About Bay Church
In 2021 the Bishop of Exeter, with backing from St Matt’s Plymouth, the Church Revitalisation Trust (CRT) and support from the Church of England’s Strategic Development Funding (SDF), welcomed a team from across the HTB Network to plant Bay Church and focus particularly on engaging with children, young people and families across Torbay.
The vision of Bay Church is to see Jesus loved, the Church alive and society transformed in Torbay and beyond.
Jesus Loved.
We believe that Jesus transforms lives, and our heart is to see people come to know and experience that life changing relationship with Jesus.
The Church Alive.
We know that healthy things grow, and so we want to see churches alive and thriving, growing in number and in depth.
Society Transformed.
We want to see a more fair and just society; where the lonely are loved, the homeless housed, and the addicted set free.
Churches are not museums that display perfect people. They are hospitals where the wounded, hurt, injured and broken can find healing. The Church is a family you can belong to.
Whoever you are, whatever your story, you’re welcome here.
Revd Matt Bray, his wife Fiona, and their two little boys, moved to Torbay from Portsmouth in the Summer of 2021, to see the vision start to become a reality. In the following months, a number of other families joined them from across the Bay and from across the country, to help forge the family that is Bay Church.
Our first location launched on Easter Sunday 2022 at St Andrew’s, Paignton, where people have been worshipping God since the 1890s. Although Bay Church is a new Church family, this beautiful old building at the heart of Torbay reminds us that we’re joining in with a story which is bigger than ourselves. God has been at work in Torbay for centuries, and it’s our great joy to join in with blessing the Bay.
