St Alban’s Church, North Harrow, is proud to welcome members of the Deaf community to its services. The Church of England believes that everyone has an equal right to access worship in their local parish.
Here at St Alban’s Church the 10am service on the first and second Sundays in every month (apart from January and August) is fully interpreted into British Sign Language (BSL) by a team led by John Ryan.
Other major festivals, for example Easter and Midnight Mass, and on request, meetings with the ministry team, weddings, christenings and funerals can also be interpreted.
Johnis a retired Sign Language Interpreter. For over 30 years he worked in all settings (including religious, medical and legal settings, training courses, team meetings), with MASLI/MRSLI status. He is still passionate about his work and advocates for settings to become inclusive, where Deaf and hearing people can freely communicate.
Sarah Hart is a qualified Teacher of the Deaf; providing support and advice to deaf children, young people, their families and schools in the London Borough of Hillingdon. Sarah was born with a permanent high frequency hearing loss and uses hearing aids to help her access the entire speech spectrum. She has CACDP Stage 2 in British Sign Language.
Irene Lawrence
has recently become ordained and works as a curate at St Albans. She has a hearing impairment, and uses lipreading. She has been part of the signing team at St Albans for 5 years and passed a pre-level 4 course. In addition to church, Irene supports deaf archers in Middlesex and enjoys continued learning, attending bi-annual Signs of God summer schools, sign club at Remark! and Thank God it's Friday in Kings Cross.
joined the signing team at St Albans over 20 years ago and qualified as a British Sign Language Interpreter in 2016. She has a background in disability advice work and now works as a freelancer in many different domains: from health & social care, general office support, staff training days to educational settings and panto.
In the London Diocese there are 479 Anglican churches, currently 8 of which provide signed services. If you would like anymore information about other churches that provide British Sign Language or the work of the Deaf Chaplaincy in the
Other Christian and BSL websites that may be of interest include: