Partners & Families

We make sure that partners and families are pastorally and socially supported

Worshipping Together

At Westcott House our life together is anchored in the patterns of prayer and worship that centre on our chapel and permeate everything we do.

Everyone who comes to Westcott comments on the community – it’s a common thread that runs through what our students, their partners and families, and our staff and visitors say about Westcott. And the community we have here at Westcott is one that is shaped and sustained by prayer and worship. The College chapel sits next to the library on the south side of Old Court and its simple interior invites us in to find calm and know that God is with us in all that we do.

Following God’s calling on our lives always takes prayer – we need prayer to know where God is leading us and to work out how to follow faithfully in good times and bad. The Westcott day is shaped by times of shared prayer and worship, beginning with Morning Prayer for all our students at 7:40am and continuing through to the simple beauty of Compline for those who choose to round off the day together at 9:30pm. Find out more about our regularly weekly services by viewing our chapel card.

Prayer sustains us and marks out the pattern of the day within which we study, work and relax.

Every member of the Westcott House community is welcome in our Chapel. Although most of our students are here to train for ministry, others in our wider community of partners, families and staff will be at any number of different stages on their journey of faith. Our chapel is a place of welcome where we know we all come into God’s presence as equals and are equally loved.

As part of their training for ministry, our students share in the work of local churches and chapels on Sundays and within Westcott we gather together for a special service in chapel or in the garden on Thursday evenings. This is when the wider Westcott House community – particularly families and staff – gather in greatest numbers for chapel and supper together afterwards. The younger members of our community have a dedicated ‘Little Saints’ gathering and we find joy in coming together as a whole community to worship.

For students training with us for ministry, the regular patterns of prayer and worship that are established during their years at Westcott form the backbone of a pattern that helps sustain them in the years ahead. The time we spend in chapel is also one of the key ways we connect up the different strands of study and formation for ministry – in conversation with God we make sense of the world and the paths he calls us to follow in it. Our chaplain has a special role in the Westcott House community, not only in their care for the chapel and for our worshipping life, but in supporting each member of the community to make sense of the world in conversation with God.

It was a real joy to be a Trustee of Westcott House and see the fantastic work it is doing helping people from a wide variety of backgrounds serve the church in ministry and other capacities. The House offers intellectual and practical learning in a supportive and prayerful community.

Sir Robert Chote Trustee of Westcott House Council (2020-2022)