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     The Organ Restoration
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Welcome to the Parish Website for St. Matthew's, Northampton.

We hope that you will find your visit both informative and interesting, a valuable resource in discovering more about the on-going life and activity of our Parish. Above all we hope that you will be encouraged to 'come and see' us in person.

"When I came into this church for the first time in my life, which was yesterday evening - coming in by that South West door over there - I wanted to go down on my knees. For this is the sort of church which brings you to your knees. These soaring vistas of pale stone arches, the superb proportion of window to wall space, the delicacy of much of the detail from the profound, primitive simplicity of Henry Moore's Madonna and Child, to the lace-like tracery of this beautiful wrought-iron chancel screen, the way the genius of Holding, the architect, leads your eye to the high altar there below the flashing jewels of the East Window, that altar where the Greatest Mystery in the World happens Sunday after Sunday, and where, as we who try to be Christians try to believe, the Creator of the world, of the universe, of the trees and birds in the road outside, of the stones which Holding used to build the church, of the bones which help you sit upright in your seats tonight, where the Maker of our souls and minds, our very selves becomes present to hear our needs and answer our prayers in accordance with His Will - as I thought of all these things I did indeed want to fall on my knees and thank God for the beauty which man has made to the Glory of God in St. Matthew's".

(John Betjeman in a sermon in St. Matthew's Church, Northampton, 5 May 1946)

Our primary purpose is to order our lives according to the teachings and example of Jesus Christ and, in all respects, to apply the implications of our faith to the contemporary environment in which we live.

We strive to be a welcoming, inclusive community where worshippers enjoy a sense of belonging to a 'parish family.' Such a community is characterized by mutual respect, acceptance and affirmation based on a recognition that, though unique, we are each made in the image and likeness of Christ.

We seek to be outward looking, a witnessing and serving community through positive engagement with our neighbour, and to support and share in the experiences of countless others, both within our local setting for which we have particular responsibilities, and further afield. We do so through a well promoted pattern of prayer and sacramental worship, and through a wide variety of community based activities that attract a broad cross-section of society.

Fr Nicholas Setterfield
Parish Priest
vicar @ stmatthews-northampton.org.uk

(Note: to try and cut down on the amount of spam that the Parish Priest receives the quoted email address includes spaces, which need to be removed to make it a valid address.)