Jesus – Community - Creativity

The Bear Church is an independent Christian Church based in Deptford, South East London.  

We are a hybrid of two churches: the Shaftesbury Christian centre and The Bear Church (merged in 2007).

The Shaftesbury Christian Centre can trace its roots back to 1844 when eight Christian men and women, in a loft above a Deptford cowshed, taught children to read and write 27 years before the state began providing education for all children. The Deptford Ragged School was exclusively run for ‘ragged children’, so named because they ‘dressed in rags’, with bare feet in all weathers. In 1862, the Earl of Shaftesbury wrote “there is no institution in England more worthy of support than the Deptford Ragged School”.

Read more about the Deptford Ragged School Archive.

The Bear Church began as The Brown Bear in an old public house on Deptford High Street in 1990. It was started by a group of visionary leaders and young people from Ichthus Christian Fellowship as an outreach post and church for young people.

Today - The Bear Church, and its charitable arm The Deptford Ragged Trust is currently redeveloping our site so that it can serve Deptford with events space, affordable housing for rent for 18 to 30-year-olds, a cafe, a museum archive and a new home for The Bear Church.

We collaborate and partner with others, believing this leads to the transformation of people’s social, economic, and spiritual well-being.

Read more about our building project here.