Dear Friends,

The months of this year are flying by, and we are now in Holy Week on the cusp of Easter. Please do join in our Team services and other special services this Holy Week, alongside whatever is going on in your own churches. Our celebrations at Easter only make sense if we journey through this week with Jesus, rather than simply jump from Palm Sunday to Easter Day. Our team and special services are:

Part of the busyness of this year has been taken up with the ongoing work surrounding Fit for Mission. Our deanery PCCs have been voting on whether to continue their involvement in creating a larger single parish, and the results of this will be known shortly. Whatever is decided, it will be important to try to find ways of remaining united as Christians in our deanery churches, given the differing views on this issue. That remains the case in relation to the Living in Love and Faith process as well, including the use of prayers of blessing within public worship and potentially within stand-alone services too.

Within our Team, the process of trying to find a new Vicar for St. James (to be shared with St. Barnabas) continues and it is hoped that an appointment will be made by the end of this year. An appointment process will also begin as I leave St. Mary’s on Sunday 1 June to take up a new role as Pastoral Co-ordinator at Mossley Hill Parish Church in South Liverpool. There will be a faith (bring and share) lunch after the 10 am service and I would be delighted to see people from across the team at that. It’s been an honour to serve as the Team Rector here and I am very grateful for people’s support and prayers for myself and my family during what has been an encouraging and challenging nearly 10 years. Please do pray for Sarah, Rebecca, Mal, Steve and Andrew as our clergy, and for Marise, Paul and June as our local missional leaders, and for each other as you continue to serve God and share Jesus with others here.

Finally, I wanted to promote the use of the Church Warrington prayer app for the prayer walking that we are invited to participate in as churches across our town from Easter Sunday (20 April) to Pentecost Sunday (8 June). Wouldn’t it be wonderful if someone could pray for every street in our town during this time? Visit https://churchwarrington.prayerwalk.app/

With my best wishes for a very Happy Easter,

Jeremy Tear, Pioneer Team Rector

Dear Friends,

I want to start with an apology that it has been so long since my last Team Rector’s letter. Life has been extremely busy for me with the building of St.Mary’s extension (which we hope to complete before Christmas) and with all that has been going on with Fit for Mission. As you are hopefully aware, the new proposed parish will be called the Parish of Warrington but this will not stop each church from continuing to use its local name, i.e. St.Mary’s, St.Paul’s, St.Philip’s and St.James’. It was very encouraging to have 90 people across the deanery sign up for the two Cultivate courses that were run in September/October time and over 40 people met for a 1:1 talk with a clergy person/course leader to explore what God had been saying to them through the course. This past Sunday over 20 people met at St.Philip’s to explore next steps in terms of setting up or joining new worshipping communities, so watch this space!

I wanted to update you with some clergy developments in our deanery. As you will know, Martin Thorpe retired in the summer and since then work has been taking place behind the scenes thinking about future ministry patterns. What I can tell you is that the deanery has agreed to appoint a vicar to St James’ who will also become the vicar of St Barnabas when Karen Timmis, their current Vicar, retires. Both churches are involved equally in the appointment process. Within the deanery it has also been recently announced that Philippa Shaw, currently Curate at St.Ann’s Orford, will become the Vicar of St. Margaret’s, Orford and Priest in Charge of St.Andrew’s, Orford. In addition, it has been agreed that Christ Church Padgate and Church Collective will collaborate together when Neil Shaw, the Vicar of Christ Church and our Area Dean retires, and Simon Renison, the current Church Collective minister, will take responsibility for both. That’s quite a lot of change in the pipeline and reflects the fact that life never stands still in our deanery as we move forward through the Fit for Mission process. It should be noted that the reduction in clergy numbers would have been taking place anyway, regardless of Fit for Mission, in order that we can pay for a sustainable number of clergy in the future.

Back to team matters, and as we soon prepare to start the Advent season, and look ahead to Christmas services and events, I would like to let you know that our Team Communion Service will be at St. Paul’s on Sunday 29 December at 10.30 a.m. There will be no other services across our team that day. Thinking of carol singing, please do also come and join folks from across our town’s churches as part of Church Warrington’s ‘Carols in the Marketplace’ on Saturday 7 December between 11 am – 12 .30 p.m. We have permission to sing under the old marketplace (or fish market) in the town centre and there will be two slots of 45 minutes each, at 11a.m. and 11.45 a.m. Do come and sing at one, or both!

With my very best wishes for a Happy Christmas when it comes and an exciting New Year ahead as we continue to work together towards the creation of the larger single parish of Warrington.

Jeremy Tear, Pioneer Team Rector

Dear Friends,

I’m writing on what I think is our hottest day of the year so far. It’s sweltering in my study which acts like a greenhouse on such occasions! I’m reminded that our climate is changing – wetter and colder at times, increasingly hot at others – and of our responsibility as Christians to take action to negate the effects of climate change not only for ourselves but also of course for those in poorer parts of the world who are suffering the most due to something which they did the least to cause.

