What is the purpose of the church today? You may be struggling with your own journey in life and want some direction.

Here at Brownley Green, we are a small but faithful group of believers. That is, we have committed ourselves to sharing the love of God and the Good News Jesus brings with anyone who wants to hear it.

That doesn’t mean to say you have to have a belief to join or visit us. All are welcome!

First Visit

The Church is located on Crossacres Road just beyond the Fire Station and opposite the nursery. Google Maps keeps putting us on Actonville Road but we are definitely on Crossacres Road just before Woodhouse Lane.

We are a small but very welcoming congregation. Our services are lively and child friendly.

Just come and see for yourself and pop along one Sunday at 11am.

Our Vision       

Our mission statement is Belong Grow Believe

Our aim is to develop a community of believers who grow in faith and who belong to a Church committed to sharing God’s love and compassion to all they meet.

Vision Statement

BGB wants to be an inclusive, vibrant church that transforms lives and that is committed to serving God and others.

Belong: To be an all-inclusive church (‘with no walls’), welcoming all, and creating unity within church and community.

Grow:   To grow spiritually, empowering each other and exploring new methods of outreach and worship.

Believe: To build a church that shares the transforming love of Christ and that leads to passionate relationships with Jesus.

To achieve our vision there will be four main areas of focus:

Spiritual Growth

We want to assist each member to grow spiritually and become a committed disciple of Jesus by: –

• Developing meaningful and relevant worship
• Encouraging participation in at least one small ministry group
• Building prayer bubbles that focus on the well-being of the church, its members and the surrounding community.

Leadership and Unity

We want to ensure the church’s future growth and sustainability by: –

• Training, equipping and preparing individuals to be Christ-centred leaders for the church and the wider community.
• Improving working relationships within the church between the pastor, deacons, congregation and the wider community.

Children and Youth

We want to show children, young people and their families the love of Christ by: –

• Providing relevant and purposeful activities for children and young people and ensuring that the children, young people and their families feel they belong.
• Nurturing and encouraging children, young people and their families in the Christian faith.

Seniors

We want to ensure both the pastoral and spiritual needs of the elderly in our church and community are met by: –

• Building on our existing activities and reaching out further into the community.
• Improving pastoral support both for those within and those without.
• Developing our outreach to those unable to attend church.

our Journey

The birth

As Wythenshawe – the garden city – grew a few worshippers gathered regularly in the upstairs room at Crossacres Green Farm.

During this time negotiations were in progress for a site for a permanent building. Eventually, a plot of land in Brownley Green was purchased at a cost of about £800. The site chosen was at a road junction close to what was expected to be the centre of Wythenshawe.

Demolition of the farmhouse after eight months necessitated the move into a neighbouring cottage. Those attending the cottage were mainly Baptists who had moved from other areas of Manchester to live in Wythenshawe. At a meeting on 3 April 1939, it was decided to ask the Manchester District Baptist Union to take the necessary steps to form a Brownley Green Baptist Fellowship.

A permanent home

Foundation stones were laid on 16 March 1940 and it was agreed that responsibility for decisions should be shared by an executive committee. Mr Graham was appointed chairman of a committee of five, the other four being Mr Groom, Mr Longshaw. Mrs McAnulty and Mr Taylor. Later Mr McAnulty was co-opted onto the committee.

The opening

The day everyone had prayed for, came on Saturday 22 June 1940 with the opening services of the new school-chapel at Brownley Green. The first Sunday services were conducted the following day by Mr Wilson-Black, Vice President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Twelve months after the opening ceremony the number of members had increased to forty and thoughts turned to pastoral oversight.

Early Leadership

On 21 June 1941 a Recognition Service was held for the appointment of Sister Marian Smith as Deaconess. Her ministry began the following day conducting the Sunday School Anniversary Services. In spite of the difficulties and shortages of the war the first Baptismal Service was held when three young women (Sunday School teachers) made a public confession of their faith. The number of members then stood at fifty-four.

In March 1944 Sister Mariam announced she was compelled to retire due to her mother’s state of health. However, she was co-opted onto the Diaconate until the end of 1945.

A joint pastorate was then arranged with Beaver Road Baptist Church in Didsbury and on 29 September 1945 the ordination and induction services of Rev Robert Davies was held at Beaver Park.

Growth

The first Boys’ Brigade Company was formed in September 1946 under the captaincy of Mr Rudkin.

In 1946/47 consideration was being given to extending the premises by building classrooms. It was decided to build an extension to be known as the ‘Minor Hall’ on the north side of the church. The extension was opened and dedicated on 11 September 1948.

