated in a most picturesque and tranquil beauty spot, St Thomas is a small ‘country’ church, seating a maximum of 100 worshippers in relative comfort. Please click HERE for a high-resolution virtual tour of the beautiful interior of St Thomas.