Team Letter, February 2024

by | Feb 2, 2024 | Team Letter

Dear Friends

I do hope that you have had a good Christmas and that the New Year has started well for you. I’m sorry that it has been so long since I last wrote but much has happened within our team since then.

As I hope you will all now be aware, all four of our team churches voted to continue the Fit for Mission journey at their PCCs in October and November, as indeed did all the churches in our deanery (the first to do so in Liverpool diocese!). There were various concerns raised by all PCC’s and it is now the task of the navigation team to begin to address those as we work through the next two years of the ‘as if’ phase. The clergy and lay navigation team is being led by Sarah and I am also a member of this. If you would like to be involved, we meet weekly on a Monday evening, so do have a word with Sarah or myself. Likewise, if you have any queries about the Fit for Mission process, please feel free to raise these at warringtonnavteam@gmail.com.

The other significant piece of news which I hope you have heard is that Martin Thorpe, Pioneer Team Vicar with responsibility for St. James, will be retiring this summer. His last working day will be 25 July and there will be a farewell service for him at St. James school on Sunday 21st July. Martin will also be celebrating 30 years of ordained ministry at the end of June and so St. James will mark that with a special service on that date in the church. Please pray for Martin and his wife Polly as they move towards this ending of Martin’s ministry at St. James and within our team, and also for St. James PCC and Standing Committee as they begin the process of thinking about the provision of future ministry at St. James.

Lent will soon be upon us with Ash Wednesday falling on 14 February this year. There will be the usual 10am service of Holy Communion at St. Mary’s that day and in the evening, there will be a team service of Holy Communion at 6.30 p.m. (earlier than normal this year since it is St. Valentine’s Day and people may have other plans for the rest of the evening). Both services will provide the opportunity for ashing. The following week, our Churches Together Lent groups will begin. This year, we will be following a 5 week York course entitled ‘On the Third Day’ written by John Pritchard, the former Bishop of Oxford. The course will focus on the impact that the resurrection can have in our lives. John, as I know from personal experience, is a very engaging and thoughtful writer and I commend the course to you. There will be five groups meeting on :

      • Monday afternoons, 2-3.30 p.m., 19, 26 February, 4, 11 and 18 March in Great Sankey
      • Tuesday evenings (2 groups), 7.30 p.m.- 9 p.m., 20 and 27 February, 5, 12 and 19 March in Great Sankey
      • Wednesday afternoons, 1.30 p.m. – 21 and 28 February, 6, 13 and 20 March in Penketh
      • Wednesday evenings, 7-8.30 p.m., 21 and 28 February, 6,13 and 20 March in Penketh

If you would like to attend a group, please sign up on the list at the back of your church by Sunday 11 February at the latest.

In addition for Lent, St. Paul’s will be offering a quiet hour to reflect on the gospels, using a mix of silence and creativity. This will be on Mondays from 1.30 to 2.30 pm, from 19th Feb to 18th March. St. Philip’s will also be offering a prayer course on Lection Divina from 24/7 Prayer on Fridays between 11.30 am – 1 pm. St. James’ will be offering Lent meditations on a Sunday evening (time TBC), and there will a Thursday Lent group at 7.30 pm (topic TBC). Please let Sarah (St. Paul’s and St. Philip’s) or Rebecca (St. James) know if you are interested in any of those options.

Wishing you a joy filled Lent.

Jeremy Tear, Pioneer Team Rector

Parish Magazine, February / March 2024

by | Jan 28, 2024 | Magazine Letter

Dear Friends

The season of Lent will soon be upon us, starting on Ash Wednesday 14 February this year. I wonder what Lent means to you? A time to give things up (chocolate, alcohol, cake perhaps)? A time to take things on – helping others, studying our bibles, praying more? Lent can be an appropriate time to think of both those things – giving things up and taking things on.

As I mentioned in my last letter, we will be having a focus on giving this Lent at St. Mary’s in order to help pay for our new church extension. What could you give up this Lent, or even maybe this year, in order to play your part in funding this important work? As I write, we don’t currently know how much money we need to raise as we will not receive a tender report from the architect until early February. But it is likely to be a substantial amount and we can only raise that sort of money with your sacrificial giving, and indeed the help of our church fundraiser who will be applying for grants on our behalf. So please do think and pray carefully about this and respond generously to our Gift Day on Easter Sunday 31st March. All being well, we will start the work in early April, and this will be completed before the end of the year.