Mr Davies left the churches at the end of 1949. Due to the building of a new church at Newall Green any future joint pastorates would be between the two Baptist Churches in Wythenshawe.

It would be 1951 before the Church secured another minister and on 8 September the ordination and induction services of Mr Donald Smith to the joint pastorate of Brownley Green and Newall Green Baptist Churches were held.

Early in 1954 much prayerful thought and discussion took place with the possibility of Mr Smith becoming our own minister and this became a reality in May 1954 when he took over full pastorate at Brownley Green. Mrs Smith became the Captain of the Girls’ Life Brigade.

In October 1956, Mr & Mrs Smith left and Brownley Green accepted the financial challenge of having their own minister. Mr Barrie Clarke accepted the church’s call, and his induction was held at Brownley Green on 5 July 1958.

He served Brownley Green until1964 but during his time at Brownley Green he had been the driving force behind a further extension. This commenced on 23 March 1963 with members taking responsibility for the construction with Mr John Phillips as General Foreman of the project. Sadly, Mr Ted Groom collapsed and died as he worked digging the foundations. He was a foundation member and died as he lived – serving the Lord.

Once again, the Fellowship chose to seek a full-time minister and the Rev Michael Sheen accepted the pastorate at Brownley Green. The induction service was combined with the opening of the extension on Saturday 11 September 1964. The extension comprised a new entrance to the church, two large rooms, a vestry and kitchen.

After five years as minister, Mr Sheen announced he would be leaving to take up another calling and indications were that for the future either a shared pastorate or a part-time minister were the options.

In the meantime, the Rev John Tall was invited to be Moderator for four months commencing March 1970. He accepted and those four months became two years.

In 1974, Rev Rowland Hill was inducted as the part-time minister but unfortunately for several reasons this ministry only lasted fifteen months.

Early in 1974 plans for further extensions appeared on the agenda but it wasn’t until the end of 1978 that grants were secured. The plans included a new well-equipped kitchen, a coffee lounge, a garage, relocation of the toilets and roof repairs to the Minor Hall. The extensions were officially opened and dedicated on 27 September 1980.

From 1970 to 1982 the church had no fulltime minister and relied heavily on the membership to take services. In September 1983, Mr George Crichton was inducted as a full-time minister. However, early in 1985, differing vies on the structure of church government, led to the departure of Mr Crichton and some loss of membership.

During the years 1985-1999 the church had no full-time minister but benefitted greatly from the wise counsel and experience of a Moderator – Mr Donald Clerc. We had two part-time students during this time – Mr Brian Jones and Mrs Kath Lawson.

The leadership of the church were committed to continue to serve the Lord and extend his Kingdom in Wythenshawe and in 1994 the first sod was cut for the new sanctuary which opened 9 September 1995. The old church building became known as the Graham Centre.

The church was then blessed with the arrival of another part time student – Rev Adrian Klos who went on to serve the church once qualified until he and his family moved on in 2007.

In 2009 the kitchen was relocated to the garage/storeroom and the old one reduced to become a storage space.

We then welcomed part time retired minister Rev Bob Casley from 2010-2011 and in 2012 the Rev Stuart Christine became our minister and his wife Georgie our family and children’s worker.

Naomi Spriggs, a minister in training joined us in 2018 and stayed with us for three years until she qualified and took her calling at //////// in September 2021.Naomi helped us navigate through the pandemic: setting up communication channels; providing the fellowship with meaningful activities; writing a weekly bulletin and holding socially distance services when that was allowed.

Covid hit us very badly as it did a lot of churches, and we lost many members – some passed on and others chose not to return.

The Present

It is with the constant faithfulness of a few that we are still a fully functioning church within the vast estate of Wythenshawe proclaiming God’s love for all.

There have been many hardships and changes on the way. The Church now has only one service on a Sunday but continues to offer opportunities for people to come and meet us through weekly activities: Girls’ and Boys’ Brigade, Carer and Toddlers Group, Coffee Morning and a bi-weekly Bible Study – Food for Thought.

Our Venue

Brownley Green Baptist is located on Crossacres Road, Wythenshawe, a suburb of Manchester. We have a dedicated sanctuary with vestry and a separate building now called the Graham Centre which was the original church. This has a large hall, two side rooms, a lounge, and a kitchen. This building is available for hire.

Hire

The Graham Centre is available for hire when it is not in use for Church activities. This comprises a large and smaller hall, a lounge and kitchen.