Regular Church Services in The Octagon Parish
General Guidelines for Special Services in the Octagon Parish
Weddings and Marriage Blessings
Funerals, Remembrance and Obituaries

We are a traditional, inclusive and welcoming, rural parish set in the beautiful South Downs National Park. We invite you to visit our churches for worship, private prayer or some much needed peace and quiet.

Each Sunday morning we have a parish Eucharist in one of our eight churches at 10 am. We usually follow the liturgy from Common Worship in contemporary language for this service. When a month has five Sundays our Eucharist on the fifth Sunday takes place at St Peter’s, Racton and we use the liturgy for Holy Communion from the Book of Common Prayer (1662).

We also have an All-Age service on the third Sunday of the month at St Mary’s, Compton and other morning services of the word at St Mary’s, Stoughton on the first Sunday and St Peter’s Racton alternate second Sundays. We hold our Eucharist at Christchurch, Forestside on the fourth Sunday of the month and just two services a year at St Mary’s, North Marden on Good Friday and Sea Sunday in July.

All our evening services take place at 5:30pm and are according to the Book of Common Prayer.

Brief monthly midday services take place on the first Wednesday of the month at St Paul’s Chapel, Stansted.

At Christmas, Harvest and during Holy Week we hold a variety of special services across the parish.

For a full timetable of services please see click here to go to the services page and/or subscribe to the Octagon weekly bulletin and the Octagon Magazine.

Usual Monthly Pattern

Sunday of the Month 10.00 am 10.00 am 5.30 pm
First Eucharist – Compton Morning Worship – Stoughton
Second Eucharist – East Marden Morning Worship – Racton (alternate months)
Third Eucharist – Stoughton All Age Service – Compton
Fourth Eucharist – Forestside Evensong – Up Marden (May to September only)
Fifth Holy Communion (BCP) – Racton

Churches open for private prayer

Our churches are all open for private prayer.

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