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| timeline: 2000-2024 |
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| 2000 |
| January - Millenium bell ringing The new century rung in by the bellringers on the morning of 1 January 2000 |
| March - Memorial garden Memorial Garden and and memorial plaques - as work around the church reached completion, the memorial plaque scheme is announced in February. On 26 March Bishop of Stockport dedicated the Memorial Garden. |
| August - Paul Robinson leaves St Paul's Paul's last service was on 13 August 2000 before moving to St Hilary's Church, Wallasey |
| 2001 |
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August - Youth Club St Paul’s Youth Club participated in the Chester Diocese Annual Football Tournament, where one of the teams got through to the final, losing by only one goal. |
| 2002 |
February - Richard Lawry
February 1st, 2002,
Richard Lawry becomes Priest in Charge
at St Paul's -
He introduced himself thus: For the last 4 years or so, we’ve been living in
Macclesfield, where I’ve been Curate at St Michael’s Church in the
Macclesfield Team Parish.
We’ve been in that part of Cheshire for around 7 years altogether,
though neither of us come from that neck of the woods originally.Brenda is from Yorkshire – she lived in Sheffield until she left
home – and I’m originally from Colwyn Bay in North Wales, where I spent
my childhood. Before coming
back up north, we both lived in London (and various other places!) for
quite a few years.
I started training for ordained ministry 5 years
ago, much of that time combining my studies in Nottingham with my work
in Macclesfield. Before
that, I’d worked as an actor for about 12 years – mostly in the theatre,
but also now and again on the TV(It’s been pointed out to me that, as an actor turned priest, I
must have a thing about wearing strange costumes!).
Brenda is a pianist.
Her main job is as staff accompanist at Chetham’s School of Music in
Manchester, but she also does a fair bit of performing here and abroad.So these days, I tend to be the one who’s at home more often!
What about our main interests?Well, we’re both very keen on music of different sorts, and
travelling (preferably where the sun shines). I’m a bit of a sport nut, although I suppose in general I watch
more and do less than I used to! We love walking in the hills, and one look out of the vicarage
window tells us we’ve come to the right place for that.
We’re both very excited about moving to Stalybridge
and working with everyone at St Paul’s. |
| April - Concert Concert by Stalybridge Band and the Stayley Singers |
| May - Confirmation at St Paul's |
| June - Hymn Book A new hymn-book, called Complete Mission Praise was introduced.This replaced Hymns Ancient & Modern. |
| June - Organist Barbara and Derek Jones retire after eight years as organist and choir master. They are succeeded by Stuart Steels and Brenda Lawry. |
| September - Prayer Vigil Silent prayer vigil in church 8:30am - 8:30pm Wednesday September 11 to pray for the events of 9/11 the previous year in New York. |
| October - Restoration Fund Relaunch Church Restoration Fund re-launched. The name of the fund was changed from `Development' to 'Restoration', as we wanted to define more clearly the use to which it is put. (This fund has always been for work on the church building itself; while the churchyard project has been self-financing.) |
| 2003 |
| January - Alpha First Alpha Course takes place at St Paul's. |
| February - Creche Creche now available in church during Sunday morning services. |
| April - Website The parish website went live. |
| June - Deanery Day The Deanery Day was held at St Paul's. The theme of the day was "Getting in touch". On offer were: a drama workshop for children by a special outside drama group, discussions and workshops on baptism, the Bible, teenagers' needs, using our buildings, prayer, "Praise and Play" and similar ventures for small kids, and much more. People were able to choose seminar options and activities. The day ended with an all-age celebration service. |
| September - Canal Mission - "Beyond the Ring" ....reaching its conclusion in Stalybridge on the weekend of 27th/28th September. This was the major outreach event of the year in our Chester Diocese, with a flotilla of canal boats making their way round the Cheshire Canal ring system. The main purpose of it is to share what we have to offer with others - to encourage the people in our communities to take a look at what we're about in church, and to feel welcomed. We have a great message to spread - that there is more to life than meets the eye, and a whole new world to discover in the love of God shown to us in Jesus. All the churches of the area anywhere near the canal are putting on a huge variety of 'happenings', including curry evenings, concerts, services, entertainments, pub events and meetings of various kinds. At St Paul's, various celebrations were planned: The climax was a jazz concert at 7.30pm on the evening of Sunday 28th. "This is no ordinary jazz-band. 'Wellspring' are a unique outfit. They are all professional musicians from the North-West who are also Christians." Earlier in the day, the 10.30am morning service will be a celebration Family Communion. Roly Bain the Clown will be with us, as well as Paul Brown, the Church Mission Society representative for the North-West, and guest preacher for the day. At 3.00pm that afternoon, we'll be coming together with other churches in the middle of Stalybridge for a joint open-air service - weather permitting!. Launching the weekend (if you'll pardon the pun!) will be the Saturday afternoon open event at church, where things will be given a special canal/water theme! I won't undermine the novelty by giving too many details away..... you'll just have to come and experience it! Many of the groups who meet at church or who use it will be in evidence to show what they do and to host activities and games. The main "outside" attraction will be the entertainer-conjurer Ian Otto, who will provide a show to delight and bamboozle. There will be refreshments, too, and various surprises. The afternoon will have a particular attraction for children, but is intended for "punters of all ages"! - Website News item from 2003 |
