Meet the Team
Minister
Revd. Lucy Brierley
Lucy studied theology at Oxford University before training for ministry in the United Reformed Church. She was ordained and inducted as Minister of Woking URC in 2005. Lucy is married to Justin. They are both parents to Noah, Grace, Jeremy and Toby.
Email: minister@wokingurc.org.uk
Youth Worker
Phil Ray
Phil joined our team as youth worker in 2021. Phil works part time for Woking URC, he is usually on-site on Tuesdays and Sundays.
Email: youth@wokingurc.org.uk
Mobile: 07766 762176
Children's Worker
Alison Warlow
Alison is our Children’s Worker, working part-time alongside Phil. Alison oversees all our work with children up to school year 6 including Junior Church and the weekly toddler group.
Alison has many years of experience working with children. Her family are regular attendees with Alison having grown up in the church. Upon moving back to the area in 2018, she and her husband Rob both became church members. They have two children, their son Matthew and daughter Eloise can often be seen, and heard, making a contribution to Sunday morning worship.
Email: children@wokingurc.org.uk
Church & Community Worker
John Sinclair
John has been our Church and Community Worker since mid-May 2024, helping to oversee pastoral needs and community outreach work. This includes our regular Thursday Lunch Club and Food & Fellowship on Sundays. John has three adult children and enjoys playing and up keeping various types of bagpipes.
John’s working days are Sunday-Thursday. He is normally not available on Fridays and Saturdays
Email: churchcommunity@wokingurc.org.uk
Mobile: 07817 007780
Church Administrator
Ellen Harrison
Ellen joined the church as a member in 2021. Her interests include birdwatching, netball and playing ‘Countdown’.
Ellen is in the office on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mornings, and is most easily contactable by email.
Email: office@wokingurc.org.uk
Phone 01483 763078 (Option 2)
Premises Manager
John West
John is well known in the Church, having been a Member of the York Road Church and Woking URC for 44 years. In the wider Church and community, he is Treasurer of Woking People of Faith.
John is in the office for his premises manager role five mornings each week from Monday to Friday.
Email: premises@wokingurc.org.uk
Phone 01483 763078 (Option 1)
Church Secretary
Keith Bradley
The Church Secretary, who is always a serving Elder, has the responsibility for general administration and compliance issues within the Church. As a Trustee of Woking URC Charity he is the official contact with the Charity Commission, and he also undertakes work occasionally for the URC Wessex Synod. Keith is retired now but his ‘working life’ was in the NHS, health insurance and the medical charity sector. He also served for nine years as a NHS Foundation Trust Governor. Keith is married to Margaret who is a leader in the Children’s Work Team.
About Us
The URC
The United Reformed Church is a family of Christians, worshipping in the name of Jesus in about 1500 local churches across the UK.
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‘Reformed’ means that we delight in the Bible, we do not fear change, and we try to run our churches in ways that take everyone’s insight and contribution seriously.
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‘United’ is an important part of our story. We started when English Presbyterians merged with English and Welsh Congregationalists in 1972. Churches of Christ joined in 1981 and Scottish Congregationalists in 2000. We still work as closely as we can with Christians of all traditions and styles.
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And we are one ‘Church’. We aim to grow through supporting one another and taking decisions together.
All our tasks and posts are open to women as fully as to men. We are an intercultural church, where people with varied ethnic roots enrich each other’s Christian living. Our people hold a range of opinions about theology and church life.
In the words of the denominations Statement of Nature, Faith and Order (1990) together we are firmly committed to ‘God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The living God, the only God, ever to be praised.’
Visit the national website of the United Reformed Church
Our Story...
Woking United Reformed Church was formed in 2005 from the joining of St Andrews URC and York Road URC, using the White Rose Lane premises (the former St. Andrew's). As such we are a new church with historic roots.
The church in York Road was founded in 1899 as Mount Hermon Congregational Church by a group of 34 Christian men and women who signed a covenant.
St Andrews was built in 1952 to house the local congregation of the Presbyterian Church which had begun life in Woking in 1941 in temporary premises.
With the union of the Congregational and Presbyterian denominations to form the United Reformed Church in 1972, Woking had 2 congregations of the same denomination within a relatively short distance of each other. The decision to join together in 2005 was taken in the expectation that this would provide a better platform for united work and witness in the future,
In 2009-10 the site at White Rose Lane underwent a major redevelopment project to make it a more modern and welcoming facility for worship and outreach.
Today, the church plays an important part in the life of Woking, hosting many communicaty groups on its premises and engaging in various social and outreach projects.