about severn

Ask a child to draw you a picture of a church and, inevitably, they will draw a building. But the origin of the word “church” in the Bible is the Greek word “Ekklesia”, which referred to neighbourhood communities in ancient Greece.

Severn is a bit like that. It’s a loosely defined, inclusive community of people who enjoy each others’ company and share in common practises of Christian tradition like worship, prayer, contemplation, service and celebration. Central to our Christian tradition is the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

History

Severn is rooted in the protestant, evangelical, charismatic stream of Christian churches, with the Nicene Creed as the theological anchor. Started in 2009, Severn was part of the Vineyard movement of churches until 2025, when Severn became an independent church.

Although we deeply treasure our shared heritage and the enduring friendships within the Vineyard family, Severn now operates as an independent church so as to enable the church to celebrate same sex weddings and involve same sex couples in the leadership of the church.

Purpose

The purpose of Severn is to create and hold space on a regular basis for everyone to encounter God - the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

A team of employees and volunteers create this space by organising events like Sunday services, mid week community groups, monthly worship and prayer events for all ages and stages of life.

These events and gatherings are rhythmic and reflective, designed to enable anyone to experience the presence of God in their everyday lives, through the good times and the bad.

Priorities

Love & Community

Emboldened by the Christian belief that every person is made in the image of God described as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we recognise and celebrate that the diversity of culture across the world is reflective of the diversity of the Godhead.

Consequently, we recognise that respect for our diversity as a community must be a high priority if we are to live in harmony with each other. We recognise and celebrate that diverse convictions exist within any community, but we seek to be a community that is characterised by qualities consistent with the fruit of the Holy Spirit described in Galatians 5.

This is not always easy, but we trust in the Holy Spirit to redeem our brokenness to enable us to live well within our families, neighbourhood, workplace and church.

Spiritual & Emotional Health

Just like we need to attend to our diet and exercise to be physically healthy, Severn exists to help us with our spiritual and emotional health. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ offers us hope that we can redeem what is broken and have a new future regardless of our past.

Together as a church we use ancient Christian practices to help us grow spiritually and emotionally. We classify these practices (along the lines advocated by the author Dallas Willard) into practices of engagement and abstinence.

Engagement includes study, worship, celebration, service, prayer, fellowship, confession, and submission. Abstinence includes solitude, silence, fasting, frugality, chastity, secrecy, and sacrifice.

We do some of these more than others, but our employees and volunteers create and hold space for us to participate in these practices on a regular basis.

We recognise that Severn has an important, but not exclusive responsibility to provide resources for spiritual and emotional health. We encourage everyone to own their own spiritual health, whilst seeking to contribute whatever they can to the spiritual health of other people in their lives.

Serving Our City

We celebrate the contribution that every person in our community makes to their family, neighbourhood and workplace, believing that service to one another is Christ-like. We believe that our daily occupation should bring life to ourselves and also to those around us.

We take opportunities to provide relief from poverty and suffering through projects including our Food Bank, Debt Counselling Service, Soup Run and DIYSOS projects.

Values

Whilst not an exclusive list of Christian values, we hope that these four values can be associated with the culture of Severn:

• Authenticity - The quality of being genuine and real.

• Generosity - The quality of being ready to give more than is expected.

• Inclusivity - The quality of being welcoming and respectful.

• Courage - The quality of being willing to take a risk.

Owen & Claire Lynch – Lead Pastors