About us

This is the Parish of Sacred Heart Church, Goudhurst and St Barnabas Church, Hawkhurst and is led by the priest in charge, Fr Ethelbert Ukpabi.

The Parish centre is Goudhurst which is a small village in the county of Kent.  Kent is blessed with beautiful scenery, picturesque villages, some hundreds of years old, fields of crops, vines and sheep. The word "Hurst" found in many of the village names in Kent is an old English word meaning a knoll or wooded knoll,  of which many can be found.  No wonder it is called 'The Garden of England'. 

The village of Goudhurst has about 1,105 inhabitants, whilst Hawkhurst has 3683 (in the 2021 census)  Our Parish also has parishioners living in Marden, Horsmonden, Staplehurst,  Cranbrook, Sandhurst, Ticehurst, Robertsbridge and the surrounding small villages.  Some of these parishioners come from European countries, Asia, Africa, Mauritius and others, which brings diversity and flare to our community.

The parish is part of Maidstone Deanery within the Archdiocese of Southwark. It is primarily responsible for the population living in a geographic area bounded by the Kent border with East Sussex to the south west, the Deanery of Tunbridge Wells to the west, the parish of Maidstone South to the north, and the parish of Cranbrook to the east.

We are active in our local community working alongside other agencies as well as running our own projects as an expression of the love of God in a practical way. We enjoy joint ecumenical events with the Church of England parishes of St Mary’s, Goudhurst, and St Laurence, Hawkhurst as well as with the Baptist and Methodist communities in each village.