The Church

Who we are

Riverchurch is an English-speaking Christian community based near Perpignan, in the Pyrénées-Orientales département of southern France.

Creative, fun, intelligent and culturally relevant, our desire is authentically to live out and demonstrate the good news of Jesus Christ, bringing hope and new life as we express Church in a contemporary, fresh and energetic style.

You

Visiting the region? Have a holiday home here? Live here all year round? Attend church regularly in the UK or elsewhere and looking for a “secondary” spiritual home? Exploring church while you have time away from other pressures? Join us.

Us

Young families, retirees, those in between. New in the faith, mature, seeking. English-speaking, French-speaking. Tea-drinkers, coffee-drinkers. Lovers of French wine, teetotal. Contemporary worship songs, hymns. God’s love is what we have in common.

Him

Jesus: the centre of our faith. God’s love, demonstrated in the cross of Jesus and in his resurrection. He has set us free. He transforms lives. Through his Spirit he touches our hearts. He wants to touch yours, too.

Our mission statement

We are a community of Christians seeking an intimacy with God.
We want to hear the words of Jesus and put them into practice in our everyday lives.
Our aim is to bring the liberating truth of the good news of Jesus Christ to those around us.

Our Beliefs

Riverchurch aims to understand the needs of our generation and meet together in a meaningful, relevant, contemporary and fresh way. It is our vision to see God’s kingdom grow and be established like a river that brings and sustains new life.

We believe in the one true God who lives eternally in three persons - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

We believe in the love, grace and sovereignty of God in creating, sustaining, ruling, redeeming and judging the world.

We believe in the divine inspiration and supreme authority of the Old and New Testament Scriptures, which are the written Word of God - fully trustworthy for faith and conduct.

We believe in the dignity of all people, made male and female in God's image to love, be holy and care for creation, yet corrupted by sin, which incurs divine wrath and judgement.

We believe in the incarnation of God’s eternal Son, the Lord Jesus Christ - born of the virgin Mary; truly divine and truly human, yet without sin.

The atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross: dying in our place, paying the price of sin and defeating evil, so reconciling us with God.

We believe in the justification of sinners solely by the grace of God through faith in Christ.

We believe in the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, who leads us to repentance, unites us with Christ through new birth, empowers our discipleship and enables our witness.

We believe in the Church, the body of Christ both local and universal, the priesthood of all believers - given life by the Spirit and endowed with the Spirit's gifts to worship God and proclaim the gospel, promoting justice and love.

We believe in the personal and visible return of Jesus Christ to fulfill the purposes of God, who will raise all people to judgement, bring eternal life to the redeemed and eternal condemnation to the lost, and establish a new heaven and new earth.

Leaders

Moray

Before moving to France in 1998, Moray was for ten years full-time leader of an Ichthus Christian Fellowship congregation in Carshalton, London. He trained at Moorlands College, Christchurch, Dorset from 1986-89. Moray and Ann were part of the leadership of a large French church for their first 17 years in Pyrénées-Orientales - Moray as associate pastor. He has a strong desire to see people in the region transformed by the Lord Jesus. His giftings in teaching, preaching and admin – as well as being bilingual in French – means that he is able to lead Riverchurch on in its outreach to both English and French-speakers.

Ann

Ann served as a leader alongside Moray in both their previous churches. She had particular responsibilities for worship and the children’s work. She began helping with the worship at Riverchurch several years ago, while still part of the team at a local French-speaking church, and now heads up our worship team.

Peter

Peter is originally from Belfast in Northern Ireland. He was raised in the Church of Ireland and was a Sunday school teacher before joining the Royal Air Force Regiment in 1969.

Sue

Peter and Sue have travelled widely and now enjoy retirement in France where they have been members of Riverchurch since 2007.

Philip

After having lived and worked in the UK, Holland, Belgium and Germany, Philip and his family arrived in France in 1993. Philip came to faith quite late in life, and became part of the Riverchurch Leadership Team in 2020.

Melani

Melani is from South Africa and came to France in 2012 in support of her husband's career. Since 2007, they have lived in 10 different cities - five in South Africa and five in France. Together with their 3 children, they have now settled in the Pyrénées-Orientales and have made Riverchurch their home.

Diana

Diana came to France with husband Philip and their two girls in 1993 and settled in Brittany. They moved to the Pyrénées-Orientales 11 years ago and Diana discovered Riverchurch when she went looking for an English Christmas Carol Service. Not long after that she came to faith and was baptised. She very much enjoys leading worship with Ann and is now part of the leadership team.

PETER

Peter is one of our “part timers”. That means that he and wife Marilyn live in the UK but they have a second home in France which they visit frequently; they have worshipped at Riverchurch for many years. Peter is part of the leadership team at his UK church and is also a member of the Beachy Head Chaplaincy Team, a search and rescue charity that seeks to save lives at Beachy Head.