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

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

Dear Friends

The PCC, at its June meeting, agreed to the setting up of small groups within different areas of our parish for study, prayer, care and witness. As I explained in my sermon on 9 July, these groups will reflect the activities of the early church that we read about in Acts chapter 2, verses 42-47, namely:

Small groups have been a well-established part of the life of many churches of differing denominations over many years. They do not replace regular, weekly worship but seek to complement it, for it is with the encouragement and support of fellow Christians that we can seek to grow in our understanding of God, our prayer lives, our care of each other and others, and witness to our faith, so growing the church.

The groups are being set up on a geographical basis so making it easier for people to attend and hopefully meaning that people can walk to them, so supporting our fifth church value of treasuring the environment by reducing our carbon footprint.

The details of the groups will be as follows:

The fourth area of the parish is within Warrington Road – Sankey Bridges but as we have very few church members in that area, we will not be starting a group there yet. If church members live outside of the parish (if you are not sure ask or look at the map on the PCC noticeboard), then you will be allocated a group nearest to where you live.

Groups will start meeting week beginning Monday 11 September, meet bi -weekly during term time (though not during Lent when there will be Churches Together groups and possibly not in Advent when they might meet all together in church) and are open to anyone who wants to grow in their Christian faith and who wants to see others find faith as well.

Sign-up sheets are available at the back of church. I do hope that you will want to take part in this exciting new venture in the life of St.Mary’s !

Best wishes,

Jeremy Tear, Pioneer Team Rector

Dear Friends

If you have been in church on a Sunday morning during the past couple of months or so, you may well have heard of the phrase, ‘Fit for Mission’. Just in case you haven’t heard about it, I wanted to use my letter this month to explain what it is all abouFit for Mission is a diocesan initiative aimed at getting churches across our deaneries to work together as part of one or two larger parishes with the intention of helping us all participate in the mission of God more effectively. By having only 1 or 2 PCC’s (rather than the 11 we have across Warrington at present), this will reduce time spent on governance issues at a local church level and so free up time for mission. There will still be the need for a leadership team for each congregation to address local matters such as what worship takes place, what particular mission initiatives should be engaged in and how money is spent. But there would be a central PCC and a central buildings team to oversee how buildings are used.

At heart, Fit for Mission is about people though because it is focused on mission. That is why its 4 main mission priorities are:

1. Introducing people to Jesus
2. Deepening discipleship
3. Developing Christian leaders
4. Working for justice

Part of this would involve giving church members the opportunity to participate in ‘Cultivate’, a successful local missional leadership programme, designed to equip people to plant new worship communities and justice initiatives. I gather that in St. Helen’s deanery, there are currently 100 people from across their churches involved in this programme, helping to start new things. How exciting is that?!

As part of the PCC’s discernment process to decide whether joining Fit for Mission might be right for St. Mary’s, the PCC held an open meeting with the archdeacon Simon Fisher, back in February. We held the second congregational meeting on this subject at the end of May and there will be a further meeting on July 9 at 11.30 a.m. In addition, Archdeacon Simon will be coming to St. Mary’s to speak on this subject as part of his archdeacon’s visitation on Tuesday 13 June at 7.30 pm, as well as addressing our 8am and 10am services on Sunday 25 June. Do make the most of these opportunities to find out more about Fit for mission and do let the PCC know your views at the congregational meeting. The PCC will need to vote on this issue in the autumn, so please do pray for God’s wisdom and guidance for them.

Finally, a quick update on the extension. The deadline for the council to report on our application for planning permission has now been put back from the end of May to the end of September this year. This is very frustrating and we have asked the council if they will reconsider how long the deadline is pushed back by. I will update you when I have any further news.

Best wishes.

Jeremy Tear, Pioneer Team Rector

Dear Friends

As we approach Holy Week, I would like to invite you all to engage in the drama, the highs and the lows of this most special week in the Church calendar. It starts, of course, with the joy and the hope of Palm Sunday as the crowds welcomed Jesus, the prince of peace into Jerusalem, riding on the back of a donkey. How that divided city still desperately needs the arrival of peace. and justice, this year. But the joy of Palm Sunday soon gives way to the darkness of Maundy Thursday as Jesus is betrayed by Judas, arrested in Gethsemane, and denied by Peter. It gets even worse, of course, as Jesus is crucified on the cross on Good Friday and his body is removed and sealed in a tomb. Any signs of hope are truly dead and buried. And yet…and yet death doesn’t have the last word. Jesus is raised to new life on Easter Sunday, and fresh joy and hope are given again.

I think that throughout our lives we too experience something of the highs and lows, the emotions that are connected with Holy Week. Those moments of great joy at a wedding, the birth of a child, the passing of an exam, the gaining of a new job. But we also know those moments of sadness and despair – the breakdown of a relationship, being made redundant, the death of a loved one. This week therefore mirrors something of our experience as human beings. The good news for us though is that whatever the highs and the lows we may face in our lives, God is with us. And He is the one who is able to transform even the darkest situation into something that can be used for good.

So do come and join us in our Holy Week and Easter services this year. Don’t simply move from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday but join us on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Eve to make the week even more meaningful.

With my best wishes and prayers for a very Happy Easter when it comes.

Jeremy Tear

Pioneer Team Rector

Dear Friends

I wonder how the New Year has started for you? Have you been able to keep any resolutions you might have made so far? One resolution I made a number of years ago was not to make any New Year’s resolutions, as I didn’t want to end up failing to keep them! However, there are some things I do think about at the turn of a new year. Not resolutions as such but more of a review about the past year with the opportunity to reflect about the new one.

I’m pleased to report that the scaffolding which has been up outside St.Mary’s for our quinquennial repairs has now come down as these have now all been completed with the exception of the painting of our window guards (which should have been finished by the time you read this) and the replacement of a window in the upstairs ‘bell room’ which is due to take place in February. I’m hoping also that by February or March we will have heard back from the council about our application for planning permission for the extension, and that (all being well) we can then get on with the process of going out to tender for the work. I’ll keep you updated in my next letter.

Lent is on the horizon, and we will begin that this year with a service of Holy Communion at St.Mary’s on Ash Wednesday at 7.30 p.m. along with friends from other churches in the West Warrington area. We shall also be joining together for Lent study groups once again, with groups running on Monday and Wednesday afternoons and Thursday evenings. If you would like to join a group, please sign up on the list at the back of church (further details to follow).

With my prayers and best wishes.

Jeremy Tear

Pioneer Team Rector