Shocked by the plight of homeless children on the streets of London in 1869, young Methodist minister Thomas Bowman Stephenson decided to take action. With the help of two Methodist friends, Alfred Mager and Francis Horner, he converted a disused stable block into The Children's Home.

This was the beginning of Action for Children nearly 150 years ago. Today Action for Children continues to support the most vulnerable and neglected children and young people throughout the United Kingdom.

Windsor Methodist Church supports the work of Action for Children and raises funds to enable it to continue.

In 2014 the Methodist Relief and Development Fund (MRDF) relaunched as All We Can with a renewed commitment to tackle poverty.

All We Can traces its roots back to the 1940s, when Methodist minister Henry Carter felt the church had a responsibility to respond to the post-war refugee crisis in Europe. He pioneered the Methodist Refugee Fund as a personal initiative to raise money and collect supplies to relieve hunger and improve conditions among refugees, particularly in Austria and Germany.

The Windsor Methodist Church has a long association and has been a strong supporter of MRDF and will continue this relationship with All We Can.

Alpha is an opportunity to explore life and the Christian faith in a friendly, open and informal environment. 24 million people have tried Alpha in 169 countries and 112 languages.

The Windsor Methodist Church runs Alpha courses which are typically around ten sessions and include food, a short talk, and a discussion at the end where you can share your thoughts.

Keep your eye on our news for upcoming announcements or enquire here about joining the next Alpha course.

The Windsor Methodist Church has an active Brownie group associated with it that contains some of the girls from our Sunday School as well as others from the local Windsor community.

Once a month as part of our evening worship the Windsor Methodist Church holds a café style service. Café worship is held in the Falder Hall and is more intimate than regular worship. Our members and visitors often share their testimony as witness to the work of Jesus and His Spirit in their lives.

Christian Aid is a Christian organisation that insists the world can and must be swiftly changed to one where everyone can live a full life, free from poverty. Founded in 1945, and now 70 years old, Christian Aid continues provide urgent, practical and effective assistance where need is great, tackling the effects of poverty as well as its root causes.

The Windsor Methodist Church collects funds for, supports and contributes to Christian Aid, particularly through its outreach activities.

The Church Council is like the board of directors for our church. Meeting three times a year and in combination with our AGM for all church members, the Church Council presides over appointments and the initiation, monitoring and funding of all church programmes. The day-to-day running of the church is performed by the Leadership Team.

We extend a warm welcome to all who share in our services and especially to anyone visiting us for the first time.

If you are visiting us then please consider signing the visitors’ book near the entrance. Please also make yourself known to one of the stewards on duty.

Just before 10:30 and 18:30 a steward will place a Bible on the communion table. This means the service is about to commence.

We are a family friendly church: everyone is welcome. There is a crèche at the back of the church where, if you require, you may retire with a little one but still hear and be a part of the service. During Sunday morning services we also have Sunday School for children and teenagers.

You may also give requests for prayers to be said during worship to one of the stewards before the service begins. Please ensure that the person(s) being prayed for have given their consent.

Windsor Methodist Church is an active member of Churches Together in Windsor which aims to:

• encourage the local churches to work together wherever and whenever possible;

• worship and pray together;

• learn more about the Christian faith together;

• co-ordinate resources for Christian evangelism and service to the Windsor community as they arise;

• keep each church informed of the work and developments in the churches of CTW; and

• promote and support the ecumenical movement.

Members of Windsor Methodist Church volunteer with Windsor Street Angels and the church collects contributions for the Windsor Food Share.

Windsor Methodist Church is a big supporter of the Fairtrade Foundation. We are proudly a Fairtrade church.

Here is just one of our many Fairtrade stories:

We are fortunate to have a highly talented group of flower arrangers who take it in turns to arrange the altar flowers for our weekly services. Members of the congregation sign up on a rota to donate money for the flowers each week, and do so often to commemorate family birthdays or anniversaries. For particular festivals such as Easter, Harvest or Christmas the church is filled with flowers.

Wedding, christening and occasionally funeral flowers may also be arranged by request.

We are always looking for other flower arrangers to join our happy band.

Every few years we hold a flower festival and fill the Windsor Methodist Church with flowers for a show that lasts several days. Our ability to do this is a testament to our very professional flower arrangers. At our flower festival in 2008, held on the theme and in support of Fairtrade there were more than twenty stunning arrangements and lots of smaller decorations. Many people in the local area and further afar came to visit.

In September 2015, we held an amazing flower festival with more than forty arrangements, based around the theme of “The Word”.

Each year at harvest time the Windsor Methodist Church holds a traditional harvest festival. Harvest gifts are collected and brought to the church. Non-perishable gifts such as tinned foods are donated to local charities. There is a harvest supper, usually on the Monday evening, and a harvest auction is also held, where perishable gifts and flower arrangements are auctioned off and the money donated as part of our Christian outreach.

Windsor Methodist Church has a long history of JMA involvement and our young people are encouraged to collect weekly (or when then can) from members of the congregation and family and family friends.

Recently, a total of more than £1500 was raised for JMA by our young members. We hope to raise even more this year with the help of our dedicated collectors and those that generously donate to JMA each week. Our church is very proud of our young people for this work. It is such a worthwhile and wonderful way for them to actually do something for people who are so much less fortunate than themselves and they learn so much from this practical act of Christianity.

