Barley Hill Church was established in the 1990s. Its vision to be a presence on the new estate being built in Thame. It grew to become a friendly, informal and lively church in its own right; people of all ages and backgrounds came together to worship God and share life together. It was based at Barley Hill School.  

When the pandemic closed churches, schools and confined communities to their homes, Barley Hill joined forces with St Mary’s once again, and launched ChurchOnline; allowing church members to worship from their homes.

The community from Barley Hill Church now worship with those of St Mary’s and St Catherine’s in their buildings; uniting in their mission to be a church that is growing through encountering God, seeing lives transformed as they share the love of Jesus with their community.

Files for the Barley Hill APCM 2025

International Community

As a church we support a number of international projects and mission partners. Here is a little information on each.

New Life House, Dhangadhi, Nepal

In 2000 Gyanu and Isaac Pradhaan, with their three daughters and adopted son, knocked down their cottage in Dhangadhi and built New Life House orphanage on the site. Just six months later Isaac died but, with prayer, dedication and support from her family – and friends across the world – Gyanu has continued to run New Life House.  Barley Hill got involved due to Rev Bill Pryce CBE in 2003 and has been partnering with New Life Nepal Support Trust (the UK based charity 1158988) since it started in 2015. 

New Life House provides a loving home for 11 girls (and some of the other people who live locally but are now too old to live there by law), providing a home and access to education to enable the children to gain a occupation of their choice when they reach adulthood. 

They are also running a local education programme which allows children who are too poor to go to school access- currently only to the end of primary age, but there is a hope that this project can be grown to include secondary.  Some of these children have been prevented from being sold into trafficking rings or left to beg on the streets- all for about £100 a year!

They used to run a full health clinic but due to changes in Nepali law, this is no longer possible.  They offer home visits, medication and medical aid to anyone in need.  They run some public health projects from the site and are now offering vocational courses to enable people locally to improve their own quality of life.

Isaac and Gyanu also founded Mahan Agya Church which holds regular services and runs youth and children’s work and bible studies.
 
Church Contacts : Richard Shearwood and Janette Dixon

Mission Partners

Stephen and Cath McGoldrick

We are with WEC International, based in Bujumbura, Burundi. We are mobilisers with ACTS13. This is a ministry of WEC that works with local churches in Africa to support them in raising, sending and supporting their own missionaries within Africa and beyond. We are building up a network of ACTS13 mobilisers over East Africa and Congo.
 
WEC is committed to finding new, creative and culturally-relevant ways of doing missions.

They became members of Barley Hill Church in 1999; and continue to be involved in Thame Church, attending in person when in the UK.  

Andrew and Janet Sweet

Wycliffe Bible Translators long to see a world where everyone can know Jesus through the Bible.1 in 5 people alive today are still waiting to get the Bible in their language. They serve local partners worldwide as they bring God’s word to their communities in the language that speaks to them best.

Andrew serves with Wycliffe Bible Translators as an HR Specialist looking after Wycliffe’s  employees, and coordinating the membership application process. Through these roles the UK staff  team is supported, and members are brought into missions work overseas.

Janet serves with BTL (Bible Translation & Literacy), which is based in Kenya, supporting their  publishing and archiving. Most recently Janet has undertaken Scripture typesetting for languages in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, so that the first printed Scriptures are available in these languages.
 
They became members of Barley Hill Church in 2015 and continue to throw themselves into all that Thame Church has to offer.