Style of service

Main worship service: 10-30 am Sunday

These are family-friendly services with groups for children.  The service style tends to be fairly informal - loosely based on Anglican Common Worship - with a mix of traditional hymns and contemporary songs. We serve coffee after the service in the church for people to meet and chat.

We have recently tried some more experimental services on Sunday mornings - for example, including a 40 minute 'zone time', during which people can explore different themed zones around the church - which might be contemplative, or a discussion, or something else creative.

There are services of Holy Communion at 8.00 am on Sundays (Book of Common Prayer) and 11.00 am on Thursdays.

In terms of well-used phrases for how churches describe themselves (!), St Matthew's would probably come roughly in the 'Open Evangelical' category.  Its roots are in the Evangelical tradition (it was a daughter church of St Aldate's, one of the big churches in Oxford city centre). But congregation members find themselves approaching the Christian faith in a variety of ways and there are influences from a range of Christian traditions.