Posted on: 17th September 2026

The Parish of Swarcliffe and Whinmoor held their first service on Sunday, September 6 led by the Revd Hannah Jones, vicar in the parish.

The service was held at the recently reopened St Luke’s Swarcliffe Community Church, where the Rt Revd Arun Arora, Bishop of Kirkstall, preached and worshipped with all who attended.

The service was a celebration of a lot of work to make the plant possible, with St Luke’s reopening after 15 years of not being used as a church. The vision for the parish is ‘Follow Jesus, Love People,’ with an authentic Anglican presence at the centre of its community welcoming all to ‘come to the table’ as a church family. Revd Hannah and her planting team from St George’s Leeds are looking to build relational and spiritual links with the wider community while establishing a pattern of regular, informal and family-friendly worship.

The parish are also looking at building new relationships with the six schools in the area, beginning by working with Year 6 pupils as they prepare for secondary school, and a monthly worship session at St Paul’s School Church in Whinmoor, which will hopefully be the site of the parish’s next church plant in the years to come.

The Rt Revd Toby Howarth, next Bishop of Leeds, recently visited St Luke’s as part of a day tour around the diocese, and heard from Revd Hannah about all the work the team have done to get to this point, and their vision and plans for mission in their area. Revd Hannah spoke about her calling to St Luke’s, and her sense of the importance of ministry in East Leeds, reaching both exisiting residents and people moving into the thousands of new homes being built. During his visit Bishop Toby also met Hilary, a PCC member at St Luke’s and a former churchwarden at the time the church closed. Hilary spoke powerfully about the church closing on Christmas Day 15 years ago, and how good it was to see the new parish up and running. During the visit Bishop Toby had the chance to explore the St Luke’s building and pray for the future of the parish with Revd Hannah.

This new parish plant has been made possible by funding as part of our recent award of the Diocesan Investment Programme and our Barnabas work.

More on this can be found here.