About Us

St Paul’s Church Family

St Paul’s Church, Woodhouse Eaves, was consecrated in 1837 having been designed by the famous architiect William Railton, who was also the architect for Nelson’s column. It started its life at the same time as Queen Victoria came to the throne so it has quite a substantial history and an on-going dynamic ministry team. This page introduces you to the Ministry Team and the life of the church.

Meet the Ministry Team

Revd Lisa

Rector, Pastoral Care Team

Claire Zanker

Reader, Pastoral Care Team

Dianne Rydings

Reader, Pastoral Care Team and Altar Server

William Leeson

Church Warden, Sacristan and Altar Server

Tony Lane

Church Warden and Altar Server

Mark Rydings

Church Warden

Stephen Latimer

Deputy Church Warden and Food Bank Co-ordinator

Andrea Farnsworth

Altar Server

Marion Porter

Altar Server

Carol McDermott

PCC Secretary

Andrew McGunnigle

Treasurer

The Life of the Church

The Holy Eucharist

The Eucharist is a Sacrament, a Christian rite which was ordained by Jesus Christ. It can also be known as The Mass, Holy Communion, the Lord’s Supper, or, the Blessed Sacrament to which the Church gives grateful thanks in receiving the gift of Jesus and for God’s blessing. So, under the appearance of bread and wine which become the Body and Blood of Jesus, Christ gives us the gift of eternal life.

At the Last Supper, Jesus shared a meal of bread and wine with His disciples, significantly pointing to the cross and asked them to, ‘Do this in remembrance of me.’ The Eucharist is the very centre of the Church’s Prayer and at the very heart of Christian worship and is celebrated as a memorial of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. At the Eucharist, the priest makes Christ present to and for His people and in receiving this sacrament of the body and blood of Jesus, we are sustained for our journey ahead.

St Paul’s in the Local Community

We are a Eucharistic parish in the Diocese of Leicester pastorally serving the needs of the whole of our community and beyond: people of faith, those of no faith and those of a different faith. Our mission is to make known the Gospel of Jesus Christ and God’s love to all. While formal worship of God services within St Paul’s are a major part of the church’s life, as is the support and pastoral care offered to individual parishioners, another notable aspect of our activity is related to other ways in which we reach out in mission to engage within our local community.

The Open Gardens weekend held in June is a good example of this; families within Woodhouse Eaves are invited to open their gardens for others from within and beyond the parish, who come to view and enjoy the variety of beautiful gardens on show. Other examples, are our Autumn Harvest events and closer to the Christmas period, are the Christmas Bazaar and the Christmas Tree Festival, both extremely well supported by the local community. Beyond these regular events the church supports occasional concerts as well as talks that relate to important aspects of the heritage of our community. We see all of these events as of great value to both the church and the broader community.

We hope that you experience St Paul’s Church as a safe, loving, sacramental, respectful and welcoming Kingdom people who long for others to know Jesus and who seek to make Christ present in the hearts of all. We would love to meet you and look forward to welcoming you at St Paul’s Church where we are learning together what it means to follow Jesus and live out our Christian faith in our everyday lives.