Who are the people and what are the characteristics of the area of Weymouth around St John's Church and the Park Church Centre? This was the community the churches were built to serve, even if today the congregation is drawn from a wider area.

The area around St John’s Church serves the resort by providing accommodation in the form of small hotels and guest houses; our congregation is swelled each year when we're joined by holidaymakers. A number of larger Victorian properties have been converted into residential or nursing homes for the elderly, some of which receive monthly visits for services and Communion. Weymouth and District Hospital is literally just around the corner from the church on Melcombe Avenue, and behind the hospital on Cranford Avenue is Weymouth College, offering Sixth Form, Further and Adult Education.

The picturesque Esplanade hides the Park District, a densely populated area with issues of social deprivation. Many of the houses closest to the station were originally built for railway workers in the second half of the nineteenth century, but have now been converted into flats or bedsits; some of the occupants are seasonally employed or on state benefits, and a proportion are single parent families.

Weymouth and Portland Borough Council have drawn up a regeneration scheme for the area along with that for the town centre. In the Park District the Waterside Community Forum has been set up and, since November 2006, has used the Park Church as a Community Centre.

There are, not unnaturally, church members who have moved out of the area served by our churches but who nevertheless still attend so that they can maintain contact with their friends. There are also those who travel further for other reasons - who knows, perhaps because they like what we do?