Walk down Bold Street in Central Liverpool on a Tuesday or Thursday lunchtime and if you’re lucky you might catch the aroma of freshly baked bread. Twice a week, the Bread Church meets to bake bread, worship and offer companionship, right in the heart of Liverpool.

The Bread Church meets in a flat above a shop, and anyone is invited. The church has played host to everyone from Big Issue sellers to Bishops, from asylum seekers to Archdeacons and from the powerless to Presidents of Conferenc.

Baking bread enables people to relax, chat, tell stories and simply be together. Everyone is given time to speak, and people can participate as much or as little as they want to.

It’s an idea that’s certainly catching on. The church is regularly full, and is now on the look out for new premises. The idea has taken hold internationally too, and there are now Bread Churches in both Stockholm and in Soweto.