A Time of Change for Emmanuel 
Welcome to the website of Emmanuel Church. It is a time of great change for the Emmanuel community. Father Peter has left the Parish after serving for 17 years as our Priest in Charge. The PCC are now seeking to find a suitable candidate to carry forward the growth of our church.
Prospective candidates please see the information in the sidebars which includes the Emmanuel Parish Profile 2008, our MAP and an application form. To download the files, rightclick/ctrl click and save to your computer.
The Interregnum
This period of waiting is called an interregnum, when we do not have our own priest in post at Emmanuel. It may last up to a year although the PCC would hope for less. With the support of Emma, our Reader, the Churchwardens and the Area Dean, Fr Andrew from the next door parishes of St James and St Mary, the PCC will make sure that there is a service every Sunday at Emmanuel and that the spiritual and pastoral needs of our congregation are taken care of. We will keep you up-to-date on specific details where possible through the magazine and here, on the website, but also through the established email process - we would urge you to ensure Emma has your email contact details - and permission to use them!
Appointment of our new Vicar
The PCC is already working on finding a new priest for our Parish. As you might expect, appointing a parish priest is governed by the law of the Church of England which is made by the General Synod. This is what is happening.
The PCC is drafting a number of documents. These will explain what we think Emmanuel Church does well and what we feel we could do better. They will prepare a vision for the future mission of Emmanuel in West Hampstead which we would like a new priest to join. The documents will also describe the sort of person that we think will work well with the Parish, to nurture us in our spiritual journeys and to challenge us as we strive to love God, our neighbours and ourselves better each day. We would encourage everyone to let members of the PCC know their own views about what we should be looking for in our new priest.
The PCC will discuss these documents with the Bishop of Edmonton who will advise us. The PCC will also discuss with the Bishop how we would like to find a new priest and then organise that. We already have a meeting planned with the Bishop at the beginning of February for this, and are in discussion with a number of different people and networks within the Church who may be able to help us to find suitable candidates. We may also advertise in the Church press.
Once we have a number of suitable candidates, we will discuss this further with the Bishop. In our case, the Bishop will have the right to appoint a parish priest for us, working closely with the PCC. In due course, the Bishop may ask for the priest to be formally presented to him to be made an incumbent, or Vicar. But we would expect that that would be a number of years after she or he has been appointed as our priest.
Fr Peter is also standing down as Chair of the Governors at Emmanuel School. The Governors will select a new Chairperson at their next meeting on 22 January. The Bishop may appoint a priest temporarily to replace Fr Peter on the board of Governors whilst we are looking for a new priest at Emmanuel. We would then expect our new priest to join the Governors when she or he joins the parish.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to to contact Emma, one of the churchwardens (Jeremy or Lydia), or anyone else on the PCC. Please also visit the website for updates and current news.
Our ChurchThe church is located at the heart of what was once the hamlet of West End, Hampstead, adjacent to the old village green. It has stood in its present location since 1898, proclaiming the love of Christ to this world.
What happens in a church?
More than you think! Quite a lot of different activities take place in the church. It is used for meetings, for parish lunches, for concerts, for recording sessions. But principally this building is a temple in which to worship God by the celebrating the liturgies of the church. Although you can appreciate its architectural design and look around its interior, a church is much more than its fabric and contents. You can only really appreciate and understand its architecture and furnishings when it is being used by a congregation gathered to offer praise and worship to God in the name of his son Jesus Christ. There is usually a said Eucharist at 8am on Sunday and, every Sunday, a Sung Eucharist at 10am, which is the principal act of public worship. The Eucharist, also known as Holy Communion, the Mass or the Lord’s Supper (they are only different names for the same act of worship), is the occasion when the Christian Church commemorates the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, by recalling his last supper with his apostles on the night before his betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane. Following his command: ‘Do this in remembrance of me’, we perpetuate the memory of his sacrifice of himself for the sake of the world.
Refreshments are provided after the Sung Eucharist. Services are occasionally held on Sunday evenings and on great festivals of the church that fall on weekdays. Please click on the link below or in the sidebar to see our Advent and Christmas programme of services.
