About The Sanctuary
At Watchet Baptist Church, we love that we meet in a school and in smaller groups. Because of that, we can truly appreciate our church family while interacting with our community. And while we don't meet in a 'traditional' church building, we still have a home: The Sanctuary.
Through this building, we hope to express some values that are important to us: hospitality, mission, learning, worship, prayer and being committed to each other. We also believe in being champions of justice and creativity. Keep scrolling to find out more!
Who are we?
The Sanctuary is a community space in the heart of Watchet - you'll find it on Swain Street, opposite the Post Office. Owned and managed by Watchet Baptist Church, this building hosts activities and events for people of all ages through the year. We hope it provides a place of friendship, safety and community for everyone who comes through the door.
Hospitality
Hospitality is incredibly important to us at the Sanctuary. Whether we're welcoming groups like Write Away to use our space providing food at our Community Meal or meeting people at our Wednesday afternoon 'Open House' session... we love to see people coming in and sharing our living room - and helping them feel at home.
Creativity
We want to encourage our community to enjoy and express themselves through the arts. Whether that's painting, pottery, craft, poetry, textiles, music... or something else entirely!
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If you're interested and would like to find out more, or you'd like to do something creative using our space, contact us here. Check out our gallery here.
Learning
We want The Sanctuary to provide lots of learning opportunities for those in our local communities. We've been proud to host courses in money management, responding to anxiety and parenting over the year. And if you think a particular training course would be helpful for those in our community, please contact us here. If can help, we'd like to do so!
Justice
You don't have to look too far to find injustice and a lack of mercy both across our world and closer to home. And we want to be part of supporting those who work for justice in our world. Some ways we do this:
Only stocking Fairtrade products
Supporting charity initiatives (such as Disasters Emergency Committee partner Tearfund)
Seeking justice for those who can be 'forgotten' in our society
Supporting other great work in the community
And since most of the news we read and hear is so negative, we are also committed to sharing positive stories when justice is being done!
Mission
We believe that Jesus Christ has a mission and invites us to be part of it. That mission can be summed up as: "Love God and Love People". We are not satisfied to amble through life, hiding away in a private, exclusive 'holy huddle' club. We want to do all we can to show love to others in our world, just as Jesus did.
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Living the Jesus way means showing people that love in what we do and what we say. In fact, we believe you can't really follow Jesus without getting stuck in and getting your hands dirty!
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At the same time, we believe it's wrong to force our faith on others - in fact we think genuine faith cannot be forced on anyone - but we do like to talk about it with anyone who is interested. Contact us or click here to find out more about Christian faith.
Worship
At WBC, worship is incredibly important to us. Christian worship is anything that puts God in the centre of our lives. That might be gathering in the Sanctuary to sing together, celebrating through worship on the walls, getting together to write poetry or prayers, or something else entirely. Learn more about worship at WBC here.
Prayer
When we designed The Sanctuary, we made sure to include a Prayer Room. And it's not just for people from the church - this room is open to everyone who uses the building. Maybe you just need a bit of peace and quiet to collect your thoughts and catch your breath - the Prayer Room is available.
There's lots more we could say about prayer - and you can find extra information on our 'Prayer' page.
Commitment
Commitment is important to us. We believe that living well involves living alongside one another. We are committed to each other and to living the Jesus way.
At WBC, we believe that being church involves participating in the way the organisation does things, sharing responsibility for decisions and working alongside each other. It's only by taking this approach that we can run The Sanctuary at all - and offer it to the community as a resource we can share.
Being committed is not just about saying we believe something but about living - talking and acting - as if we mean it.
Counselling
The Lighthouse is a confidential and non-judgmental counselling service, with fully qualified counsellors, members of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, who adhere to highly professional ethical guidelines.
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Lighthouse Counselling started life as part of Watchet Baptist Church and is now an independent Community Interest Company. The team offers individual and group therapy at affordable rates on a sliding scale, according to your means and circumstances.
For more information, please email counselling@thesanctuary.org.uk or call 07722618828