| October - Restoration Fundraiser The event is a variety entertainment evening of fun and laughter, in aid of our Restoration Fund. The date is Friday 24 October, at 7.30pm. And the venue is - just for a change - at "the other end of the parish"!........ at the Roe Cross Inn, by the cutting on the way to Mottram. |
| November - Remembering - a Service of Remembrance for the Bereaved. This is not replacing the traditional Remembrance Service - but it's to fulfil a complementary function on the same day. |
| November - Friday night youth group After a short break, the Friday night youth group has reopened and looks forward to welcoming any children aged 7 upwards for an evening of crafts, games and meeting new friends. The group meets from 6:30 to 8:30 in the upstairs room at the church centre. Admission is 75p and there is a tuck shop available. |
| November - Choir Christmas CD. The Choir recorded a CD of Christmas music - proceeds of the sale of the CD going to the Restoration Fund. |
| December - Healing Services First of the monthly Healing Services during the evening Holy Communion Service. |
| 2004 |
| January - Mission Statement St Paul's Mission Statement published. |
| February - Welcome Team Welcome Team introduced to greet people as they arrive for the main service on Sundays. |
| April - Early PrayerSt Paul's experimented with opening the church from 6.30 am - 7.30 am each Wednesday for prayer. The scheme had limited success and was discontinued. |
| June - Confirmation service at St Paul's There were eight candidates from St Paul's. |
| June - Restoration Comedy A great evening of entertainment by home-grown talent and outside friends - sketches, monologues, songs, music - all in aid of St Paul's Restoration Fund. Last year's show at the Roe Cross was a hit! This year, it's held at the Labour Club in Stalybridge, Friday 2 July, starting at 7.30pm. |
| October - Notice Boards New notice boards installed at both entrances to the church from Huddersfield Road. |
| October - Harvest St Paul's hosted a joint Harvest evening service with representation from St George's, St Peter's Roman Catholic Church,the Baptist Church and the Unitarian Church. The service of Evening Prayer and was led by Richard. A compelling sermon was delivered by Rev'd Ian Stubbs (St George's), the readings were given by two members of St Peter's congregation and the prayers were led by Rev'd Pat Ingle (Baptist Church). |
| November - Choir CD New CD: A new CD from St Paul's choir is planned for the end of the year. This time two of the tracks will be congregational items |
| December - Chetham's Concert Saturday 11th December a group of students from Chetham's School of Music in Manchester came to St Paul's for an gala concert. They were accompanied on the piano by Brenda Blewett (more familiar to us at St Paul's as Brenda Lawry!) - joint head of accompaniment at Chetham's. |
| 2005 |
| January - Alpha Course There were 19 participants enjoying the 10 weekly sessions, a mixture of people who've been at St Paul's for many years, and people who've only recently arrived. |
| April - Good Friday St Paul's decided to revert to a more traditional scheme offering one extended service between 12.00-3.00pm, corresponding to the last three hours of the crucifixion. |
| May - Pulpit swap Fr Bernard Forshaw (from St Peter’s RC Church) and Richard Lawry swap pulpits. Richard preached at St Peter’s ‘Vigil for Pentecost Eve’ on Saturday 14 May at 6.30pm, and Fr Bernard came to St Paul's on 22 May (Trinity Sunday) to preach at our special service of Choral Evensong. |
| June - Confirmation Service with 12 candidates from St Paul's |
| September - Parish Weekend A time for making new friendships, growing together, having fun, making space for God, and enjoying trips and activities in the beautiful Peak District setting. It was held at Cliff College, near Calver, a Christian training college and conference centre, and a lovely place with excellent facilities for this kind of event. |
| September - Restoration work The scaffolding has gone up in preparation for the restoration building work to start in earnest, and by the time you read this, things should be in full swing in the north transept and chancel. |
| October - Harvest This year, we’re encouraging members of the congregation to take a box of harvest gifts away after the service on 2 October and give it to a neighbour, rather than sending them to house-bound church members. The intention is to create another means of reaching out to others in our community, who wouldn’t normally have that contact with the church.Secondly, a new “Harvest Breakfastâ€. Due to lack of space during the building work, and an extra baptism service, a lunch would not be possible, so we’re doing breakfast instead! We’ll be serving a “Celebration Harvest Continental Breakfast†at 9.00am - i.e. between the early and main services - croissants, fruit, coffee/tea etc. Tickets will be £2.50, and, as always, the money raised will be for Christian Aid. |
| December - Floodlighting The first phase of floodlighting the church is now complete. The tower end of the church is now floodlit. The official switch-on took place on 19 December. |
| December - Night of Miracles Things have to be slightly different this year, because the organ is out of commission during the building works, and the choir is currently relocated in the Memorial Chapel! So we won’t be able to hold a traditional Carol Service in quite the normal way. It will still take place (18 December, 6.30pm), but with more congregational participation, and without some of the more elaborate choral pieces. So in addition to that, the evening before, we’re putting on “Night of Miraclesâ€, a relatively modern Christmas cantata to be performed by the choir, telling the Christmas story in words and music (with some great tunes!). |
| 2006 |