At this time of year, Petertide as it is known (due to the festival of St.Peter on 29 June), we remember those who are being ordained as deacons and priests into God’s church. I can still vividly recall my own ordination as a deacon 25 years ago in Chester Cathedral. What a momentous occasion it felt. I imagine that Martin, who was ordained 30 years ago, will have had some similar memories too, as will Sarah and Rebecca as well. Amongst those recently ordained at Liverpool Cathedral were nine deacons including Emma Stonier who will serve within our Fit for Mission Team here in Warrington. Do keep them in your prayers.

The Fit for Mission process continues in our deanery with weekly meetings of the navigation team (lead by Sarah), monthly meetings of the treasurers, and the recent audit of all church buildings lead by the Right Buildings Team. We have also been thinking about names for the new parish – thank you if you contributed to that process – and we hope to announce a new name soon. The Cultivate course is currently being run in a number of churches across the deanery as we think about the gifts, skills and experience that God has given each one of us to be used in His service, and this autumn we will be running two deanery wide Cultivate courses. The Cultivate course is a 6 week course designed to equip lay leaders for developing or running new forms of church which will help us reach out to others and so grow as a deanery. There will be a midweek course running on Wednesdays starting on September 11th at Holy Trinity Church in the town centre between 2-4 p.m. There will also be a weekend course running on Sunday nights at St.Ann’s in Orford between 6.30-8.30 p.m. beginning on September 15th. Do speak to me of one of your clergy if you would like to attend.

Within our team, St. Mary’s is hopefully about to start work on its extension on Monday 8 July. We are very grateful for all the money which has been raised to allow us to do this. St.Paul’s continues to have its flourishing midweek ‘Lifetime’ congregation, its Sunday Lunch congregation (which it was a pleasure to visit last month) and also its midweek Dementia Café. St.Philip’s have started a Sunday evening quiet service at 7pm on the fourth Sunday of the month and St. James have recently launched their Sunday Supper Club at 5pm on Sundays. All of these are really encouraging developments which we can thank God for.

And finally, I want to end by thanking God for Martin Thorpe’s ministry amongst us, firstly at St.Philip’s and latterly at St.James’, as he approaches his retirement next month. Martin’s ministry has been appreciated by many across the team, with his concern for both pastoral care and for mission. We too will have the opportunity to say thankyou to Martin and to say farewell to him and his wife Polly at his last service in the parish at St.James school on Sunday 21st July at 10.30 a.m. They leave not only with our thanks but with our love and prayers for their new life together in Southport. Please pray too for all those at St.James as they begin a period of time without a Vicar.

Best wishes

Jeremy Tear
Pioneer Team Rector

Dear Friends

I do hope that Lent is going well for you and that if you are part of one of the Churches Together Lent groups or other Lent groups within our team, that you are finding this helpful. As we move toward the climax of Lent with Holy Week, let me tell you of the different services that we shall be hosting across our team:

I encourage you to come and participate in the above services. If you have never been to a vigil before, then Maundy Thursday will provide the opportunity to hear readings from the bible plus long period of silence as we wait with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before he died. On Easter Eve, the vigil service includes the lighting of the Paschal (Easter) candle from a fire, the renewal of baptismal vows and again various readings from the bible. Why not give them a try this year?

The Fit for Mission process is continuing at a steady pace. We have had offers from people across the deanery to serve on the Right Buildings and the Cultivate teams, and we are now keen to hear from people interested in serving on the Communications and Support Services Teams. As ever, if you are interested in anything to do with Fit for Mission, please email the navigation team at warringtonnavteam@gmail.com for further information or to arrange a conversation with Sarah Peppiatt or Ann Cheung, the deanery Fit for Mission facilitator. We have recently had a finance meeting with representatives from all of the churches plus many of the clergy to get to know one another and to understand the nature of the questions which parishes have. There will be a follow up meeting next month. We have also appointed Mara Livingsone McPhail, the deanery synod secretary and member of St.Elphin’s, as the Project Administrator.

In terms of other Team news, St.Mary’s has just launched its appeal to raise money to build an extension (visit www.stmarysgreatsankey.org.uk for further information). St.Paul’s is continuing to see its inter-generational Lifetime service on a Thursday morning thrive, and St.Philip’s has 14 of its school children being confirmed by the Bishop of Liverpool (with 3 adults from St.Mary’s) this Sunday at 3 p.m. – all welcome! Finally, do please continue to pray for Martin and the people of St.James’ as he approaches his retirement this summer and the PCC continue to explore the provision of future ministry there.

Wishing you a very Happy Easter when it comes!

Jeremy Tear

Pioneer Team Rector

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

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