Dear Friends

It seems a long time ago since the heat of mid-August when I last wrote! Autumn is most definitely with us, and we have now received some decent rain which we most certainly need. Whilst we might be tempted to complain about the weather (and I can certainly do that) let us not forget that for some in the world, it is a matter of life and death. For without the rain that is needed, crops fail to grow, people go hungry and for many in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda at present, life is very fragile indeed. So, as we celebrate our harvest services this year, let us remember to pray for those whose harvests have failed due to drought. You might also like to consider donating to Tearfund’s East Africa Crisis Appeal.

With the onset of autumn, we were no doubt affected in one way or another by the death of The Queen earlier this month. I think she was a tremendous example of someone who was willing to serve both God and her country. The outpouring of affection by the British public, as well as by many others across the globe, shows just how highly respected a person she was. May she rest in peace and rise in glory… And do pray for our new King, Charles, as he undertakes his duties as the monarch including of course being the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

Team-wise, I am pleased to report that Marise Seville and June Dunning, our Local Missional Leaders (LML’s) at St. Paul’s and St. Philip’s, will be having their roles extended by the diocese for a further two years. They will be being re-commissioned in November and January respectively. Our third LML, Paul Smalley at St. James, was re-commissioned for his role this past year as well. If you have never thought about whether God might be calling you to exercise a ministry in this way, do speak to Sarah, Martin, or myself as clergy, or indeed to Marise, June or Paul. For more details, visit Being a Local Missional Leader is a real privilege.

The Team Growing Leaders course resumed after a break in August, and we have now completed the first part of it, focusing on firm foundations for leadership. We kick off part two, key skills for Christian leadership, with a day session on Saturday October 8. Do pray for those taking part and for Sarah and myself as we lead the course.

Finally, at the end of October, we have our annual Memorial Service once again, as we invite the next of kin of those we have taken funerals for across the team. The service takes place at St. Mary’s on Sunday 30 October at 3 pm and if you wish to attend to remember a loved one, you are very welcome to do so.

With my prayers and best wishes.

Jeremy Tear, Pioneer Team Rector

Earlier this year, the core team of leaders from our four churches chose the following verse to be our team bible verse for this year: ‘Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 3: 13b-14). When we chose that verse, we were thinking about how we might focus our attention on what God has in store for each of our churches and for us a team this year as we build back following the Covid pandemic. How are we getting on with doing that, I wonder? Have we been able to give time to pray to discern what God has in store for us?

I have been reminded of that verse in recent weeks as I have been part of the Faith and Wellbeing team operating at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. For when St. Paul wrote that verse, he was probably thinking of the athletes taking part in the Olympic or Isthmian Games, the latter of which were held every other year in Corinth. It was a great privilege to be involved in providing pastoral and spiritual support to those in the athletes’ villages, and as I reflect upon that time now, I am grateful for the ways in which we were able to encourage some to press on in their faith and to encourage others to think about faith as well.

Looking back over the past couple of months, it was great to have Rebecca Lloyd ordained as a self-supporting curate at St. James’ within the Team. Thankyou for your prayers for her son Theo, who is now much better. Please do continue to pray for Rebecca, and her family, as she and they settle into this new phase of her life. And many thanks too to those from our team who helped out with the Penketh Carnival on July 9th. It was a beautiful day and fantastic to be able to remind the local community that, with others, ‘We are the Church’ – still here for people. Do pray too for those from our team helping out with the local churches tent at the Creamfields Festival over the August Bank Holiday weekend. If you can help, and haven’t yet signed up, the organisers are looking for people who can help with the 8am-4 pm shifts, especially on the Sunday 28 August, email wearethechurchatcreamfields@hotmail.com.

Finally, on a personal note, my Mum died on 22 July. She had not been well for a number of years and really struggling in more recent times. I am grateful for the faith that sustained her throughout her life (and which she encouraged me in). Her funeral is on August 15. May she rest in peace and rise in glory.

With my prayers and best wishes.

Jeremy Tear, Pioneer Team Rector

Dear Friends

I hope this finds you well and able to enjoy something of the summer, which it seems has finally arrived (albeit with big dips in temperatures at times!).