I’m pleased to say that the church clock has now been fixed thanks to the support of both Great Sankey and Penketh parish councils, and the lighting for the church tower has now been sorted as well. We are in the process of receiving quotes to change our non-LED lights (internal and external) with LED ones, again all thanks to the generosity of the Co-op. And in the spring, we will be having the area around the altar and the bell room repainted.

So, hopefully, things will be looking very different at St. Mary’s over the course of the next few months, indeed the next year, aided by the work of our gardening team as usual. Do come and join them on Thursday morning if you can. Could you take on a weekly or monthly commitment to help keep the front of the churchyard looking beautiful this year? And don’t forget to begin Lent with one of our services of holy communion on Ash Wednesday at either 10 am or 6.30 p.m. And why not follow the season through by joining one of our Churches Together Lent groups as well.

Wishing you a joyful Lent.

Jeremy Tear

Pioneer Team Rector

Parish Magazine, December 2023 / January 2024

by | Nov 22, 2023 | Magazine Letter

 

Dear Friends

Advent is upon us once more, that season of waiting and preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus, as well as reminding ourselves that He will come again one day. I don’t know about you but I’m conscious that each year this time can fly by with Christmas services, Christmas shopping, and Christmas cards, so much so that often I have little time to reflect on what it is all about. One of my favourite times of this season is just before our first communion of Christmas at 11.30 p.m. on Christmas Eve. I like to get to church early if I can and just sit in a near dark church, take the time to pause, to look at the crib and to be reminded of the wonderful simplicity of God’s salvation plan. How might you make time to remember ‘the reason for the season’ this year?

Taking up the theme of waiting, I’m pleased to report that planning permission has finally been granted for our church extension by Warrington Borough Council. The wardens and I met with Bill Schafer, our architect, at the end of October and we talked about the next steps for moving the project forward. These have included drawing up a specification of our kitchen requirements, discussing access for materials on and off site, and hopefully this month inviting tenders for the work. I hope that we will agree a contractor at our January PCC meeting and then we will know what the funding gap for the project will be. As well as getting our fundraiser to apply for grants, we will also be having a focus on giving during Lent next year leading up to a Gift Day on Easter Sunday, 31 March. All being well, we will start the work after that and hopefully it will be completed by the end of next year. All of this will require hard work, time and effort (as well as sacrificial giving) and so we are looking to appoint a volunteer Project Manager to oversee the liaison with the architect, contractors, diocesan advisory committee and council. Details are available on our website, or do speak to me if you are interested.

To continue the theme, we are also currently waiting for the repair of our church clock. Many of you will no doubt have noticed that it has been running 20 minutes late recently. We had this fixed and then the same problem occured again so it has been switched off at present (as has the tower lighting which is on the same fuse). We are applying for funding to get this fixed and hope to have it up and running again before Christmas. And on the theme of funding, may I say a big thank you to all who supported us through their shopping at the Co-op which has resulted in us being given a grant of just over £3,000 to replace our non-LED lights with LED ones. Many thanks also to those who supported our social evening with the Boy Band at the end of October which raised £668 for church funds and our Christmas Fair on 18 October which raised nearly £1,500.

With my best wishes to you and your loved ones for a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

Jeremy Tear

Pioneer Team Rector

Parish Magazine, October / November 2023

by | Oct 26, 2023 | Magazine Letter

Dear Friends

I wrote in the last magazine about the small groups we were about to launch in September for study, prayer, care and witness. These have now begun and I’m pleased to say that for the first week’s session we had 14 people attending across our three groups. If you have not yet signed up to attend your local group and would like to do so, please sign the list on the noticeboard at the back of church or have a word with Keith and Ali White (group north of Whittle Brook), Joan Rotheram and Janet Kerswell (for group between Whittle Brook and Liverpool Road), or David and Janet Tanner (for group between Liverpool Road and Warrington Road). If you live outside of the parish, either sign at the bottom of the list on the noticeboard or have a word with me, and I will allocate you to your nearest group.

In September, we also launched Messy Church at St.Mary’s. Messy Church is a form of church suitable for all ages, particularly for those with children, involving crafts (which can be messy!), worship and food. We had 16 people – helpers and attendees – at the first session and had a great time, thinking about the nature of God’s world. As one young person put it, “I would come again, even without the food!” For further information, please click here.

We also restarted the Alpha course in September with 10 people – helpers and guests – attending. I am delighted that people want to explore (or explore again) the basics of the Christian faith, and I can think of no better way of doing that than by attending the course. As people attending previous courses have said, “I feel really glad to have attended the Alpha course, thank you for inviting me!” and “Doing the course has made me rethink a lot of things in my life, and is impacting how I would deal with certain situations”.