| February - Celebration The 10.30am service on 26 February will be one in which we’ll celebrate lots of things. We’re moving back into the whole church, and marking the end of the current phase of the restoration work - and enjoying the newly-refurbished chancel and North transept. We’ll also be marking the new plaque that’s to be put up for Iain Frith. And in the same service, we’ll be welcoming the Bishop and other diocesan representatives who will be with us to carry out my induction as vicar of St Paul’s. That might surprise a few people who thought I was already the vicar!! In fact, I was licensed as ‘priest-in-charge’ 4 years ago. Recently, the Bishop asked the PCC if they’d like me to be their vicar, and they very kindly said yes! I was licensed as (temporary) priest-in-charge, because there was the possibility of St Paul’s joining with two other churches to form a ‘team ministry’. In the event, that didn’t happen, and the diocese felt it right to suggest this current development. In practice, in day-to-day life, it will make little difference. But since it makes me ‘incumbent’ of the parish, it puts pastoral arrangements here on a more permanent footing, and means that the diocese has confidence in our church and is acknowledging St Paul’s viability and potential. It should be a special day, and we hope many of you will be able to be with us. |
| June - Confirmation Service |
| July - Choral Evensong On Sunday 16 July, we are being joined by St George’s Church and choir for a service of Choral Evensong. This will take place at St Paul’s, at 6.00pm. The service will include a wealth of beautiful sacred music: a setting by CV Stanford, the wonderful anthem “Cantique de Jean Racine†by Gabriel Faure, some new responses, and some fine congregational hymns. The preacher is to be Ven Richard Gillings, the Archdeacon of Macclesfield. And it will all be preceded by a strawberry tea, to give an extra festival feel! |
| July - Floodlighting The second phase of the scheme to floodlight St Paul's Church came into operation on Tuesday 4 July |
| September - New boilers We are getting two new boilers to replace the old church boiler, and one new one to provide heating for the upstairs room and the hot water in the centre. All of the boilers will now be located in the downstairs kitchen, for ease of servicing and control-setting. |
| September - Memorial Garden The next phase of the Memorial Garden in the churchyard - creating flower beds by the paths on the north side of the church - is about to start. On Saturday 14 October, we hope to have a team of people together to make headway on digging out, putting footings in, and, we hope,starting to build walls. |
| September - Spotlight Youth Drama Group A new drama group is starting for young people (10 years old and upwards). Every Monday night, at St Paul’s, from 6.15-7.15pm. David Stockwell is leading it, with help from various others. Games, exercises, and work on dramas and sketches. A great opportunity for young people to hone their performance skills and have fun! We’re inviting young people from other churches to join too. |
| December - The Letter Rhema Theatre Company (a professional Christian theatre company) are coming to St Paul’s on Friday 1st December (7.30pm) to perform their new play “The Letterâ€, based on the dramatic life of St Paul. |
| December - Christmas Cardboard We’re putting on a home-grown, alternative Christmas play. It’s called Christmas Cardboard, written and produced by David Stockwell, and inspired by the plight of homeless people in London. It’s amusing and thought-provoking. We’re doing this in collaboration with All Saints, Micklehurst and St James, Millbrook. The cast are drawn from all three churches, and they have started rehearsing already. The performance is on Saturday 16 December, in St Paul’s. |
| 2007 |
| January - Piano Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester offered us a Steinway grand piano for nothing! It needed some standard work to bring it back to tip-top condition, the cost of that would be defrayed by the proceeds of a concert, once in situ. It will be a marvellous asset to St Paul’s, both for use in some services and for concerts, (not to mention as a financial asset!). We’re very grateful to Chetham’s for their generous offer. |
| June - Confirmation at St Paul's |
| September - Memorial Plaques With the new Memorial Garden now largely completed, we are able to start the process of moving plaques to their permanent site. |
| November - White Hart Dinner a major fund-raising and social event, dinner at the White Hart Inn in Lydgate. The White Hart is a marvellous place on the edge of the countryside beyond Mossley, and it’s renowned as a splendid venue with superb food. |
| November - The Holy Land talk by Richard Lawry - "When I came back from my pilgrimage to the Holy Land at the end of March this year, several people asked if I might show some pictures or give a talk about it". Richard |
| November - Remembrance Day The morning service will be on the theme of “Peace and Remembranceâ€. Traditional elements of the Remembrance Service will be interwoven with readings and music to aid prayer and reflection. Among other items, the choir will be singing two anthems, setting appropriate Biblical texts to music. The evening will be our Service for the Bereaved, to which all are invited, and especially those who have lost loved ones in recent times. This is intended as an act of worship, thanksgiving, remembrance and healing. We hope you’ll be able to join us for one or both of these services. |
| 2008 |
| January - Prayer Day for St Paul's We’ve decided there could be no better way to start the year than with a day of prayer for our church. We’re going to hold this on Saturday 12 January, and I’d like to encourage every (mobile!) church member to come into church at some point that day, even if just for 10 minutes. |
| February - Candle stand An anonymous donation was recently made to St Paul’s to buy a candle stand for church. The PCC warmly welcomed the offer, and the item has now been purchased and placed in the Memorial Chapel. This offers the opportunity, for any who might so wish, to light a votive candle, perhaps in memory of a loved one, on the anniversary of a death, as a way of offering thanks or a prayer, or perhaps to accompany prayer for some other person or need. There will also be occasions when we’ll bring the stand into the main church and use it in special services. We’re very grateful for the generosity and thoughtfulness of the donors. |
| March - Concert Following the successful event two years ago, another group of Chetham's students will come to St Paul's to give a concert in aid of the Restoration Fund on Friday 14 March - with Brenda Lawry (aka Brenda Blewett) as accompanist using our new piano. Update - Peter Moore who featured in the gala concert by students from Chetham’s School of Music on 14 March at St Paul's, yesterday (May 11) was named as overall winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year for 2008. |
