IT has been a vision that Emma Andersen has had for some time – to create a new congregation worshipping in a barn.

Now she will become the person in charge of making ‘Barn Church’ happen across the Meon Valley in her new role as associate priest of Swanmore, Newtown, Soberton, Hambledon and the Meon Bridge benefices.

Bishop Jonathan has appointed her to this role, working alongside the Rev Andy Davis, the Rev Liz Quinn and the Rev Jill Kingston, as part of a team covering villages across this part of the Meon Valley.

And her main priority will be to offer an alternative style of worship for villagers across the Meon Valley. Barn Church will be designed as an all-age, contemporary Sunday service, deliberately meeting in a venue that isn’t a church building.

“The idea is to have an alternative on the menu of worship available in this area,” she said. “We’ll be trying to reach those who don’t already come to church, and aiming to create new disciples from the villages across the Meon Valley.

“We want to make it all-age and interactive, in the sense that discussion and fellowship will be a high priority. People might discuss in small groups that include children. We want to make the worship contemporary, but stripped back – not necessarily a big worship band.

“And the venue is designed to be a neutral one, rather than based in a church in one specific village. We haven’t decided exactly where yet, but the idea of a barn keeps coming up. It has a resonance in that Jesus was born in a place where animals kept warm.

“We haven’t yet found an appropriate barn or suitable location, and over the past year we’ve been looking at possible places. We might start small and see if we can grow larger. But our vision is to make Jesus known more widely across the Meon Valley.”

Emma, who lives in Swanmore, has been curate at Harbour Church in Portsmouth for the past three years. She was ordained in 2022 and has served the congregations at All Saints, Commercial Road, St George’s in Portsea, and St Alban’s in Copnor, as well as leading its Ministry Discipleship Year programme.

Before that she was part of St Peter’s Church, Bishop’s Waltham, where she created a Sunday afternoon worship event for 11 to 14-year-olds. She initially felt the call to ordination in 2016, when she read about the call of Isaiah in Isaiah 6 and asked God to send someone who could show local people who Jesus is. It became clear that might actually be her.

She’ll begin her new role on June 16 and hopes that the first Barn Church service will happen on September 21st. Emma, who has run Alpha Courses at Harbour Church, will run an Alpha Course over the summer to create the genesis of a new congregation. She’ll also become involved in schools work to help raise its profile.

She said: “There are 10,000 people living in the Meon Valley and around 5,000 would say they are Christian. We do see some of them regularly in church, and many villagers would attend at Christmas, Easter and other festivals. That’s great, but it means there is plenty of potential for a community worshipping in an alternative way to take off.”

Emma is running an Alpha Course from May 13, which will help to gather together those who are interested and those who want to know more about the Christian faith. To keep in touch with what’s going on, see www.barnchurch.uk