Today, representatives of St.Mary’s and St.James’ are travelling to Swanwick for the ‘Leading Your Church Into Growth’ conference (click here for further information). The conference kick starts a 2 year programme of supported learning for parishes in order that they may be enabled to help their churches to grow. As I am sure you are aware, as a diocese we are committed to seeing ‘a bigger church make a bigger difference’, namely more people coming to know Jesus and more justice in the world. This ties in with the Diocesan Fit for Mission programme, a 6 year programme that is being rolled out across the diocese which has four aims, namely, introducing people to Jesus, deepening discipleship, developing Christian leaders, and working for justice. I’ll share more about Fit for Mission in another letter and how this might impact upon us here in West Warrington but if you are interested to know more at this stage, please click here.

This coming weekend, Rebecca Lloyd, who is an ordinand at St.James’ Church is due to be being ordained by Bishop Bev in the Cathedral (Sunday 26 June at 10.30a.m.). Please pray for Rebecca, her husband Dan, and their two children, Theo and Jonathan, as they anticipate this very significant moment in Rebecca’s life and their life as a family. Please pray especially for Theo who is currently unwell in hospital, having had his chest drained of fluid last week and possibly awaiting further surgery.

Finally, if you can help with the Churches Together stall at the Penketh Carnival on Saturday 9 July, please sign up on the sheet available in your churches or contact me revjeremytear@gmail.com. We are looking for people who can give an hour of their time, be involved with nail painting or other craft activities, and give out information about local churches and special Jubilee edition bibles to those attending. Set up will need to take place around 9am on the morning, the stall will need staffing between 12 noon-4pm, and then taking down after 4 pm.

With my prayers and best wishes.

Jeremy Tear, Pioneer Team Rector

P.S. Unfortunately, the Christian Aid event planned at the Cathedral for tomorrow night (21 June) has had to be postponed due to the speaker, William Bell, being unable to attend due to the rail strike. A new date will be set for the autumn.

Dear Friends

It has been a while since my last letter in Lent. I do hope that if you attended our Team services in Holy Week that you found these helpful, as we moved through the drama of Maundy Thursday and Jesus’ betrayal by Judas, to the agony of Good Friday and Jesus’ crucifixion, before contemplating the silence of the tomb on Easter Eve waiting for the resurrection. My thanks to Sarah, June, and Martin for helping to lead our worship and to all from our Team and other West Warrington churches who helped with the Good Friday service at Honiton Square in Penketh. And I hope that you all enjoyed celebrating Easter Day in your own churches too!

As we approach Ascension Day on Thursday 26 May, and the start of the Thy Kingdom come initiative, we have further opportunities to worship together across our team and West Warrington Churches. This year we are having another prayer walk on Ascension Day focused on the Penketh/Great Sankey areas. The schedule is:

Do come and spend some time in prayer together that day as we have this annual opportunity to pray for 5 people we know who do not yet know Jesus. And if you can’t be there in person, do pray wherever you are that day, whether at those times or some other. There will also be a short service of Holy Communion at St. Mary’s that evening at 7pm to which you are all welcome to come and to pray as well.

On a separate note, I am delighted to say that our Team Growing Leaders course began last Saturday with an introductory session at St. Mary’s. We have ten people signed up for the course, which is being run online and in person, and hopefully this will help people to grow in their understanding of what it means to lead in the church and in what area(s) God might be calling them to exercise that leadership.

Finally, I would like to draw to your attention a Christian Aid event being supported by Liverpool Cathedral and Together Liverpool (the social justice ‘arm’ of the diocese). William Bell, who is Head of Christian Aid’s Middle East programme will be speaking on ‘Israelis and Palestinians: Hope, justice and equality’ on Tuesday 21 June at 7 pm in the Cathedral Lady Chapel. To book a ticket, please follow this link- https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/israelis-and-palestinians-hope-justice-and-equality. Donations towards the humanitarian work of Christian Aid are also welcome at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/christianaidliverpoolcathedral.

With my prayers and best wishes.

Jeremy Tear, Pioneer Team Rector

Dear Friends

It was good to welcome numbers of people from across our team, and Penketh Methodist Church, to our communion service on Ash Wednesday at St.Mary’s. Being able to join together in person for this service once again was a real blessing after not being able to do so last year. If you have joined one of the team Lent courses being run by Sarah, Martin and myself, I hope that you are finding that helpful as well.