| April - Sunday Serenade Many of us enjoyed the gala concert by students from Chetham’s School of Music on 14 March in church. Now we have another chance to enjoy some fine music-making by very talented young people – and this time it’s free! Two exceptional violinists – Jiafeng Chen and Mari Poll – both ex-Chetham’s and now studying at music college will perform in this one-hour recital, accompanied again by Brenda, on Sunday 6th April at 3.00pm, in St Paul’s. This concert will be part of their build-up to participating in the prestigious Menuhin International Violin Competition later in the month. ( Jiafeng Chen won second prize in the Senior Competition of the prestigious Menuhin International Violin Competition). |
| August - Hope 08 The weekend of 30 & 31 August is the Hope 08 Tameside Big Weekend. On Sunday people will be gathering at Stamford Park Ashton for a free family funday for all. There will be puppets, an amazing fire-eater, a children's magician, bouncy castles, face-painting, interactive works of art and children's craft, there really is something for everyone. There will be music on the main stage, with the line-up including Make Jesus Known and LZ7! |
| August - Theft of lead from church roof In April of this year, and several times since, we have had lead thefts from the roof and gutter areas of the church roof. |
| September - Back to Church Sunday It’s a ideal opportunity to invite a friend or neighbour to church – someone who used to go in the past but has drifted away. Very often people would love to come back to church, but just need a personal invitation in order to encourage them. It can be daunting to make that journey over the door-step on your own. As last year, we’ll be putting on a buffet lunch after the main morning service, and also food and activities for children, as part of the welcome we’re offering people. |
| October - Colin Ashworth Colin Ashworth will be licensed as a Lay Reader for St Paul's at a service in Chrster Cathedral on Saturday 18 October. |
| December - Concert We are launching our new series of lunchtime concerts on Tuesday 2nd December. The intention is to put on one of these concerts approximately every half term. The concert will be given by a group of students from Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, accompanied by Brenda Blewett (aka Lawry!). The concerts will start at 1.00 (lasting about an hour), with a soup-and-sandwich lunch beforehand, in the church lounge. |
| 2009 |
| January - Richard Lawry to leave The Vicar of St Paul's, Richard Lawry, announced that he would be moving to a new post within the Chester diocese - at Norbury, in Stockport. He anticipates that he will leave St Paul's in June 2009. |
| January - Memorial Chapel An anonymous donation was used to buy three new chairs for the chapel, and a beautiful table has been provided too. On the table we have placed a lovely wooden cross which has been hand-carved and anonymously donated in memory of a loved one. All of this complements the votive candle stand introduced recently, and the memorial book cabinet and other existing features. Thank you to all those who have generously contributed to the improvements of various sorts. Do use the chapel – go in and sit, pray, light a candle, and so on – whenever the church is open. Perhaps you may want to come early before a service, or stay afterwards for some quiet moments. There are prayer request cards, which you can fill in if there is someone or something you would like us to pray for. There is a small basket to place the cards in, and they will be brought up to the altar table during Healing Services, and added to the prayers. |
| April - Concert Concert at St Pauls on 25 April at 7:30pm featuring Jiafeng Chen - who won second prize in the Senior Competition of the 2008 Menuhin International Violin Competition - and Brenda Blewett aka Brenda Lawry. The programme will include works by Paganini, Bach and Ravel. |
| April - Restoration The restoration work on the tower (and high-level stone-work) is due to start on 20 April. This is the penultimate phase of the restoration programme for St Paul’s. The final phase of the programme will be the south transept and organ chamber, which may happen next year. We had some financial good news recently when the Historic Cheshire Churches Preservation Trust gave us a very generous grant of £10,000. We now have a significant proportion of the money needed for the remaining work, and so the light can be glimpsed at the end of the tunnel. |
| May - Concert Tuesday 5th May. Once again, students from Chetham’s School of Music, accompanied by Brenda Blewett (aka Lawry!) will come and give a varied programme in a one-hour recital at church (1.00-2.00pm). |
| May - Richard Lawry leaves From Richard & Brenda: Thank you all so much for the wonderful send-off you gave us on 31 May. It was a day we will never forget. It wasn’t easy for us (as you will have noticed!) to say goodbye to you all, but the sadness of the day was balanced with such a sense of love and even celebration. The gifts you gave us were just marvellous, and we were deeply touched not just by your generosity but by your thoughtfulness. The blessing which the children sang for us at the end of the service was so moving, and their presentation too. And the wonderful shared lunch and the Whit Walks in the afternoon made the whole day particularly memorable. |
| June - Confirmation Service at St Paul's There were six candidates from St Paul's. |
| June - Family Fun Day Saturday 13th June 2-5pm, held on the lawn of Staley House, next to the Vicarage. Barbecue, children's games and races - a lovely annual event. |
| September - Concert Saint Paul's presents a concert by The Adamson Military Band in church on Saturday 19 September 2009 |
| 2010 |
 May - Tim Robinson
Rev. Dr
Tim Robinson becomes Vicar of St Paul's and was inducted on 11 May 2010.
From the church website: "Tim was formerly curate at St Mary's, Nantwich. He is 53, a Geordie, and was previously a geology teacher. He is married to Norma, who is a part-time nurse
and also currently studying for the non-stipendary ministry. They have two
daughters, the youngest of whom, Jenna, will also be coming to Stalybridge."
In his spare time Tim loves walking and playing golf with his wife Norma.
