Who are we

St Sebastian’s is the church serving the Parish of Wokingham Without in semi-rural East Berkshire, and is located in Sonning Deanery, Archdeaconry of Berkshire and Diocese of Oxford. The Parish is unusual in that it has no community centre. The Parish has however recently expanded to incorporate a new housing development at Buckler’s Park, Crowthorne.

We aspire to be a more Christ-like Church (contemplative, compassionate and courageous for the sake of God’s world).

We are a church with a big heart for Jesus, the Holy Spirit and Prayer. We are of a charismatic evangelical tradition. We are a church centred on Jesus and with a laser focus towards being outward facing and mission focused, whilst nurturing the spiritual health of those who regularly attend. We are passionate about engagement with our immediate community near and far and see our ministry in knocking the door of heaven through prayer for the Lord’s direction of travel. Our desire is for the Lord’s purpose to prevail in all ministries and the life of our community, so we seek alignment to His will in everything we do (Proverbs 19:21).

We are supported by two gifted Local Lay Ministers (LLM): Russell Shipton and Wendy Wickens. Russell spent his working life as an Electronic Engineer and Quality Engineer. Now mostly retired, he has a nominally 1 day per week job as a Quality Manager for a small local company. He was admitted and Licensed as a Reader / LLM at Oxford in 1988, and he and his wife, Angela, moved to St Sebastian’s Church in 2007. Wendy completed her studies in 2018 and was licensed to the Parish in 2019. In her previous Church, she had various roles, and these all led to that deeper calling for ministry training. Wendy leads services and preach and has a passion for pilgrimage, prayer, Bible study and worship. She is also a Day Chaplain at Christ Church Cathedral.

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We have a lovely, dedicated, Youth Team Family. Marvin and Amy Vogel have developed a remarkable ministry at ‘The Base’ over the last six years. Marvin is a Youth Pioneer Worker and Amy is the Family & Youth Pastor. Their children, Pearl and Mattie attend St Sebastian’s School and Asher has just started at pre-school. Before St Sebastian’s Church, they had a flourishing ministry in Zimbabwe, where Marvin is originally from. Amy lived there for six years after finishing university. They have worked within the church ministry space for a long time, both in Zimbabwe and in the Diocese of Coventry and Warwickshire.

We work closely with Martin Gater, Headteacher of St Sebastian’s Church of England Primary School and Nursery. We are proud to say that this is a happy school with excellent relationships between pupils, staff, parents and governors. The school’s aim is to provide the best possible education for the children within the context of a caring Christian ethos. They believe that it is important that children experience the joy of learning, and the enthusiastic, dedicated team of staff are always working hard to provide a broad, balanced and challenging curriculum that is enriched with exciting learning opportunities, meeting the personal needs of all learners. The school has 132 pupils (not including nursery children).

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Our Parish is blessed with some great resources. We have a Parish Centre located near St Sebastian’s School staffed by our lovely Office Administrator, Kirsty Milam. The first floor provides essential accommodation for The Vogels, our Youth Workers. We also have a separate Church Hall building which is used for Parish events, Community Groups and meetings.

St Sebastian’s Parish is a registered charity of The Charity Commission for England and Wales, Registration number: 1139933, and a Parish of the Church of England.

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Location

Crowthorne is located in the Royal County of Berkshire close to the Hampshire and Surrey Borders.

The village of Crowthorne is split between the Unitary Authorities of Bracknell Forest Borough Council and Wokingham Borough Council and even those who live in the Wokingham Borough will tell you that they actually live in Crowthorne. There are few retail facilities within the Parish a small parade of shops in the east...

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