Meeting Point Cafe

Alwoodly Park Methodist Church

It was a leap of faith when, in the depths of the 2nd World War, a decision was made to open a new Methodist church in what was then a partly built-up and sparsely occupied district of north Leeds.

As we write, the country is in the depths of another emergency caused by the Covid19 outbreak and all services and other church activities are suspended.

However in May 1941 the church opened in an adapted bungalow. Fifteen years later the church we see today was opened and large and small church halls followed during the 1960s.

In 2020 Alwoodley Park church is using this time of enforced idleness to dream dreams and have visions for the future. There has been a long tradition of social care and concern in the church with a play school and occasional 'messy church' for the young, 'Night 16', a social group for the later middle aged and a fortnightly Lunch Club for the more elderly. There is an annual fund-raising drive – this year for Yorkshire Air Ambulance and church members are active in the Leeds North and West Foodbank.

We are a congregation who love to sing and plans for a choral communion service had to be put on hold for the 'lockdown'. We are a welcoming church, eager to see new faces come through the door and we are unafraid of change. That is why we are planning to cater for and serve the younger age groups in our community. Monthly all-age services had hardly started when the nation went into lockdown; breakfast services are planned for the future.

We intend that Alwoodley Park Methodist church will have an exciting future and we want to see new people come and, with us, be a part of it.