He also enjoys listening to music and plays the trombone |
| October - Restoration The area of church where work is being carried out has been boarded off to allow services to carry on as normal. The contractors hope to finish the work by Christmas. The work required on the organ is now found to be less extensive than previously thought - and thus, also less expensive! However, on the advice of the architect, the stained glass windows in the South Transept have had to be removed prior to being re-leaded. They will then be put back into place. |
| October - Growth Action Plan We will be asked to state of Growth Action Plan priorities for 2011 in the new year. A PCC Away Day in October discussed issues in two areas: "Welcome and integration" and "Accessibility of Worship" but there may be other things which members of the church feel strongly about. |
| 2011 |
| February - E100 Challenge This is a challenge to read the Bible in one year, forcusing on the essential 100 passages of the Bible including the Old and New Testaments. Some of our services would be based on this challenge |
| June - Confirmation ....at St Paul's with the Bishop of Chester. 14 candidates from St Paul's. |
| June - Money PCC discusses shortfall in income to cover general expenses |
| September - Restoration of the organ In 2009, the final stage of the restoration of the church building was due to start and it was known that the organ would have to be removed to deal with dry rot in the organ chamber. The firm of David Wells of Liverpool was engaged and the work began in September 2010. Most of the organ was removed at least to sound board level and the existing capture system scrapped and a new and much improved system installed. This final stage of the restoration of the building was completed in 2012 |
| September - AV system A Faculty for the new Public Address and Audio Visual Systems has been granted. It was decided to implement the PA work as soon as possible, but the AV work will have to go on hold due to financial constraints. |
| September - Bread of Life Food Bank This is jointly run by St James, St Paul's and All Saints. There was an excellent response by church members to the request to sign up to provide items for the food parcels. |
| November - Evening Services The Sunday evening Holy Communion with Healing Service was discontinued. The numbers attending have dropped to an average of less than 10. The heating costs over the winter months do not justify this service. |
| 2012 |
| January - Cup licensing a list of 16 members of the church was approved to present before the Bishop of Stockport. |
| January - PCC Away Day In the morning sessions we looked at the Strengths and Weaknesses of the church, and the Opportunities and Threats these posed. In the afternoon we put together our GAP, which was much easier to do than the SWOT analysis, hopefully because our morning discussions had been productive. .....more |
| February - Lent Appeal - Wateraid. Saint Paul’s can save lives this Lent by turning Jars of Change into jars of water. Just set aside a jar and drop some money into it every time you have a shower, or wash the car, wash up or use water in any way. Do this to show your appreciation of our unlimited access to safe water at the turn of a tap and to raise funds to provide safe water in countries in the developing world. |
| June - Bogus Poet Tim Robinson, the Vicar of St Paul's, produced a book of poems during Lent copies of which have been sold to support church funds. In June, the Chester Diocese website featured Tim and included two of the poems. Copies of the book are still available from the church price £2. |
| June - Jubilee Bells St Paul's bell ringers rang for half an hour on Monday 4 June to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. An 8 bell ring of bells mounted on a barge took part in the River Pageant on the Thames with bells struck by the Whitechapel Foundry - who made the first set of bells for St Paul's. |
| October - Men's Fellowship The first meeting of the Men's Fellowship Group was held in the Station Buffet Bar of Stalybridge Railway Station on Thursday 11 October at 8 pm. The theme was an informal sharing of "how we came to faith". |
| December - Festival Choir - Christmas Carol Service Members of the congregation were invited to join the choir for the Christmas Carol Service. The idea is that for certain special occasions we will have a larger, festival choir, made up of the present choir and others who may not necessarily be able to commit to weekly services. |
| 2014 |
| February - Pilgrim Course begins at St Paul's Pilgrim is a major new teaching and discipleship resource from the Church of England. It aims to help every local church create a place where people can explore the Christian faith together and see how it can be lived out each day. |
| April - Choral Evensong Choral Evensong on Easter Sunday (20th April) followed by a High Tea. For this event we were joined by the choir of St Michael’s and All Angels, Mottram. Music included Stanford’s Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in C and the anthems The Strife Is O'er (Ley) and With a Voice of Singing (Shaw). |
| July - PCC Away Day to consider Growth Action Plan....more |
| October - 175th Anniversary Service The preacher at this service was the Ven. Richard Gillings, former Archdeacon of Macclesfield. This anthem "I lift up my eyes" was specially commissioned for the church's 175th anniversary concert in June. The composer, Gavin Wayte, teaches composition at Chetham's School of Music. Contributions also came from the morning choir, festival choir and brass band as well as an organ and piano recital. |
| October - Tim Robinson's last service Tim Robinson's last service as Vicar took place on 12 October 2015 before moving to the parish of St Thomas, Henbury. |
November - Advent
Carol Service
and Organ Recital
Sunday November 30 at 4:00 pm
Programme
4:00 pm
Carols, anthems and readings for
Advent—Saint Paul’s Choir.
