The Parish of Witney and the Batt School

The parish church of Saint Mary’s Witney has been in its current form since 1243. It is a place of worship and welcome, rest and refreshment. The Parish has very close links with the Batt School – including the site of the memorial for the Batt Family, with a depiction of the story of the Good Samaritan. The children regularly attend services in the church, and have weekly Collective Worship in school from the from Ministry Team. The Parish is highly involved with the Vision and Leadership of the school, with the Rector and Warden serving on the Local Governing Body. The school and church work closely together in building up community. As we do so, we are committed to the four windows of spiritual development (David Smith 1999): Spiritual Capacities, Spiritual Experiences, Spiritual Understanding and Spiritual Response.

We invest heavily in relationships over time and journeying together, and we always encourage questioning. We are committed to helping people discover different ways to connect with God, within an hospitable and inclusive approach to spirituality for all. We use grounding activities to get in touch with how we feel, and encourage ‘wow’ moments through asking big questions. As Dr Rebecca Nye has written, ‘Failure to nurture children's spirituality not only threatens to harm them, it has deadly consequences for us, both personally and for the church community.’

The Rev’d Canon Toby Wright

Rector of Witney