The “toast” of a new town
CMS Pioneer graduate whose unexpected journey to Jesus led to founding an unexpected church community
Photo: Once an atheist, Fiona Mayne is now
ordained, seen here being commissioned by the local archdeacon to lead a church on a new housing estate
As a young adult, if you’d told Fiona Mayne she’d one day be a pioneer minister and planting a church on a new housing estate, she likely wouldn’t have believed you. But as she says, she started with a passion and energy to share Jesus and it’s been an amazing journey of possibility ever since.
“I’m not a Christian, so please don’t talk to me about God, okay?”
Fiona Mayne had been looking for a holiday venue for her and her children. Someone recommended a Christian-run hotel. When Fiona called to book, she made it clear she was an atheist. She was told she’d be very welcome.
As Fiona said during a recent podcast interview: “God wasn’t really on my radar.” She’d attended a Church of England school but not considered that Jesus was a real person to be known. An independent financial advisor and martial arts enthusiast, her main exposure to Christianity had been through a chance reading of The Heart of a Hooligan, the story of Dave Jeal, a football hooligan turned chaplain.
And yet, here she was, turning up at a Christian hotel in Sidmouth, where the people turned out to be very friendly. She found she enjoyed sharing meals with them.
And one night, in August 2012, she says she sat down to dinner an atheist and rose from the table a follower of Jesus. In her words, “Everything changed overnight.” Fiona felt like a new person and she was already beginning to sense a new calling.
Starting simple
As Fiona was making her unexpected journey to Jesus, close to where she lived in Weston-super-Mare a new town was coming into being with the establishment of a housing estate.
In 2014, Fiona, who’d begun attending church in Bristol and then more locally, kept finding herself drawn to this fledgling neighbourhood called Haywood Village. She spoke to her vicar about doing some outreach there. “We started off very simply with mulled wine and carols around a Christmas tree,” she recalls.
“I’ve learned a lot… about different ways of doing church and being authentic”
The place was still pretty much a building site, with few people and no streetlights. Eventually a school and pub were constructed. As people moved in, Fiona asked them what they might like to see in the area in terms of forming community. She was encouraged when they said they’d appreciate a space to gather and get to know each other. Fiona got permission from the school to set up a weekly pop-up cafe called Take Five – soon 100 people were coming for activities like Lego and crafts.
Fiona kept asking questions, such as, if there were to be a church here, what would you want it to look like? Kind of like this cafe, was the response. And that’s how Tea and Toast Church was born in 2017, as a regular cafe-style gathering where people could ask questions about faith.
Putting down roots
Fiona moved to Haywood Village in 2018 and began hosting a sizable Alpha course cohort in her home. As the course came to a close, the group said they wanted to keep meeting. So Fiona asked more questions: what would you like to do, that would be different to simply a social club?
“They said they wanted something mid-week, something where they could be a bit like the early Acts church, where they could come together in relationship, speak about their week, ask each other questions, read the Bible, pray. So, we started Rooted. They came up with the name and it was always over a meal. Initially it was at my house, but now it’s too big, so it’s in the school.”
Breaking new ground
These days Tea and Toast and Rooted continue to welcome a growing number of people: older, younger, families, people with special needs, Christians and non. Everyone stays together during the meeting times and people appreciate the informality and the ability to ask questions.
One woman started attending as she was caring for a disabled person who is part of the church. She ended up finding faith in Jesus and is now baptised.
As people become part of the community, Fiona says she’s noticed several people “cross the line” at some point and choose to follow Jesus.
Fiona is now an ordained pioneer minister in the Church of England, having trained “on the job” while studying at CMS. She said recently in an interview: “I’ve learned quite a lot along the way because I was at CMS… about the variety of different ways of doing church and being authentic.
“CMS is an outstanding place to learn and meet other like-minded people. As a pioneer I don’t think there is anywhere else I personally could even consider wanting to go.”
True to her pioneering spirit and job title, the next steps for Haywood Village Church are ground-breaking – literally. The church team have managed to secure a plot of land on which to build a more permanent meeting space, with rooms to let to other groups. In the meantime, the church are negotiating to use space in an empty shop unit to create a church and community hub. Fiona’s business background is coming in handy as she manages this project. She’s still committed to keeping the meeting-around-tables model even as the work scales upward.
This article drew from interviews with CMS and the churchmissionsociety.org/pioneer Pivot Podcast, a production of Luther Seminary’s Faith+Lead, which can be found on the CMS website.
