What we believe

We are called "Grace Church" for a reason. God's grace is his extravagant, undeserved kindness to us in Jesus. And God's grace changes everything:

  • it restores us to the relationship we were made for
  • it unites us and empowers us to be a new kind of community
  • and it ignites us with compassion to reach out to a needy world

At Grace Church we seek to be a place where God's grace is received and lived out.

For a more detail on what we believe, see the UCCF Doctrinal Basis, the CEEC Doctrinal basis, and the Renew Statement of Faith, which our Ministers and trustees subscribe to.

Our story

We have been meeting in Greenwich since we began in 2015 (find out more about our beginnings here), but in September 2021 an exciting new chapter began as we started an additional afternoon service at Eltham College, in Mottingham.

The book of Acts shows us that the Lord leads his church in different ways. Sometimes the Lord leads us through inspiring us to make strategic plans, for example in Acts 13:2 when the church in Antioch sent Saul and Barnabas off to plant churches in neighbouring areas. But sometimes the Lord leads us through providence, like when the church started spreading into new areas through being scattered due to persecution in Acts 8:1-5.

On this occasion the Lord led us to Eltham more through God's providence than through our strategy. During the covid lockdown in 2021 we were unable to use our normal venue in Greenwich for 4 months, but an opportunity arose for us to use the Chapel at Eltham College. When the Naval College re-opened, because we had been growing in number, it was no longer possible to fit back into our old venue and so it was an obvious solution to run services in both venues.

There were already some Grace Church folk living in the Eltham / Mottingham direction and so it's been wonderful for them to have a closer base, not least to make it easier to invite interested friends and neighbours along to church.

Although we meet in two venues, we are still very much one church, and meet together for midweek bible studies, weekends aways, and many individuals attend one service and help teach Sunday school in the other. And we are excited to see how the Lord might use this new development to further his kingdom.

Vision

Accountability

Grace church is part of the Church of England. We are in the Diocese of Southwark, and have been granted extended Episcopal Oversight from the Bishop of Maidstone. Find out more about our Bishop.

We are also a charity with trustees, who are accountable to the Charity Commission, and you can find out more about our trustees.

If you have questions or concerns about Grace Church you can address them here.

Who's who

Meet the team

We believe that God has arranged every member of the church, like parts of a body, to work together to build up the church in love (see Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4). By that reckoning, Grace Church Greenwich has over 100 ministers! We haven't included them all below, but here are just a few of the people you might meet on a Sunday...

Andrew Latimer

Rev Dr Andrew Latimer

Minister

Andrew spent a good chunk of his childhood messing around on boats, and therefore he's felt very at home working for 5 years at St Peter's Barge, and since 2015 in Maritime Greenwich. He loves Jesus, his wife Josie, their 4 daughters, hanging out with friends, over-analysing films, and seeing the English language used correctly. He does all his own stunts.

Andrew Sach

Rev Dr Andrew Sach

Minister

Andrew serves part-time at Grace Church Greenwich, and part-time as a tutor on the Cornhill Training Course, helping to train other preachers. He has been a regular speaker at university missions and is the co-author of several books with decreasingly-imaginative titles: Dig Deeper (2005), Dig Even Deeper (2010) and Dig Deeper into the Gospels (2015). He has a background in science that began with an explosives factory in his parents' garage aged 15 and ended with a PhD on why two ears are better than one. He enjoys playing Bach on the piano and attempting to pour nice shapes in his coffee with frothed milk. He has 8 godchildren.

Fiona Mahendran

Fiona Mahendran-Gilliland

Women's worker

Fiona joined Grace Church in September 2020. Having studied law, European languages, and politics, Fiona worked for an in-house legal team in a global oil and gas company. During this time, she accepted Jesus as her Lord and Saviour, at her then local FIEC church, and subsequently served with the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship for 6 years.

Fiona loves Jesus, her husband Matt, their two daughters, baking, picnics and working with women as they bear witness to his gospel truths in every inch of their lives.

Jono Pick

Jono Pick

Church co-ordinator and Student Worker

Jono was a part of Grace Church as a music student before joining the team as a Ministry Trainee and now as the Church Coordinator and Student Worker. He finds it a real privilege to get to know Jesus better, and to help others do the same. He enjoys spending time with his wife, eating good food, playing Fifa, and riding his bike (when it's not too rainy!).

Clare Stevenson

Clare Stevenson

Youth and Children's Worker

Originally from Northern Ireland, Clare accepted Jesus as her Lord and Saviour when she was nine years old. She is passionate about reading God's word and helping others to do the same. Clare studied Law at Edinburgh University. Before joining Grace Church, she served as a Children and Families Worker in a Church of Ireland Parish. Clare enjoys running, discovering good coffee shops and the occasional scone!

Paulo Carvalho

Paulo Carvalho

Ministry Trainee

Paulo is the best portuguese trainee that Grace Church has had in years. He is also the first one. He remembers his university years with nostalgia, when he started to experience the transforming power of Jesus' words.

He's a Biology graduate from Coimbra (home town). He's an ornithophile (bird-lover), he loves his fixedgear and will take any opportunity to tell you how great Portugal is.

James Dancer

James Dancer

Ministry Trainee

James was saved in 2016 whilst hearing the Bible taught at Grace Church Greenwich, and is now serving on the ministry team as a Ministry Trainee. James' musical background as a conservatoire graduate and secondary school music teacher means you will usually find him drumming in the church band, or constantly tapping on the nearest surface he can find.

Naomi Pick

Naomi Pick

Ministry Trainee

Naomi started attending Grace Church Greenwich in 2017 when she moved from Edinburgh to London for her degree in Musical Theatre. It turned out to be one of the best decisions she's ever made, and she is excited to now be serving on the ministry team as a ministry trainee. Naomi married Jono in August 2021, and is looking forward to working alongside her husband in pointing people to Jesus. Her other favourite activities include crafting, baking and singing!