Looking ahead to Holy Week, there are a number of Team Services taking place:

May I encourage you to join in as many of these different services as possible and not just to attend services in your own church this year? There is a tremendous breadth of opportunities here to worship across our team, and indeed with fellow Christians at Honiton Square on Good Friday, so why not make the most of these and make your experience of Holy Week an even richer one? For those of you unfamiliar with vigils, the word comes from a Latin word meaning ‘awake’. On Maundy Thursday, we are invited to keep awake with Jesus as we remember his time in the Garden of Gethsemane in silent prayer interspersed with readings from John chapters 14-18. On Easter Eve, we are invited to keep awake with Christians throughout the world as we recall the mighty acts of God through Scripture in anticipation of his raising Jesus from the dead. And there is the lighting of an Easter fire outside as we anticipate Jesus, the light of the world, the risen one.

Finally, I want to mention our new team bible verse for this year. The core team of clergy, our ordinand, and local missional leaders sensed that we were being drawn to 1 Philippians chapter 3 verses 13b-14: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. It is not that we should, or can, forget the hurts and the pains of these past two years of Covid, but rather we felt that we don’t want to be held back by them as we seek to build back our churches as we emerge out of restrictions. I hope this verse may prove helpful to us all as we focus on what God has in store for us ahead in the coming months.

With my prayers and best wishes for very Happy Easter.

Jeremy Tear, Pioneer Team Rector

Dear Friends

This Sunday, being the third Sunday of the month, is our ‘Team Sunday’. I do hope that you are finding it helpful to see the different clergy moving around our team churches and leading worship. Speaking of which, Lent is fast approaching and begins this year on Ash Wednesday, 2 March. You would be very welcome to attend our Team Communion Service at St.Mary’s at 7.30 p.m. that evening which will include the opportunity to receive the sign of the cross in ash upon your forehead. This service will also be open to members of other churches in West Warrington. If you cannot attend the evening service, then you would be very welcome to attend the regular midweek communion service at St.Mary’s at 10am that day, which again will include the opportunity for ‘ashing’. Please bring a mask if you are coming to either service.
During Lent itself, there will be a number of different courses being run across our churches which will be open to everyone in the team:

‘Cry for Hope’. A 5 week course on Sunday evenings at 6 pm on Zoom which will explore what life is like for Palestinian Christians and how we might respond to their plight. Cry for Hope in Lent: A new series | Sabeel-Kairos Please register with Sabeel-Kairos.

Iif you would like to take part for the session between 6-6.30 p.m. followed by an hour for discussion together afterwards (Zoom details below). Contact Jeremy for further details revjeremytear@gmail.com.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81094300851?pwd=SVBEM0NwU3FWTWhMeWpFa3ZMU0NUQT09

Meeting ID: 810 9430 0851 Passcode: 838533

Making Space for God. Tuesday afternoons at the Oaks, 1.45 to 3.15pm beginning 8th March Not a traditional Bible study! Instead, we’ll spend a little time listening to and reflecting on a Bible passage, before the majority of the time is given for people to respond creatively in any way they want to the passage: whether with art or poetry or song writing or something else. Contact Sarah for further details revsarahpep@sky.com.

Difference Course. Thursdays 7:30pm from 10th March for 5 weeks on Zoom. Difference is a course that explores what it means to follow Jesus in a complex and divided world, seeing transformation through everyday encounters. Finding hope beyond division and difference through renewing our minds and relationships in Jesus Christ. Contact Martin for further details martinthevicar@btinternet.com.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83256267809

Meeting ID: 832 5626 7809

Building Blocks: living out the kingdom. Thursday nights, 7-8pm at St Philip’s, starts 3rd March – looking at good foundations for our walk with Jesus. Contact Sarah for further details revsarahpep@sky.com.

I am really pleased that we are able to offer such a diverse choice of topics for Lent this year and I do encourage you to get in contact with Martin, Sarah or myself if you would like to come along to one of these courses.

Looking ahead to Holy Week, there will be this year the usual Churches Together Good Friday service at 12 noon at Honiton Square on Friday 15 April. Details of other services for Holy Week will be in my next letter.

Finally, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of those who have been involved with our Team Befriending Scheme, which we started during lockdown to offer a listening ear to members of our communities. The Scheme has now come to end but I did want to say a particular thankyou to Heather Copperwheat who has most efficiently administered the scheme on our behalf.

With my prayers and best wishes.

Jeremy Tear

Pioneer Team Rector