About
us…
This is us
Westbourne Grove Church (known as The Grove!) is a small, friendly and diverse community of Christians in the Notting Hill area of West London.
We focus on following Jesus, loving one another, and sharing God’s love with the wider community.
We are a community where every person can play their part and bring their own unique contribution. It’s not a church where the leader does everything - instead we encourage everyone to participate in ways they feel they can, wherever they are on their journey.
We are all part of the team!
A different kind of team
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Staff Team leader and building manager, ArtSpace team leader
Charlotte has been at the Grove since 1984. As an architect she was closely involved with the redevelopment of the church building and now works here as the staff team and building manager. She also leads the ArtSpace team.
Charlotte loves to be out in nature so on her days off she’s likely to be on her Cape to Cape walk across the UK, wild swimming, or hurtling down a snowy hill on her sledge.
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Church Minister, leadership team, pastoral team leader, Bible teaching team, trustee
Chris has been leading the church since 1989. Chris is married to Charlotte, they have three children and live in Harlesden. Chris is the senior minister and leads the teaching and congregation activities. When taking a break Chris may be found walking in the Chilterns or his homeland of Derbyshire, wielding a camera or a fencing sword, or seen as a passing blur on his racing bike, going faster than is reasonable for a man of his age!
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Leadership team, Bible teaching team, Trustee
“I am one of the elders at Westbourne Grove and have been involved with the church for the best part of the last ten years. I am a theologian. I teach in different contexts and do a lot of writing. I also work with a church planting organisation called Communitas.”
Read more of Andrew’s writing on his blog, focussing on how we retell the biblical story, negotiating its transition from the centre to the margins of our culture following the collapse of Western Christendom.
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Staff Team - Venue manager, Trustee, Mission and Giving team leader, Prayer team, Lobby Lunch team
“I am Rosie and I have been attending the Grove Church for many years, helping out at the Drop-in and Lobby Lunch. BC (Before Covid) I ran the English Cafe, to help people that do not have English as their 1st language, to improve their reading and conversational skills.
I work at the church, am a Trustee and lead the Mission & Giving team which gives away some of the Church’s money. I love going to the Church camp that we attend with other members of the FORGE churches family and enjoy cardmaking.”
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Staff Team - Front-Desk Receptionist
“I am Tiago . I grew up a stone’s throw away from the church and have enjoyed working at the church off and on for over 5 years now. I love working at the church because I get to meet all kinds of people from the local community that I wouldn’t have the opportunity to meet elsewise. I admire the good work the church does and am honoured to help support the wonderful people who work here. Recently I’ve been using my art and design skills to create eye catching graphics for the church, however, you may also find me at the reception so feel free to come in and say “hello!”
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Staff Team - Front-Desk Receptionist
“I’m Lía, a first year undergraduate international student. I decided to find a part-time job while I study and The Grove has been a tremendous blessing in my life. I have had the pleasure of meeting loving, kind and warm people who hold real Christian values and do their best to help others in any way they can. I am honored and beyond grateful to form a part of this community”.
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Staff team - Reception team, Cleaner, Prayer team, Drop-in Team, Lobby Lunch team
“Hello, I’m Mary, I have worked for the church for 17 years. I volunteer for Lobby Lunch and Monday Drop-in.”
Through the church’s Mission & Giving fund, the Church helps Mary’s sister's Church in the Philippines by providing refreshment for people that travel far to get to the bible study. This is a welcoming part of their meeting.
Mary also cooks amazing food and is always happy to pray for you.
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Staff team - Front-Desk Receptionist
I’mVictoria; One day I passed a beautiful place full of great people and now I have the pleasure of working as a receptionist at the church as well as sometimes volunteering at the Lobby lunch. I feel really grateful to find this place and find myself again because here I am surrounded by many things that I love and care about.
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Staff team - Caretaker
With his easy-going and can-do attitude Ben is a great person to have on your team; he makes all things seem possible. Just hearing him laugh will make you smile.
Ask for Ben if you need any help with the building.
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Staff Team, Accounts manager, Prayer Team, Lobby Lunch team,
“Hello, my name is Barbara. When I first came here, I received such a warm welcome I couldn’t bear to tear myself away. The thing I love about the Grove is that you can make a contribution and get involved in anything you want to. Before lockdown I was cooking Sunday lunch for the Church every other month, I am on the rota for leading communion, I do the Church accounts and during lockdown have been leading Sunday morning worship. Hopefully one day I can welcome you to the Grove.”
