About St Mary Magdalene Church

St Mary Magdalene’s Church, standing floodlit at the top of Windmill Hill, Enfield, has been a source of spiritual inspiration for worshippers and others in the local community for more than 130 years, as well as a notable landmark for much of North London and South Hertfordshire.

Located on the highest hill for many miles around, St Mary Magdalene stands 250 feet above sea level. The tower, complete with spire, reaches a further 140 feet skywards.

Cruciform in design, with north and south aisles, a south porch and a west tower, the church is as long as it is high, measuring 140 feet. The nave is 55 feet high from ground to the ridge of the roof and 50 feet wide.

The structure consists of coursed Kentish ragstone with Bath stone dressings in an early English style.

The church architect was William Butterfield and was completed in 1883. The Lady Chapel was added in 1907.

St Mary Magdalene does not have a car park but parking is possible in the local streets. Buses 121, 307, 313 and 377 stop outside the Church, buses 191 and 239 stop nearby and we are a short walk from Enfield Chase station.

Everyone is welcome...

Expect a warm welcome when you enter St Mary Magdalene, everyone is welcome. You will be provided with a hymn book and a service booklet along with the weekly bulletin sheet which contains details of the forthcoming events along with the Collects and readings for the day. We don't use overhead projection so as not to detract from our beautiful Chancel.

Following the service you are warmly invited to join us for tea, coffee or squash and a biscuit in our hall, which is accessed round the outside of the church and alongside the East wall (Chancel end).

I have been coming to St Mary's for about 38 years; my faith has grown a lot in this time. I have helped with Sunday School which was good, you learn from the children as they see things in a different way. My faith really grew when I became Sacristan. When my husband died I had big support from everyone at church, this is because we are 'a big family'. After all, faith and friendship is what St Mary Magdalene's all about.

Pam Hagan

What we believe

Belief in God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit is at the heart of our faith. Christians believe that Jesus is God’s Son. Jesus reveals to us that God is our Father, and that God is available to us through the Holy Spirit.

You won’t ever be asked if you completely understand all this. But you are asked whether you believe and trust. This is called faith. It is a different sort of knowledge. It is the knowledge of being known and loved, and of loving in return.

The Christian faith is not a human invention. There are signs of God’s existence and handiwork in creation for anyone to read (Acts 14.15–17). But we believe in the way we do because God has come to seek us out and has made himself known to us.

God has revealed himself through the Bible.

God has revealed himself most clearly through the gift of his Son, Jesus Christ.

God makes himself known personally to each believer through the work of the Holy Spirit.

God has revealed himself through the Bible.

God has revealed himself most clearly through the gift of his Son, Jesus Christ.

God makes himself known personally to each believer through the work of the Holy Spirit.

When someone becomes a follower of Jesus they are baptized. (Or, if they have already been baptized, they will confirm for themselves the promises made at their baptism.) During this service a series of questions will be asked – in most respects the questions asked today are the same as those new Christians were asked in the earliest days of the Church.

"Brothers and sisters, I ask you to profess together the faith of the Church.

Do you believe and trust in God the Father?
Do you believe and trust in his Son Jesus Christ?
Do you believe and trust in the Holy Spirit?"

Everyone answers with either a simple ‘I believe and trust in him’, or by reciting the three parts of the Apostles’ Creed, one of the most ancient summaries of the Christian faith.

Being a Christian means responding to Jesus' invitation to enjoy a relationship with God here on earth and for eternity.

From the earliest days of the Church, Christians developed short, simple summaries of the faith. These short statements became known as creeds.

The word ‘creed’ comes from the Latin word credo, meaning ‘I believe and trust’.

Two creeds in particular were developed in the early centuries of the Church, which have remained important to the Church and are regularly used in our worship today.

People who were preparing for baptism in the early centuries of the Christian Church learned a short summary of what Christians believe. One version became accepted as the Apostles’ Creed, because it was thought to include the essential teaching of the 12 apostles, Jesus’ earliest followers. It was into that faith of the apostles that Christians were, and are, baptized.

The Apostles’ Creed is therefore a summary of what the Church teaches, and of what Christians together believe, rather than a detailed statement of individual and personal belief. Saying the Creed binds Christians together as a believing community, across different traditions and practices.

As we say the Creed, we join Christians past and present, and from all over the world, in proclaiming our common faith.

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.

Apostles Creed

From the earliest days of the Church, Christians developed short, simple summaries of the faith. These short statements became known as creeds.

The word ‘creed’ comes from the Latin word credo, meaning ‘I believe and trust’.

Two creeds in particular were developed in the early centuries of the Church, which have remained important to the Church and are regularly used in our worship today.

As we say the Creed, we join Christians past and present, and from all over the world, in proclaiming our common faith.

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.

Apostles Creed