The JMA was started nearly 150 years ago by Joseph Blake as a movement to educate children about the world church and to raise money which was used in mission overseas. Today the money is divided between the Overseas Division, which receives 80% of the total, and the Home Mission Division, which receives the other 20%. Overseas the money is used to support the work of missionaries and in the form of direct grants to projects concerned with medical and social work, education, evangelism, and agriculture. The Home Mission's income helps to support weaker churches in rural districts and inner city areas; it helps to maintain chaplains in universities, the Armed Forces, prisons, and ministers in new towns. Industrial missions and the provision of factory chaplains are also part of its responsibility.

Led by our dynamic minister and our equally dynamic senior steward, the Windsor Leadership Team, or "WLT" as it is known, is the day-to-day executive arm of the church that keeps our big programme of activities running smoothly throughout the year. The WLT has oversight over all the many different groups and activities.

The WLT is appointed by the Church Council and operates in accordance with a big book of important rules and guidelines called the CPD.

Every couple of months we hold a Saturday afternoon of fun for Children (from 0 to 10 plus years)

There are a variety of hands-on craft activities and play areas followed by a short child- friendly talk and song time. There is then the chance to share a family meal together.

Messy church is popular and children must be accompanied by an adult. There is no fee although a donations basket is available on entry.

Find the next messy church in our church diary.

Methodist Children and Youth is a wealth of programmes, activities and resources which we rely on at Windsor Methodist Church. These range from the resources we use in our Sunday School and Circuit Teens to our very successful JMA programme.

A mothers and toddlers group meets every week at the Windsor Methodist Church. Any parents/carers and their children may join. We meet on Thursday mornings from 09:15 to 11:15 during term-time and have capacity for up to 35 "families".

All are made very welcome and in addition to tea, coffee and biscuits served to the grown-ups we have orange squash and toys galore, puzzles, colouring and play-dough for the toddlers.

We also like to sing nursery rhymes and the children are encouraged to play together in our friendly and safe environment.

If you would like to join in please contact us.

The Outreach Committee is an important element of the Windsor Methodist Church. Its members are drawn from the various organisations within the church and it functions to give practical expression to the faith which members of the church profess in ways that benefit others both in the local community and in other parts of the world. The Outreach Committee seeks to support deserving causes both locally, nationally and internationally by engaging in many fund raising activities.

Through the work of the committee, the Windsor Methodist Church has established a relationship with a Methodist church in Poland.  Another Outreach activity is the liaison with other churches in Windsor under the banner Churches Together in Windsor.

As with all churches we seek to encourage individuals to express their own faith in ways that broaden the church's involvement in the local community. This has led to an increased usage of the church premises as a community resource with the facilities being put to good use in hosting concerts and the production of plays.

Over the last few years over £15,000 has been raised for charities working internationally including Water Aid, schools in India and various projects in parts of Africa, such as Project Gateway.

At the Windsor Methodist Church we have an active programme of pastoral care through our pastoral groups and pastoral visitors. If you are in need, or have limited mobility, and would like someone to call on you please get in touch through our contact page.

At Windsor Methodist Church we try to always put prayer at the heart of everything we do, through all of our personal, business and church affairs. In accordance with the words Paul wrote to the Philippians:

Our wonderful prayer group meets regularly and engages in many forms of prayer for ourselves, for our community and for the world. Many prayer gatherings are also held within the circuit which also seeks to put prayer at the heart of the Thames Valley.

See the church diary for details of upcoming prayer groups and meetings. Remembering the guidance of James:

According to the Care Quality Commission those in most need of safeguarding are children, young people and vulnerable adults.

At the Windsor Methodist Church we take our safeguarding responsibilities very seriously. All of our Sunday School teachers and youth workers have DBS checks and all of our stewards, staff, leaders and many of our members have had safeguarding training.

There is a separate contact form here if you wish to raise a safeguarding issue of any kind.

Come and join us at Windsor Methodist Church Sunday School at 10:30 each week. We have two classes with age ranges of 3 to 10 years old, and 11 to 16 years old. A crèche is available for parents to take younger children.

We have lots of fun and craft activities that cover different topics each week. The teachers have all been trained, are CRB-checked and they follow a Bible-based syllabus. The older children have discussion groups, quizzes and have the opportunity to help out with the younger ones.

We occasionally put on drama sketches in the church especially at Christmas with our Nativity and are involved in musical ventures. The older children are encouraged to help out in the church especially with their expertise with laptops, audio/visual equipment and websites.

New members are always welcome. Parents are welcome to accompany younger children every week if they wish.

Each year near the beginning of Advent we hold an annual toy service and receive donations of toys for the Salvation Army. They take these toys in a huge operation mainly staffed by volunteers, wrap them and deliver them to families where children would otherwise have nothing to unwrap on Christmas morning. Thank God!

The church regularly takes monetary donations, clothing, food and toiletries up to Whitechapel. Whitechapel Mission is dedicated to providing a lifeline to the poor and homeless people of London who struggle each day against hunger, poverty and exclusion. Their goal is to help people to help themselves, giving them the confidence they need to become independent, which we do through practical support and advice and by teaching them the life skills they need to succeed.