St Ives is a melting pot of religious belief, the town is even named after a Persian Bishop, St Ivo. In addition to the early alternation between the state Christian religions of Protestant and Roman Catholic various groups separated into the Baptists, Methodists and other non-conformist elements. With the statue of Oliver Cromwell standing four square in the middle of the Market Place one cannot easily deny the town's involvement in the process of definition of State and Church on a national level!

Perhaps that is why today we are lucky to have what appears to be a homogenous community, that many places would aspire too, with the welcome addition of Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist groups.

Since 1967 a number of our individual religious groups decided to join together at various times of the year for communal worship and charitable fund raising under the banner of "Churches Together in St Ives", they still do and they also meet regularly in each other's buildings.

Churches Together in St. Ives