We are single friendly – we might as well shout about it!
Christ Church Hipperholme and Lightcliffe is a Methodist and United Reformed Local Ecumenical Partnership in West Yorkshire. Located at the crossroads of their village outside Halifax, their commitment to welcoming single people has developed naturally from the community around them.
“We looked at the demographic of the area and the average age is the second oldest in our borough,” Caroline, Church Secretary and Senior Steward, shares as we sit down with the church to hear their story. “Some new housing developments are being built, but currently as a church we know that our mission is mostly to the elderly. And you find that there are a lot of single, elderly people about.”
Being a Single Friendly Church means more to them than giving a warm welcome on a Sunday. It's about what happens after the hello – the opportunity to form friendships and discover that you have something valuable to contribute. “You’ve got to be loved, love and be needed,” Caroline explains.
“We do look out for people when they come alone to church. We make sure somebody's sat with them and takes them down for a drink and a biscuit after the service. And if somebody's new, we give them a leaflet that tells them about what's on at church.”
In the church itself, relatively few people in the congregation attend as couples. “Most people are either single and coming on their own, or married and their partner doesn’t come regularly. So when I first heard about Single Friendly Church, I thought, well, we are, because we’ve got mostly single people!”
Everyone on the welcome team
Christ Church have a designated Welcome Team who greet people warmly at the door as they come in. But their dedication to welcome stretches far beyond this rota, and is fostered by regular members who feel passionately about making their church a loving place. Glenys is one of a group who intentionally sit at the back to make sure no one gets missed as they come in. “Everybody who comes into the church seems to like how we welcome them,” Glenys, one of these church members, shared. “They have a lot of praise for us.”
The church also runs a variety of midweek activities designed to bring people together beyond the Sunday services and create natural opportunities for friendship. There is a walking group, community choir, coffee morning, “Good as New” sale and a monthly Friday Friends group.
“We do a lot with older people so that they’re not lonely. I heard the single ladies talking at coffee morning and saying how Saturday is a very difficult day for them. So we have put two or three charity coffee mornings on a Saturday morning. We had one this last week for the local hospice, and it was hugely successful.”
We are single friendly – we might as well shout about it!
Christ Church first came into contact with Single Friendly Church Network at the Methodist Conference last year. The Methodist Church had recently published the Report on Singleness, in 2024, with a call for churches to welcome, affirm, and celebrate the contributions of single people.
“I was at Conference and heard the Singleness Report and how important it is to welcome single people. So when [I saw] the Single Friendly Church stand was there, I thought “Let's get registered, because we are single friendly so we might as well shout about that fact! If we shout about it, then other people won't feel that they can't come because they're on their own.”
Becoming an official Single Friendly Church was a simple process, with the church already doing so much to welcome and value single people. But working through the Single Friendly Church Audit also encouraged Christ Church to look at how they could make that welcome even more visible and inclusive.
“It’s made me a bit more alert about watching who’s leaving on their own,” Caroline says. “We’re very good at welcoming people when they come in, but what are they going back to? We don’t know who’s going home just to eat a sandwich on their own.”
Celebrating their single friendliness
Becoming a Single Friendly Church was a chance for Christ Church Hipperholme & Lightcliffe to celebrate what they are already doing. We hope that their story encourages other churches to see how this intentional yet simple approach to welcome can make a huge difference to people’s sense of belonging.
“Whether we’re single or not, [our church] is just made up of wonderful people.”
