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• This is your Church

This is your Church

The parish of St Paul's goes along the Coggeshall Road, down the A120 to Fowlers Farm roundabout, along the railway line just past Braintree Village, then up Mill Hill to Railway Street.

Every person who lives within the parish is a parishioner. Your parishioner status is unaffected by whether or not you come to church, or what religion you follow, if any. Being a parishioner means you have a legal relationship with the church, and we have a legal responsibility for you too.

The ancient term for this responsibility is 'the cure of souls', which is where you get the word 'curate' from. 'Cure' means the same as 'care', and 'soul' just means person. At the last census count in 2021, there were over 9000 souls in the parish of St Paul's.

Having the cure of souls for the parish means we have a duty to

• pray - for individuals where needs are known, and for the parish as a whole
• help you mark important rites of passage in your life, in christenings, weddings, and funerals
• provide public worship, principally on Sunday, but throughout the week too
• visit you if you request it. If anyone is feeling isolated at home or in hospital, we'd like to know!
• work for the spiritual, mental, emotional and social well-being of the community in whatever way we can

From the national 2021 Census and 2025 Deprivation Statistics, we know the following facts about our parish:

• Over 30% of our parish has families with children. To support them, we run a Parent and Toddler Group, and have plenty of child-friendly community events and activities, including Messy Church and our annual Messy Fun Afternoon.
• Almost 30% of households are one person. This is why we have community-building events, like Coffee Morning, Lunch Club and other social events.
• St. Pauls has a much higher than average score on the Deprivation Index (24%), which is used to measure poverty nationally. In fact St Paul's has the lowest score by far of  the three Braintree parishes.  This is why we don't do fundraising, and why all our events are either free, or have only a nominal charge.

                     These statistics are provided for every parish in England

So do please make use of us in whatever way works for you. We are here to serve you!