Hope Family Church Washington

Who we are

Hope Family Church - 

Originally called Oxclose Church, our Church started in the 1970s as an ecumenical project involving the Church of England, the Methodist Church, and the United Reformed Church. Over time the church became solely Anglican, however those ecumenical roots still influence the way we worship today as a church which worships freely and follows the leading of God's Spirit. 

More recently, we became a 'Resource Church' in Durham Diocese meaning that we do our best to support other local churches across the region, as well as having a mandate for planting new churches and worshiping communities, such as in Christ Church, New Seaham. 

As a Church, we're very family-focussed and charismatic, meaning we place a strong emphasis on welcome and hospitality, love having children and young people, and are certainly less traditional and liturgical than other churches in the Church of England.

Our culture and values

Family for Everyone

At Hope Family Church we believe that we are all children of God and part of His big family. God’s desire is for everyone to trust, love and know Him, as a Father.  We believe this is how we're designed to be.  Jesus showed us what is life with God is like and it is through faith in him that we get to enjoy this relationship with the Father who loves us so much.

Sharing Hope

We are people of hope - we believe that hope is transformative, transforming us on a personal level, transforming our communities, and transforming our society as a whole.  We get to share that hope with everyone around us.  Our hope is rooted in Jesus, in who he says we are, and who he says we can be.  Because of what Jesus has done for us and in us, we believe that everyone gets to live their best life now because of Jesus’ promise to bring life to the full. We believe that this transformative hope can only be found in Jesus and through Jesus.

Following Jesus

We are a family who put their faith into action and try to be like Jesus. We try to imitate Jesus in how he interacted with people showing compassion, mercy and honour to everyone. Furthermore, we believe that Jesus wants people to experience his kingdom and so we pray for the world, both near and far, and expect the miraculous to happen everyday.

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

We are a bible believing, evangelical church and as such we believe that all people are made in the image of God and are thus intrinsictly valuable, and infinitely precious.  We believe that the good news of Jesus and the overriding message of the bible is that God is for us, his heart is for the orphan, the widow, and the foreigner, which means that as his church we stand for those on the margains, speaking truth to power, call out discrimination, and advocate for kingdom principles of love, mercy, and justice as we seek the transformation of the world through the good news of the Gospel of Jesus.