AN entire school has been invited to Sunday worship as part of this year’s Back to Church Sunday.

The Rev Dominic Clarke invites children from St Alban's School to the Back to Church Sunday service

Every pupil from St Alban’s C of E Primary School in West Leigh has been invited to join worshippers at the nearby St Alban’s Church on September 25.

Headteacher Alice Wood is now creating a special children’s choir and a drama performance so that the pupils will also be contributing to that morning’s worship. They’ll sing ‘Our God is a Great Big God’ and dramatise the story of Jesus healing a paralysed man on the day.

The Rev Dominic Clarke, who is currently working as a priest at St Alban’s Church, visited the school to invite all 218 pupils to come to the service. Among those who he invited was nine-year-old Abigail Tuttle.

“It’s nice to be invited to the church, and it’s exciting that we’re going to be performing,” she said.

St Alban’s Church is one of 58 churches in Portsmouth’s Church of England diocese taking part in the national initiative. The idea behind it is that non-churchgoers are often keen to come to Sunday services if they are invited by a friend. More than 150,000 extra worshippers have come back to church  since the initiative first started in 2004.

Churches in our diocese have been taking part since 2008, when a pilot scheme was run. In participating churches in Portsmouth diocese last year, there were 13 per cent more worshippers in church on Back to Church Sunday.

One of them was Ann Jenkins, who was invited to Hart Plain Church, on Hart Plain Avenue, near Waterlooville by her neighbour Rosina Clark.

“We’ve known each other for years, and when she asked me, I said yes,” said Ann. “I hadn’t been to church for donkeys’ years, but had been thinking about it since losing my husband. The church is welcoming, relaxed and friendly – very different to the church I used to go to. I’m hoping to be confirmed, which was something I’d never got round to doing before.”

Two others who came back to Hart Plain Church last September will also participate in an Alpha course this autumn and hope to get confirmed in November.

Back to Church Sunday was originally launched in the Diocese of Manchester, but quickly spread to other Anglican dioceses and then to other denominations and across the world. By 2010, 3,500 churches were taking part, and 51,000 people were invited back to church – or to try it out for the first time.

Former national mission and evangelism adviser the Rt Rev Paul Bayes said: “For thousands of churches, Back to Church Sunday has become part of what they do each September.

“It’s the shortest step in evangelism – invite someone you know to something you love – “would you like to come to church with me?” And year after year, people are responding positively.”

For details, see www.backtochurch.co.uk or contact the Rev Tim Jessiman on 023-9226 4551.