Encouragements at Littleover Baptist Church  

Littleover Baptist Church, the Derby church where Violet Hedger held her first pastorate, has celebrated its first baptisms in over 20 years  

The church welcomed the Revd Elsie Fraser as its minister last year, and soon found itself in preparation for its first baptism since 2004.   

‘When I arrived, I found God had been preparing the ground and one gentleman asked to be baptised,’ said Elsie. ‘It was such a delight to hear how God had been at work in Steven's life and we planned for him to be baptised on Easter Sunday.’    

Given that the baptistry had been out of action since the mid-noughties, ‘in the weeks before the service we checked the baptistry by cleaning it and filling it a couple of times and were delighted it appeared to be in good working order’, explained Elsie.   

Everything seemed to be going smoothly… until the night before the baptism.   

‘On the Saturday evening, I received a call from one of the deacons to say the baptistry had developed a small leak, and water was trickling into our basement,’ said Elsie.   

This left the team with two options; either cancel and rearrange to a later date, or to ‘go ahead in faith’. They went with the latter.  

Even though the baptistry had to be continually topped up with buckets of hot water, it was an ‘amazing service’, said Elsie. 

‘The church was full and we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus and the new life He brings to individuals.’  

But the baptisms didn’t stop there. With a second one on the horizon, another tricky decision faced the small congregation: to fix the leaking baptistry, or hire one out when required?  

As before, the decision was simple: they would fix it.

'We believed God was at work, and we should step out in faith and trust Him,' said Elsie.

There have been a further two baptisms, including one at Pentecost this year, and another planned for September.   

There have been further encouragements: four new people came into membership in 2025, and so far another seven have joined this year. 

Last September, the church began a Sunday morning Bible Study Group for those wishing to deepen their faith and explore the Bible further. Ten months later, up to 17 people regularly attend, out of a congregation of 33.  

It’s an ‘incredible percentage’, said Elsie. 



This study group complements the Zoom Bible Study, which has been running since 2020 and the Coronavirus pandemic, and has consistently had an average of six weekly attendees. 

The church has also stepped up to a wider role within the community; it demonstrated the similarities and differences between Baptist and Anglican in two ‘live’ baptism demonstrations for a local Year 6 R.E (Religious Education) lesson. 

This year also sees Littleover Baptist Church celebrate the centenary of Violet Hedger being ordained there. Violet was the first woman to enter a Baptist college to be trained for ministry. 

‘The church at that time listened and responded to God and took this radical, counter-cultural step of faith to invite her to be their minister,’ said Elsie. 

‘Our desire is that we at Littleover Baptist Church today will continue to listen and respond to the voice of God and in faith follow as He leads us to reach out in love to our local community.’      



Words by Abraham Jones