5:00
Refreshments
5:20 pm
Organ recital—Dr Steven Robinson,
Director of Music at St Paul’s |
| November - Bread of Life Food Bank Bread of Life Foodbank in numbers In the period from the beginning of January to the end of October - BOL distributed over 12000 items of food—an average of about 1200 a month. The most frequently used items were: milk, tins and packets of soup, tins of tuna, salmon etc., rice pudding and baked beans. The Bread of Life Foodbank was a joint initiative between St Paul's, St James' Millbrook and All Saints, Micklehurst. |
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December - Carol Singing at the Railway Station Carol Singing at Stalybridge Railway Station 18 December 5-7pm Join members of St George’s and Holy Trinity churches for some carol singing to spread cheer to the local community! - Thursday 18th December at Stalybridge Station (near Buffet bar) from 5pm till 7pm to sing some carols to weary commuters. There will be a brass band and all levels of singers are welcome! |
| December-Bishop of Stockport The new Bishop of Stockport— and the first female bishop of the Church of England - is to be the Rev Libby Lane. She has been vicar of St Peter's Hale and St Elizabeth's Ashley, in the diocese of Chester, since 2007. She was born in Glossop, Derbyshire and educated at Manchester High School for Girls and St Peter’s College, Oxford. She trained for ministry at Cranmer Hall in Durham. She was ordained a deacon in 1993 and a priest in 1994, serving her curacy in Blackburn. She is to be consecrated on Monday 26 January 2015 |
| 2015 |
March - Stalybridge Patchwork & Quilting Group 7th Patchwork and Quilting Exhibition Saturday 21st March 2015 11.00am to 4 pm St Paul’s Church Admission £2. Refreshments available. Traders—Patchwork Gallery; Patchwork Parade |
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April - The Annual General Meeting held after the morning service on 19 April 2015 Janet McBride and Viv Dawson were elected as Church Wardens for the next year. The following were elected to the PCC: Margaret Leitch; Alison Monks; Jacintha Manchester; Stuart Hobday; Keith Dawson; Sheila Pearson The Treasurer presented a detailed printed report on the church finances. She made the following important points: · We have to address the underpayment of the Parish Share to avoid it affecting the appointment of a new incumbent. (The PCC has already begun to deal with this issue). · The Treasurer summed up our position thus: Our income from all sources is about £80,000 while our expenditure is £104,000 to £105,000, meaning there is an annual shortfall of about £25,000. This will have to be high on the agenda of the new PCC. |
| May - Talk on Musicals Writer and broadcaster Malcolm MacFarlane presents an illustrated talk with music from the Great Musicals of Stage and Screen-from “Showboat†to “Mamma Miaâ€. St Paul’s Church, Huddersfield Road, Stalybridge. Saturday 2nd May 7.30pm. |
May - The Organist Entertains - a concert by Nigel Ogden Saturday 16 May ; 7:30 pm Nigel started playing the organ when he was 12, having studied the piano for a number of years. His father was a church organist, so he says he had plenty of opportunity to find out about and discover the instrument for himself. Nevertheless, it was the family trips to see Reginald Dixon at the Wurlitzer in the Blackpool Tower Ballroom that really got him hooked on the beauty of the instrument. After training as a schoolteacher, Nigel endeavoured to get involved in the music business. His first job was that of a salesman/demonstrator in an electronic organ retail business in Hyde, Cheshire. Later he opened his own electronic organ business in Sale, Cheshire. It was during this time that he also started presenting 'The Organist Entertains'; a programme on which he'd featured many times as a player since 1972. 'The Organist Entertains' has been running as a regular weekly feature since 1969, following a pilot show in April that same year. Nigel took over as the regular presenter of the show, following the retirement of the programme's founder and first host, Robin Richmond. When Nigel isn't presenting or preparing for the programme, he spends much of his spare time travelling around the country, playing concerts of popular light and light classical music on theatre organs and in churches, cathedrals and church halls. |
| May - Morning Praise Next Sunday, 31st May, at 10.30 will be a service of Morning Praise. This is a trial service to give our church an opportunity to explore an alternative pattern of worship for Morning Prayer. |
| June - Confirmation Service at St Paul's on 10 June was taken by the Bishop of Stockport, the Right Reverend Libby Lane, the first woman to be consecrated bishop in the Church of England. |
| September - The Vacancy The Diocese of Chester has agreed to the appointment of a Priest in Charge for St Paul's. |
December - Colin Ashworth Reader Colin Ashworth who was to move to another part of Cheshire, leaves St Paul's |
| 2016 |
| January - Thurday Morning Communion services These services had to be suspended due to difficulties of finding clergy to lead them. |
| January - Priest in Charge for St Paul’s It was not possible to make an appointment following the recent interviews. The post will now be re-advertised. |
| March - Emma Handley We are glad to announce that Rev Emma Handley is to be the new incumbent at St Paul's. Emma is currently the Curate at St Mark's, Bredbury and was ordained deacon in 2014 and priest in 2015. A former secondary school teacher, she and her husband, Graham, have three daughters. We hope that Emma will be inducted in June 2016 |
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July - Bread of Life Food Bank closes
At the recent AGM of BofL it was
decided to close the food bank in its
present form. Existing stock will be
distributed to other food banks or
families in need.
Since BofL started in 2011 food bank
provision in the area has increased
and BofL has had a reduction in the
number of clients referred to it.
The Chairman, Secretary, Stock
Controller and Treasurer are each
stepping down and no-one has come
forward to replace them. |
| July - St Paul ’s : a Fair Trade Church. The PCC has renewed its commitment to making St Paul's a Fair Trade church. Fair Trade means the farmers who produce the tea, coffee or sugar we use, get a better deal. It also means that they can make their own decisions, control their futures - and that of their families - and lead the dignified life everyone deserves. “Wake up and smell the coffeeâ€! - we will soon have the use of a modern coffee maker which has been donated to the church to deliver cups of freshly brewed Fair trade coffee. |
| September - concert by the Renaissance Choir Saint Paul’s Church Saturday 24 September 2016 @ 7:30 pm Admission £7.50 including cheese and wine. |
| October - Messy Church @St Paul’s is being launched Saturday 8th October 4-5.50pm This month’s theme – ‘Thankfulness’. Bring along a responsible adult and come and enjoy biblically based crafts, games, songs, stories and stay for your tea! |
| 2017 |
January - PCC Away Day On January 21st, we will be holding a PCC away day where we will be starting to pray and seek God’s will for our church, envision God’s plan for St Paul’s, and to look ahead to our future direction. In preparation for this I am inviting you all to have a say in where you would like to see St Paul’s in the future. In the lounge, there will be three boards displaying three questions: What do you love about St Paul’s? What might we adjust? What ideas and dreams do you have for our church?. There will be opportunity to write your suggestions (anonymously or accredited) and to have a part in shaping the future of St Paul’s. Summary of your feedback Thank you to everyone who took the time to post your views on our comments boards. In general what we are hearing is positive.
