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St Mary the Virgin
Bexley
Kent
DA5 3LX
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Who we are
St Mary's is the ancient parish church of Bexley, with a full and varied offering to today's community. There is a complete menu of worship styles, trad to contemporary, children and youth groups, house groups. Popular for baptisms and weddings.
We are also now working closely with our neighbouring churches St John, Bexley; St Barnabas, Joyden's Wood and St James, North Cray in the Bexley Team Ministry.
We are also now working closely with our neighbouring churches St John, Bexley; St Barnabas, Joyden's Wood and St James, North Cray in the Bexley Team Ministry.
Church Address
High Street & Manor Road
Bexley,
Kent
DA5 3LX
United Kingdom
Phone: 020 8301 3410
Download St Mary the Virgin vCard with Service Times
Church Pastor
Rev’d Clive Wood
Team Vicar
High Street & Manor Road
Bexley,
Kent
DA5 3LX
United Kingdom
Phone: 01322 270942
Download Team Vicar Rev’d Clive Wood vCard
Quote of the Day
2 Thessalonians 2:15
Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.
Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.
Denomination
Church of England
Church of England churches in Bexley, Kent, United Kingdom
Church of England churches in Kent, United Kingdom
Church of England churches in United Kingdom
All churches in Bexley, Kent
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Leadership
Leader Name:
Rev’d Clive Wood
Leader Position:
Team Vicar
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Leader Address:
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Rev’d Clive Wood on Social Media:
St Mary the Virgin Leadership Photos
Administration
Admin Name:
Mrs Maureen Denman
Admin Position:
Churchwarden
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Mailing Address
Driving Directions to St Mary the Virgin
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Parking
St Mary the Virgin Bexley Service Times
Sunday 10.00am
Sung Holy Communion (CW) with prayer for wholeness and healing
1st Wednesday of the month
10.00am Holy Communion (CW) at St. John's, Parkhill Road
2nd Wednesday of the month
10.00am Holy Communion (CW)
3rd Wednesday of the month
10.00am Holy Communion (CW) joint service at St. John's, Parkhill Road
10.00 am Family service held in the Lady Chapel
3.30 pm Holy Communion (CW)
4th Wednesday of the month
10.00am Holy Communion (CW)
5th Sunday of the month
10.00am Sung Holy Commuion (CW)
5th Wednesday of the month
10.00 am Holy Communion (CW) joint at St. Jame's, North Cray
Please check the calendar on the home page for seasonal and other variations from the above pattern
St. Mary the Virgin
Part of the Bexley Team Ministry
2024 Christmas at St Mary's, Bexley
December 22nd — Lessons & Carols at 6pm
December 24th — Crib Service at 4pm Midnight Mass at 11pm
December 25th — Christmas Morning Holy Communion at 10.30am
Service Times last updated on the 4th of December, 2024
Sung Holy Communion (CW) with prayer for wholeness and healing
1st Wednesday of the month
10.00am Holy Communion (CW) at St. John's, Parkhill Road
2nd Wednesday of the month
10.00am Holy Communion (CW)
3rd Wednesday of the month
10.00am Holy Communion (CW) joint service at St. John's, Parkhill Road
10.00 am Family service held in the Lady Chapel
3.30 pm Holy Communion (CW)
4th Wednesday of the month
10.00am Holy Communion (CW)
5th Sunday of the month
10.00am Sung Holy Commuion (CW)
5th Wednesday of the month
10.00 am Holy Communion (CW) joint at St. Jame's, North Cray
Please check the calendar on the home page for seasonal and other variations from the above pattern
St. Mary the Virgin
Part of the Bexley Team Ministry
2024 Christmas at St Mary's, Bexley
December 22nd — Lessons & Carols at 6pm
December 24th — Crib Service at 4pm Midnight Mass at 11pm
December 25th — Christmas Morning Holy Communion at 10.30am
Service Times last updated on the 4th of December, 2024
Worship Languages
Dress code:
Children and Youth Activities
Under 12s:
Under 18s:
Local outreach & community activities:
Other activities & ministries
Special Needs/Accessibility:
St Mary the Virgin Church has full wheelchair access and has a loop system for the hard of hearing.
Prayers and hymns:
Main Bible:
Hymns and Songs:
Other information:
Average Adult Congregation:
Average Youth Congregation:
Additional Info:
St Mary the Virgin Photo Gallery
St Mary the Virgin History
The History of St Mary's
The parish church of St Mary the Virgin has been a continuous place of Christian worship for over nine hundred years. The church probably succeeded an earlier Saxon church on the same site. This was mentioned in the Domesday Survey (or census) in 1086 as a 'church in Bixle' where it is said that St Paulinus came to preach.
The parish at one time included four of the present neighbouring parishes. Today the congregation on Sundays is about thirty people, in an ecclesiastical parish of about five thousand people. This one time farming community is now completely surrounded by suburban south-east London.
The centre of Bexley still has village characteristics of which the residents are proud. The church sits on a relatively large site which is park-like in character. There are a variety of 17th to 19th century memorials contained both inside the church and in the churchyard. There is also an adjacent cemetery which is now maintained by Bexley Council as a conservation area.
The Church Interior
The current interior of the church dates from 1883, the last great make-over completed by the Victorians. They expressed through wood and stained glass their confidence in the orderliness of creation and their own place within it. As such there is a raised altar some distance from the people, a formal choir space copied from the great English cathedrals, and the congregation are seated beyond the choir in ranks of pews. Reserved seats were marked for the families and servants of the local gentry. The whole effect was meant to enable the formal ritual which was characteristic of the high church revival in England in the latter part of the 19th century.