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Staff Team, pastoral team, reception team, H&S officer
Bridget is a church pastor and chaplain. She loves listening to and telling stories, with or without a campfire and uses Godly Play storytelling in her ministry with people of all ages. She brings her creativity to all of life, be it her children’s work, re-enacting as an Anglo Saxon or gardening on her allotment
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“Hello, I am Elham Kiani, but everyone calls me Ana, and I am from Iran. I arrived to the UK in 2020 with my husband - Ever. Since I met Jesus, my path has constantly brought me back to the church, and I am happy to be able to help my compatriots to know Jesus Christ. I have always been interested in studying Christian theology. In Iran I studied art at University, and I love artistic activities and children. Currently, I work as a part-time receptionist at church.”
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Drop-in Team, Lobby Lunch team, Prayer Team
Who doesn’t love a good homemade cake? Here at The Grove we all do and Rosemary’s cakes are among the best. She has been making cakes and praying for us all here at The Grove since the mid 70s. Listen carefully when she contributes in church, she has a lot to teach us.
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Volunteer Coordinator for Drop-in
Holly keeps us linked with the local on-line groups and coordinates our volunteer team for the Monday Drop-in. Throughout the Covid period she did a great job fund raising for the work we do with the homeless and, with her North Westminster Green Party candidate hat on, she successfully campaigned to reopen the local public toilets which had been closed during lockdown leaving our homeless friends without facilities.
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Worship leading, Bible teaching team
Jose and Rosanna are leaders with Youth With A Mission (YWAM Urban Key - you can see the work they do Here YWAM Urban Key).
Jose encourages us in worship and is part of the teaching team.
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Bible teaching team
Jose and Rosanna are leaders with Youth With A Mission (YWAM Urban Key - you can see the work they do Here YWAM Urban Key).
Rosana is part of our teaching team. We learn a lot from her teaching, her missional heart and the richness of experience she brings to our group discussions.
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•Trustee, and helps with the church accounts
“I’m Honor, I moved to London for work a few years ago and started looking for a church to attend in 2019. I didn’t try any others after going to the Grove! I now live in Newbury but enjoy participating in The Grove church meetings via the Zoom link. I am one of the church’s trustees and help with the church’s accounts. I work as an accountant for a Local Authority and my favourite hobbies are reading and strength-training.”
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Trustee
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Trustee
When Lucy is not walking the high hills or helping out at the Wormwood Scrubs Pony Centre you can find her bringing her wisdom and all round good sense to the Trustee meetings. We wouldn’t be without her help.
Beliefs
What we believe
Learn more about what we believe as a community.
Simple core pillars
What we believe is simple, but important, and it shapes everything we do as a small, diverse community. Our beliefs basically focus on love: we love God, love each other and love the wider community.
Our values help guide how we live and what we do. They’re simple really, since they’re all about loving God and each other - and we’d love to share them with you!
Bible
We think that the Bible is inspired by God. It’s not really a book of rules, but the story of what God is like and God’s amazing plan, spanning the whole of history. It shows God’s guidance on how to live life well and be a strong community.
Prayer
Prayer is so important! It creates a deep connection with God. God transforms us as individuals and a community through it. It changes things as we can partner with God to change things in the wider community.
Worship
Worship is central to our lives - we worship God when we do what glorifies God. Things like: loving those around us; fighting for justice and the innocent; do good work or making something beautiful; sitting with someone who is mourning; or singing together on a Sunday.
Charitable giving
God is a God who loves to give, so we love to be like this too! We believe God has given us so many good things - above all Jesus gave his life to show God’s love for us. Practically, we are always looking for ways (small or big!) to give generously, whether our time, energy or resources.
Care for those in need
God deeply loves people in our community who are suffering the most - just look at Jesus’ example! We believe that helping people in need is a fundamental part of our faith.
Values
Guiding what we do
Our values help guide how we live and what we do. They’re simple really, since they’re all about loving God and each other - and we’d love to share them with you!
Faith
What’s life all about?
What's life all about? A short video by our church minister. Chris.
WHat people say
Our Connections
Together for God
A group of local churches of different denominations who have a long history of working together in the community.
Forge
Being part of something bigger than ourselves is really important for us. Forge is a network where we get encouragement, input and a chance to connect with others. In a nutshell. Forge is a collaboration of related churches. Its aims are to develop leaders, do mission together and strengthen churches.
Evangelical Alliance
The EA is a grouping of hundreds of churches and organisations. It aims to represent those members, by serving the wider church in the UK. It also focuses on bringing unity among evangelicals so that more communities may come to know Jesus.
giving
Charitable Giving
We love to be generous and we support projects in our local community and further afield. Learn more about giving and who we support.