This month we celebrate Harvest at St.Mary’s on Sunday 1st October at both our services. I’m very pleased that our cubs and scouts will be helping me once again with our 10am All Age Worship. Donations of tinned goods for Warrington Foodbank will be gratefully received on the day or drop off beforehand if you can’t come then. For a list of what they would particularly like help with, please visit their Donate Food page. Toiletries are also welcome.

Also this month, the PCC will be having an away morning on Saturday 7th October in order to think and pray further about the possibilities of Fit for Mission and becoming part of a larger parish. Do please pray for them as they come to make a decision about this at their November meeting. There will also be a Fit for Mission Fair on Wednesday 11th October between 7-9 pm at The Gateway on Sankey Street in the town centre (opposite the Town Hall). Do drop in at any time to learn more about Fit for Mission – there will be a variety of stalls present.

Finally, in November, there will be our annual memorial service on Sunday 5th at 3 pm. We will be inviting the families of those we have taken funerals and interments for this past year, but anyone is invited to attend to remember a loved one who has died at any time. Then on Saturday 18 November at 12 noon, it will be our Christmas Fair. Do come along to grab some Christmas presents and enjoy all the fun of the fair!

Best wishes

Jeremy Tear

Pioneer Team Rector

Team Letter, October 2023

by | Oct 24, 2023 | Team Letter

Dear Friends

Time seems to be flying by since I last wrote in August! If you have been away on holiday, I hope you had a refreshing break. We are definitely now into autumn with the leaves turning on the trees and some colder days and nights, though the last vestiges of our Indian summer seem to have returned today!

The coming month will be a significant one for the churches in our team as our PCC’s come to vote on Fit for Mission, the diocesan change programme. Change is never an easy thing for us to deal with as human beings but the reality is that change always goes on around us, and that includes in the church. So, for example, St.Mary’s and St.Philip’s have both had new chairs in the last couple of years, St.Paul’s’ has had a new building, and St.James has sold off some of its church land for development. We have all engaged in new mission activities, whether that be starting new congregations (such as Lifetime at St.Paul’s or Messy Church at St.Mary’s), new enquirers courses (such as Alpha at St.James and St.Mary’s) or new groups, such as Little Fishes and Fun with Friends at St.Philip’s. And of course some members of our churches will have moved or died, and others will have joined. So please pray for wisdom for our PCC members as they come to take important decisions on whether their churches wish to be part of the ongoing exploration of what Fit for Mission could look like in our deanery. I believe this could be an exciting time for us as churches as we work closer together to see God’s Kingdom come in our town. That is not to say it will be easy but there is definitely something to be said for working together for the common good.

There are three diary dates to note for the coming months:

1. Team Memorial Service, St.Mary’s, Sunday 5 November at 3.00 p.m.

This is our annual opportunity to remember loved ones who have died. Invitations have been sent to the next of kin for those whose funerals we have taken over the past year and those attending will hear the names of their loved ones read out and have the opportunity light candle to remember them. If you would like to come to remember a loved one who has died, no matter when that was, please sign the sheet in your church by Sunday 29 October.

2. Church Warrington Carol Service, HJ Stadium, Thursday 14 December, 7 pm

50,000 invitations are being distributed across our town for what promises to be a great night. Do invite a friend or a neighbour to come with you to hear the good news of Christmas. Please register at Christmas Carols at the Halliwell Jones Stadium. There will be a choir with rehearsals on Tuesday 28th November and Monday 4th December, both in Bold Street Methodist Church Building, 7:30pm-9:30pm. We are also looking for people who will respond to those who express an interest in the Christian faith at the end of the service and give out information to them. There are training evenings, both at 7.30-8.30 p.m., on Tuesday 14 November at Bethany Church, Liverpool Road, Sankey Bridges and Thursday 23 November at Life Church, Cotwsold Road, Orford. If you would like to help with either of those things, please contact hello@churchwarrington.co.uk There will also be a prayer meeting for the event on Sunday 3 December, 7 – 8 pm at Wycliffe URC, Bewsey Street in the town centre.

3. Team Post Christmas Service, StMary’s, Sunday 31 December, 10am

Our Team post-Christmas communion service will be held this year at St.Mary’s. That will be the only service across our four team churches that particular Sunday. Sarah Peppiatt will be leading this and all are welcome.

With my best wishes and prayers.

Jeremy Tear, Pioneer Team Rector