BERNIE Lendon is used to walking into churches – but he’s usually carrying a coffin at the time.

Vicki Powell (right) invited Bernie and Denise Lendon to come back to St Mary's Church, Portchester

He works as a driver and pallbearer for a local funeral director. But on Sunday (Sept 27th), he went back to church as a Sunday worshipper with his wife Denise.

His work colleague Vicki Powell gave him a personal invitation to come to St Mary’s Church, inside the historic Portchester Castle on the shores of Portsmouth Harbour. And they enjoyed it so much, they’ll probably come again.

Bernie and Denise were just two of hundreds of people across south-east Hampshire and the Isle of Wight who returned to church – or tried it for the first time – as part of the nationwide Back to Church Sunday initiative. Each was given a personal invitation from a congregation member to join them for Sunday worship. A total of 99 Church of England churches in the Portsmouth diocese took part.

“I probably come here about eight times a year for funerals,” said Bernie. “It is a lovely church, the kind of place you can be proud of taking people to visit. But apart from Christmas, I hadn’t been here for a normal service. It was definitely an interactive kind of service. We’ll probably be back.”

St Mary’s Church, Portchester, welcomed around 50 new people for their service, which combined Back to Church Sunday, a welcome for newly-baptised babies and their families, and their Harvest Festival. The 200-strong congregation were given a special booklet explaining the various parts of the service as they happened.

The vicar, the Rev Charlie Allen, also gave out a special welcome leaflet, outlining the church’s activities on Sundays and during the week. And worshippers enjoyed cappuccino and cake after the service, spilling out into the churchyard as they soaked up the autumn sunshine.

Maria Passmore was there as godmother to one of the six babies who were welcomed during the service. She said: “I enjoyed it. I used to go to church as a child, but it was very different from this. This felt more welcoming, and I liked the fact that the children could run around and enjoy themselves during the service.”

At St Saviour’s Church, Stamshaw, in Portsmouth, worshippers provide bacon sandwiches and coffee each week after their 9am services. They also combined Back to Church Sunday with their Harvest Festival.

The curate, the Rev Martin Dorrell, invited his work colleague Cheryl Price to come, and she brought along her friend Mavis Wilkinson, who is a member of nearby St Aidan’s Church, Anchorage Park. (all three pictured below)

Cheryl said: “I’m not a regular Sunday churchgoer, but I used to go when I lived in London. It was a lovely service and it’s a beautiful church. People have been very friendly, and having bacon sandwiches gives you a chance to chat to people.”

And St John the Baptist Church, Rowlands Castle, welcomed a children’s choir from Uganda, to their Back to Church Sunday event (pictured below). The church has links with the choir, from the village of Kabubbu, through members of the congregation who are involved with the charity the Quicken Trust. 

Around 50 extra people came to the service, swelling the congregation to around 130. They saw the children sing, heard a sermon about Christianity around the world, and ate lunch together.

The vicar, the Rev Dennis Lloyd, said: “The children’s choir are here for two weeks, singing in schools and concerts, and our service was their first performance. There were around a dozen 10 to 14-year-olds, plus three teachers, playing the drums, singing and dancing. They had a real sense of rhythm and it was inspiring for us to see, especially for the children from our congregation.”

Dennis is pictured below with his entire congregation outside the church.

This is the second year that Portsmouth’s Anglican diocese has taken part in the project, which involves parishes using prayer cards, invitation cards, posters, balloons and t-shirts – each of which ties into nationally-branded publicity. It’s based on research that shows that thousands of people would be interested in coming to church – if only someone invited them.

Up to 16,000 Church of England churches took part in Back to Church Sunday across each of the Church of England’s 44 dioceses, joining congregations from Scotland, Wales, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand and Canada, as well as worshippers from other denominations. Last year, 37,000 people came back to church in the UK and abroad. 

The theme was ‘Come As You Are’, to suggest that non-churchgoers didn’t need to be spiritually perfect or dressed in their Sunday best to join in.