Welcome to St. Peter’s church,
The Parish of crabbs cross, Redditch Worcestershire

Welcome, reader, to this page introducing the Parish of St Peter Crabbs Cross on the edge of Redditch in north-east Worcestershire.

The Parish of Crabbs Cross is very young, although the worshipping community has been established for more than 100 years. The church and original hall were built in 1896 and opened as a chapel of ease to the Parish of Feckenham-which boasted amongst its parish priests the last Abbot of Westminster. The church at Crabbs Cross moved parishes several times from Feckenham to Headless Cross and to Astwood Bank. Its last guise, before becoming an independent parish within the United Benefice of Christ the King, was as a parish church within the Ridge Team, Redditch.

The Church, whilst uninspiring from the outside, has been decorated and adorned as a place for modern catholic worship. The early curates were doubtlessly Catholics, mostly being referred to as “Father” at a time when such a title was understood to be applied only to priests with papal allegiance. There is little doubt that the teaching and theology of St Peter’s from earliest days, gleaned from documents and records, also aspired to a papal allegiance whilst observing Anglican forms and liturgy. The presence of a disused thurible drew the present Rector to the Church as a place in which its ancient faith might be revived.

St Peter’s Church has a wide age range congregation, with about 35 on the 10 to 10 Club register-our Sunday “School”, many of whom are teenagers. This website has more information about 10 to 10 as well as activities for youth and other ages, pilgrimage, etc.
 
We do not have “Family Services”. Each Sunday the central act of worship is the Mass to which all are invited and in which the 10 to 10 and uniformed organizations, all affiliated to the Church community, play a significant role once a month as readers, servers, intercessors and musicians.
We have close links to our local high school: St Augustine’s.

We try our best to be a welcoming community to any who desire to worship in our style and are willing to embrace our orthodox understanding of Church and Holy Order. Our effort is to communicate the Faith as it was once delivered to the Saints and has been maintained by the church catholic ever since. Although part of the Diocese of Worcester, we look for spiritual, pastoral and theological guidance from the Bishops of Ebbsfleet, suffragans to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

You are welcome to come and meet us in reality as well as on these virtual pages.

Fr Michael Bartlett SSC, MA, BPhil, Rector

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