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| March - Lent Course This year's Lent course begins on Thursday 7 March and will run for 5 weeks. It will be held in the church lounge and will follow a simple format of reflecting on a passage from the Bible followed by a discussion on its application in our the present day with a particular emphasis on Discipleship. There will be tea, coffee etc and the evening will end with a closing prayer. There will be some study booklets available, but anyone who is interested and has access to internet can download or read the material at www.uspg.org.uk/resources/disciple ship/. The sessions would start at 7.30 and aim to finish at 9 pm. Everyone is very welcome, gor more information please see Jacintha Manchester or Helen Whitelegg. |
| April - Holy Week Services Maundy Thursday Agape Meal and Communion, 6pm - a sit down meal in church based around the Passover, followed by communion. It is anticipated that this will cost £6 for adults and £2 for children. Good Friday Meditation 1pm - a focus on Jesus’ last hours and the words that he spoke. Easter Sunday 16 April 201 7 6:00am Easter Sunrise Service Join other Christians from Stalybridge to welcome in Easter Day from the top of Ridge Hill Lane/Arlies Lane (SK15 3PZ) and afterwards for hot cross buns at the Baptist church. 10:30am Family Communion with baptism |
| May - Prayer for Manchester after the Arena Bombing God of compassion, You hear the cries of all who are in trouble or distress; accept our prayers for those whose lives are affected by the bombing in Manchester; we pray especially for those suddenly facing a future without a child, parent or loved one, young ones who are in deep distress, those who are injured, traumatized or awaiting news. Strengthen them in their hour of need, grant them perseverance and courage to face the future and be to them a firm foundation on which to build their lives; this we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen |
| July - Confirmation and Baptism Service Sunday 2nd July 6.30pm We are delighted that Bishop Libby will be leading this service of confirmation and baptism at our church. |
| September - The Alpha Course An 11 week course that provides the opportunity for an exploration of the Christian faith and some of the big questions in life that we ponder from time to time. It begins by asking the question ‘Is there more to life than this?’. The evening begins with a meal, followed by a short video addressing the topic for that session and ending with a group discussion where you are able to address some of your questions in a more informal setting. There will be one 'away day' where we look at Holy Spirit. |
| October - Rocktober: concert St. Paul's Brass presents Rocktober Friday 13th October at 7.30pm. Tickets: £5 and include refreshments. The proceeds from the raffle will be donated to Willow Wood Hospice. |
| November - Youth Events Sunday 19th Nov 5-7 pm DRAMA WORKSHOP, in the Church Lounge where we’ll put something together that can be used in the Nativity on 17th December. Sunday 26th November 5-7 pm St Matthew’s Centre: Kairos Youth Service . This is a good chance to get together with the youth at Holy Trinity for some snacks, games, worship and to hear a relevant message. December 1st 7-9 pm 'DANCE OFF' in church - food and glow sticks and dancing in the dark. |
| December - Christmas at St Paul's 2017 3rd December : All-age parade and Toy Service 10.30 am where toys are brought up as offerings that will be sent out to those children in need this Christmas. (Please put your gift unwrapped into a gift bag so that it can be distributed more easily). 10th December: Nine Lessons and Carols 18.30 17th December: Nativity Service 10.30am Where our young people bring us their version of the nativity story. Welcome to the Vicarage 2-4pm on 17th December for Christmas drinks and desserts. 24th December: Holy Communion 10.30am Christingle 16.00 Midnight Communion 11.30pm 25th December: All-age celebration 10.30am |
| 2018 |
January - Prayer A Churches Together endeavour is a baton of prayer this new year. A book of prayer is being passed on to each church in Stalybridge in turn, starting this Sunday with St George’s and coming to us between 11th and 24th March. We are encouraged to creatively record our prayers for other churches in Stalybridge as well as for our own community. This prayer initiative will end on 19th May, coinciding with the beginning of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s call to prayer: ‘Thy Kingdom Come’. We will be hosting 12 hours of continuous prayer at St Paul’s starting at 7pm on Friday 18th and ending at 8am the following morning with a prayer breakfast in the lounge. Please think about signing up in twos for the hour prayer slots that will take us through the night. For this event and for the following week of ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ we will be setting up a series of prayer stations in our church and opening up the church for prayer and hopefully to the schools as well to encourage people to engage creatively in prayer and to become more confident in this important discipline. If anyone is interested in being part of this prayer station initiative then please see me, it would be great to involve as many of us as possible in turning St Paul’s into a house of prayer. |
| January - Beyond Alpha A homegroup is being formed as a followup to the Alpha course. It will be called the Bible Book Club, and will meet once a month initially, at 7.30pm on either Tuesday or Thursday night depending on people's preferences. We will discuss a Bible passage (taken from the Bible Society website which has been sent out in advance) - over coffee and biscuits. This will just require a little reading of the passage in preparation which will also allow you to note down questions or insights. It will be a lovely time to catch up with people and share some of what the Bible says to us. |
| February - Knit and StitchKnit and Stitch Group 1st Wednesday of each month 1.30- 3.30pm starting February 7th. Bring any handcraft to knit, crochet, sew and chat. Cost £1 including refreshments |
