When St David’s in Penllergaer was looking for ways to better serve its busy community, it came up with an idea that is not only making headlines but inspiring churches across the globe.

St David’s is at the heart of a commuter area of Swansea and, with people leading increasingly hectic lives, the concept of a short service at the end of the working day was born.

15 Minute Church takes place every Monday at 4.45pm and gives people a chance to take time with a short service of reflection or, as vicar Rev’d John Gillibrand describes it, an oasis of calm.

“15 Minute Church is exactly that,” he said. “It’s 15 minutes of, we think, a complete oasis of quiet, of reflection, here on a Monday evening in the middle of a very, very busy world. We can find some peace here.”

Since launching in April the service has made headlines around the world, but it was inspired by circumstances much closer to home.

“The thing that we’ve been doing, particularly since lockdown, is trying to think what the needs of the wider community are, and to identify those needs. One of the things that’s very, very obvious, partly because this is an area with a large number of commuters, is that people lead enormously busy lives. There are all kinds of pressure from work, from family life. We all experience it and what we were trying to think was, what has the church got to offer to busy people? And as I say, what we came up with was this 15 minutes oasis of calm at the end of a busy day.”

The service follows a simple format: a five-minute introduction, a five-minute Bible reading and reflection, and five minutes for prayer.

“At the end, I give people a blessing,” John said. “And it’s that sense of being blessed by God in the middle of a busy and troubled world to find some peace here and to find God’s blessing.”

John is keen to expand 15 Minute Church, and there are plans for a service for carers.

“At the moment we’re meeting from 4.45 to 5pm every Monday evening, but if any individuals or group approach me and say we’d like a different time slot, then I’d be as flexible as I could be. I also want to think about the needs of particular groups and I think very much of carers. They are a tenth of the population and some are under enormous pressure, so what we’re thinking of doing over the next few months is to have a special 15 minute service for carers and see how that goes as well.”

Inspired by the success of 15 Minute Church, John is keen to look at further initiatives to serve the local community.

“One of the things about all of this is that we’re experimenting, seeing how things go, reviewing as we go along, and being prepared to try new things,” he said. “If they don’t work then we’ll go on to something else, but if they do work then we’ll keep doing it and keep doing more of it.”