Church Planting at St Ebbe’s
April 2026 Vaughan Roberts
At a conference of American planters a few years ago I told them that I myself work in a church plant. They were not expecting what I then went on to say: that St Ebbe’s was planted 1,300 years ago. Compared to that length of time, 25 years is yesterday, but it is still right that we celebrate the silver jubilee of our plant in Headington.
Tim Silk, when he was President of Brookes Christian Union, was the first to suggest the idea of a plant. It was soon after the transition from Oxford poly to Brookes and the new university was growing rapidly, but Tim pointed out that there was very little evangelical witness in the area and urged me to do something about it. To be honest, I dismissed the idea – planting was not something that Anglican evangelical churches did at the time, but a couple of years later I had a strong sense that we needed to do it, or at least attempt to.
Although Richard Harries, the Bishop of Oxford, was supportive, local clergy made their opposition very clear and all the doors were closed. I was beginning to despair until I met the vicar of St Andrew’s Headington. “To be honest Vaughan”, he said, “if you came to my church or I went to yours I doubt we would enjoy it, but at the end of the day all I’m interested in is spreading the Kingdom of God and if I can help you, I will”. I could have hugged him. The result was an opening at Headington School, where we began to meet in September 2001 under the superb leadership of Al Horn.
We saw the Lord’s hand at work in so many ways in those early years, not least in the purchase of the building at Lime Walk. I was alerted to it coming onto the market by a Christian estate agent who had only met me once, but felt prompted to contact me when he saw the details. That gave us invaluable extra time to try to fundraise before the auction. The likely price seemed way beyond us, but we prayed and a large sum was pledged, which gave us a chance as we went to the auction. We were up against Muslim and Jehovah’s Witness bidders as the price went up in £50,000 increments until just before our limit, they folded and the building was ours. Praise the Lord!
In the following years, we investigated possibilities for planting at various times in Botley, Kidlington, Barton and Didcot. In each case, the Diocese was initially supportive but got cold feet when local clergy made it clear they did not want a church with our theology in their patch. I now wonder whether we should not have just gone ahead anyway. Meanwhile, we did plant a new congregation in our own parish: StEP (St Ebbe’s Parish congregation), which met first in Annabel Heywood’s home in Trinity Street, before moving to St Ebbe’s School. It then relocated to the church building and became the “City” congregation, which meets every Sunday afternoon at 4pm.
After the frustration of our previous attempts, it was remarkable how smoothly the establishment of a plant in Cowley went. An ideal building (a former URC church on a main road), a wonderfully supportive local vicar Geoff Bayliss and an outstanding leader, Ben Vane, all came together in the space of a very short time. Covid presented a big challenge just 6 months into Grace Church’s existence, but the church continued to grow and is now planning and praying towards a new plant in Blackbird Leys.
We are on the brink of our next plant from St Ebbe’s Central to the north of Oxford which, God willing, Josh Skidmore will lead in the autumn. Once again, we have seen the Lord going before us, not least in providing all the finances necessary to give the PCC confidence to go ahead at the very last minute – just a day or two before the decisive meeting. As the university increasingly expands to the north, and many new houses are built there, the opportunities are enormous. We look forward to seeing how God will work over the next 25 years.