In Norman times the church was a simple collection of three boxes - tower, nave and chancel. The church had wooden floors with benches around the outside for the elderly and infirm (hence the phrase 'going to the wall'). There was an altar on the same level as and near to the people.
With prosperity in the 14th century the church was enlarged with the addition of the north aisle, as was the fashion. The wall seating remained because as the centre of village life (being one of the largest and sturdiest buildings in the district) the church was used for all sorts of activities, including market days.
In about 1500 a screen was installed as Protestant tendencies began to filter through the church on the continent and in England. This separated the clergy from the people, and emphasised the class and educational differences between the two. It was a style copied from the monasteries, with the monks sitting in choir, where faith and learning had been preserved during the Dark Ages. The church itself may have had connections with Lesnes Abbey to the north, which overlooked the Thames River valley.
In the north aisle was the Lady Chapel. The walls had no monuments but were probably decorated with paintings of the Virgin Mary and the saints directly on the walls. This taught the illiterate the Christian faith through visual means as an aid to devotion. The church would have been very bright and light, because there was only clear glass in the windows. There would also have been gravestones in the floor.
Towards the end of the 17th century the screen came down as ecclesiastical fashion changed again. Pews began to make their appearance within the church.
By the early 19th century the last of the medieval choir stalls had gone. There were box pews which were especially favoured by the gentry for their privacy. Monuments began to appear on the walls and there is even one to the Queen's great great grandfather which still remains.
In 1883 the church underwent a significant make-over in an attempt to meet the needs of Tractarian or Anglo-Catholic preferences to return the church to medieval style. At the same time Victorian hierarchical values were maintained and the end result was far from the simplicity of the medieval period. All of the windows were replaced with stained glass and flint cladding was added to the external walls.
In this century the building is changing again to meet the needs of today's worshippers. The Lady Chapel has been developed to provide a flexible open space without pews but with movable chairs and altar. The space is used for informal and smaller services of worship. All on one level it emphasises the presence of God in our midst, to whom all have access through Jesus his Son.
The current West end reordering project will bring the much needed provision of toilets within the footprint of the church
The parish church of St Mary the Virgin has been a continuous place of Christian worship for over nine hundred years. The church probably succeeded an earlier Saxon church on the same site. This was mentioned in the Domesday Survey (or census) in 1086 as a 'church in Bixle' where it is said that St Paulinus came to preach.
The parish at one time included four of the present neighbouring parishes. Today the congregation on Sundays is about thirty people, in an ecclesiastical parish of about five thousand people. This one time farming community is now completely surrounded by suburban south-east London.
The centre of Bexley still has village characteristics of which the residents are proud. The church sits on a relatively large site which is park-like in character. There are a variety of 17th to 19th century memorials contained both inside the church and in the churchyard. There is also an adjacent cemetery which is now maintained by Bexley Council as a conservation area.
The Church Interior
The current interior of the church dates from 1883, the last great make-over completed by the Victorians. They expressed through wood and stained glass their confidence in the orderliness of creation and their own place within it. As such there is a raised altar some distance from the people, a formal choir space copied from the great English cathedrals, and the congregation are seated beyond the choir in ranks of pews. Reserved seats were marked for the families and servants of the local gentry. The whole effect was meant to enable the formal ritual which was characteristic of the high church revival in England in the latter part of the 19th century.
In Norman times the church was a simple collection of three boxes - tower, nave and chancel. The church had wooden floors with benches around the outside for the elderly and infirm (hence the phrase 'going to the wall'). There was an altar on the same level as and near to the people.
With prosperity in the 14th century the church was enlarged with the addition of the north aisle, as was the fashion. The wall seating remained because as the centre of village life (being one of the largest and sturdiest buildings in the district) the church was used for all sorts of activities, including market days.
In about 1500 a screen was installed as Protestant tendencies began to filter through the church on the continent and in England. This separated the clergy from the people, and emphasised the class and educational differences between the two. It was a style copied from the monasteries, with the monks sitting in choir, where faith and learning had been preserved during the Dark Ages. The church itself may have had connections with Lesnes Abbey to the north, which overlooked the Thames River valley.
In the north aisle was the Lady Chapel. The walls had no monuments but were probably decorated with paintings of the Virgin Mary and the saints directly on the walls. This taught the illiterate the Christian faith through visual means as an aid to devotion. The church would have been very bright and light, because there was only clear glass in the windows. There would also have been gravestones in the floor.
Towards the end of the 17th century the screen came down as ecclesiastical fashion changed again. Pews began to make their appearance within the church.
By the early 19th century the last of the medieval choir stalls had gone. There were box pews which were especially favoured by the gentry for their privacy. Monuments began to appear on the walls and there is even one to the Queen's great great grandfather which still remains.
In 1883 the church underwent a significant make-over in an attempt to meet the needs of Tractarian or Anglo-Catholic preferences to return the church to medieval style. At the same time Victorian hierarchical values were maintained and the end result was far from the simplicity of the medieval period. All of the windows were replaced with stained glass and flint cladding was added to the external walls.
In this century the building is changing again to meet the needs of today's worshippers. The Lady Chapel has been developed to provide a flexible open space without pews but with movable chairs and altar. The space is used for informal and smaller services of worship. All on one level it emphasises the presence of God in our midst, to whom all have access through Jesus his Son.
The current West end reordering project will bring the much needed provision of toilets within the footprint of the church
St Mary the Virgin Historical Photos
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