Latest news

Fine Music For Free
Saturday, 9 October, 6pm

Fine Music for Free Returns
We're delighted that our Fine Music for Free recitals are returning for a short series this autumn. Please see our Fine Music for Free page for details of the six concerts in this series.

The Kemptown Koalas are back!
Every Tuesday, 2.30pm, from 13 July

Yay! We're over the moon to be bringing back our lovely carer-toddler group, Kemptown Koalas, this week. We're starting cautiously, with scads of ventilation and sanitiser, but hope gradually to be able to return to normal. £1.50 per child to include snacks and a sugar hit for the carers as well.

Brighton Deanery Confirmations
Congratulations to everyone who was confirmed at St Mary's for the Deanery of Brighton on Wednesday, 7 July, with Bishop Ruth of Horsham. It was a joyful service, full of hope.

Congratulations to Revd Sarah
Congratulations to our curate, the Revd Sarah Van den driessche, who was ordained priest on Sunday, 26 June by Bishop Ruth of Horsham at a service at St Nicholas, Worth, and who presided at her first mass at St Mary's on Sunday, 4 July. We are thrilled and grateful to share in this exciting new part of Sarah's journey.

2nd Culture Recovery Fund Grant for St Mary's
We are delighted and thankful to announce that St Mary's has been awarded £64,700 from the Heritage Stimulus Fund to carry out urgent repairs to the east side of the church. This fund, a part of the government's Culture Recovery Fund, is administered by Historic England. St Mary's is one of 68 Anglican churches and cathedrals in England to receive one of its grants, which seek to protect heritage buildings which have lost income because of Covid and also to preserve the livelihoods and skills of the specialist craftspeople who work on them.

We will be using the grant to repair the eroded brick and stone work and fix the low roofs and guttering on the side of the church that overlooks St Mary's Place. We're hopeful that, come next Spring, it will no longer rain inside the church!

Thank you especially to Historic England, the Church Buildings Council and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

Culture Recovery Fund Grant for St Mary's
We're thrilled to announce that the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage has awarded St Mary's £10,900 to plan and design Covid-secure toilet and kitchen facilities and improve accessibility in our beautiful church. This is vital seed-funding, which will help ensure our future viability as a spiritual and cultural resource for everyone in Brighton. We are one of 66 Anglican churches and cathedrals in England to receive one of these grants and we are incredibly grateful for the vote of confidence in the value of the work we do in our community.
Thank you especially to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic England, and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

Welcome to the Reverend Sarah!
Our new Assistant Curate, Sarah Van den driessche, was ordained as a deacon by Bishop Martin at a very happy service at St Mary's on Friday, 25 January. Sarah, who is due to be priested next year, will serve the four years of her curacy with us at St Mary's, participating in all our worship and outreach activities and generally learning the ropes of parish ministry. We couldn't be more delighted to have her as part of our team.

In this video, Fr Andrew talks with Sarah about the spiritual journey which has led her to ordination and to us.

View of St Mary's interior, taken from scaffolding erected to repair the clerestory windows in the nave gable, April 2015.

The font. Photo by Jean-Luc Brouard.