Great St Mary's Church

About

Great St Mary's, the University Church, is the heart of Cambridge. An active Christian community for 800 years, our Tower has the best views in Cambridge!

Story

Great St Mary’s has maintained its witness to the faith of Christ for many centuries. It has carried out this mission in many ways as a parish church in the diocese of Ely, as the Church of the University of Cambridge, as a place of prayer and celebration for all the citizens of Cambridge.
Great St Mary's is a community which worships on Sundays and through the week, with a strong musical tradition and a lively programme of activities for all ages including special activities for children. A wide variety of preachers are invited to services and special events.
The church is also a centre of civic services and events, concerts and exhibitions. For information on how to get baptised, or married at Great St Mary’s, please visit our website.
Great St Mary's has the only ring of twelve bells in the county, on which the ‘Westminister chimes’ of Big Ben were composed and first rung. The pulpit is on rails so that it can be moved to a central position for major sermons and the church has two organs.
The parish is known as St Mary the Great with St Michael, Cambridge, and we also worship in the chapel of the Michaelhouse Centre in the historic St Michael’s Church just 50 yards along Trinity Street.