| March - Lent and Easter at St Paul's Mothering Sunday - March 11 Holy Communion at 10.30 am which includes all-ages and the traditional distribution of flowers .. Palm Sunday - March 25 10:30 Holy Communion with the distribution of palm crosses. .. 18:30 The Cross of Christ A choral evensong devotion for congregation and choir to mark the beginning of Holy Week. We will be joined by the choir of Mottram Church. .. Wednesday 28 March 18.00-20.00 Church open for prayer The church will be open for private prayer. Prayer stations marking the journey of Jesus to the cross will be available to help guide your prayer. .. Maundy Thursday - 29 March 18.30-20.30 A family meal including elements of the Passover will be provided. Tickets - £6 or £10 for a family ticket - will be on sale nearer the time. This will be followed by a simple Communion and the stripping of the church. Good Friday - Friday 30 March 13:00 A dramatic presentation of the events of the crucifixion performed by members of St Paul’s Church. Easter Sunday - Sunday 1 April 06:00 A dawn service to mark the resurrection of Christ from the tomb. Held at the top of Ridge Hill (Ridge Hill Lane/Arlies Lane SK15 3PZ) and united with other churches of Stalybridge. 10:30 An all-age holy communion with baptisms to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. An Easter egg hunt will follow the service. |
| May - Thy Kindom Come: Prayer ÂWe will be setting up prayer stations in our church on Sunday 13th May. The church is open every morning between 8.30 and 11am for prayer. Kairos Youth Event 6.30-8 pm at St PaulÂfs Sunday 13th May which Bishop Libby and Archdeacon Ian Bishop will be at. We will be focussing on ÂPrayer. Year 7s upwards welcome to attend. We will open the church on Tuesday 15th May between 6 and 8pm for private prayer. ÂWe are also hosting a 12 hours of prayer overnight from 8 am till 8 pm on Friday 18th till Saturday 19th May. |
| June - Setting God's People Free As part of a Diocesan initiative to change the culture of its churches to one that places a higher emphasis on mission and evangelism, 25 churches have been asked to take part in a project that has come out of the Church of England’s report called ‘Setting God’s People Free’ We are one of those churches! We have been asked to begin with an honest, anonymous questionnaire that helps us measure where we are at as a church in terms of our confidence in our faith. This will be repeated in about two years to see if there has been any change in how we feel about sharing our story with those who do not yet know Jesus. |
| September - Screens in Church One of our former members, Walter Nelson, who sadly passed away two years ago, generously bequeathed some money to the church. In discussion as a PCC we have decided that a good investment of that money would be to install LED screens in the church. Many churches now, including Chester Cathedral, have LED screens installed. We think this would be a good option for our building as the configuration of the church means that visibility of the current screen is poor. In addition, each time it is needed, the current screen takes around an hour to set up with the projector. If we were to install a number of smaller, wall mounted LED screens it would enhance the church as a worship space by increasing its flexibility and allowing full visibility. Screens would enable us to be more creative in our worship by enabling us to use more of the vast resource of liturgy produced by the Church of England and new songs without having to buy a whole new set of song books which rapidly become dated. |
| September - Licensing of Jacintha Manchester as Reader It’s a delight that Jacintha has reached the end of her official training as a Reader here at St Paul’s She will be licensed at Chester Cathedral on Saturday 13th October at 16.15 and it would be great if we could go and support her. |
| September - Bell Ringing Private Arthur Reginald Fielding, Stalybridge, St Paul’s, Chester Diocese. Died 30/09/1918 age 33. South Wales Borderers 11th Bn. Service No.44393. Commemorated at Tournai Communal Cemetery Allied Extension, Belgium. Husband of Edith Fielding (née Shaw), whom he married in 1908 at St Paul’s Stalybridge, He was closely connected to St Paul’s Church, Stalybridge, having been a chorister and a member of both the cricket and football clubs, as well as the Young Men’s Institute. He was reported missing in April 1918 and died of pneumonia while a prisoner of war. His brother, Private Fred Fielding, Northumberland Fusiliers, also a bellringer, died on 16/10/1917, and is buried in Poelcapelle British cemetery, Belgium. We are dedicating our Bell Ringing today, 30th September 2018 and the 100th anniversary of the death of Arthur, in remembrance of Arthur and Fred. |
| October - A church without, a meeting house within A church without, a meeting house within: a history of St Paul's Church, Stalybridge 1835-1869 by George Maddock This book, based on ten years’ research, covers the history of our church from the first meeting of the Building Committee in 1835 to the death of William Worth Hoare, the first Vicar, in 1869. The building and development of the church and its schools are dealt with in detail, as also is the rich social life of the community connected with St Paul’s. The clergy, Whit Walks, Whitsuntide trips, tea parties, lectures, music and bell-ringing all get attention. The Sunday School gets a chapter on its own, as do the Lancashire Cotton Famine and the anti-catholic Murphy Riots which dominated the life of the town in the 1860s. Available from Amazon isbn 1724050559 |
| 2019 |
| January - Alpha Course The Alpha Couse began on 9 January |
January - Helping Children with Loss Course This course is particularly useful for any adult who is working with a child or children who has suffered any type of loss such as:- â— The loss of a loved one or friend â— The loss of a pet â— The loss of good health â— The loss of a parent through divorce - often under estimated and one that can cause much distress. â— The loss of a school/house The course was delivered by the Head of Buckton Vale school |
February - Kairos Youth Event at St Paul's Aimed at 11-18 year olds with worship and games and a chanace to meet other young people from churches in the town |
| April - Confirmation Confirmation service led by the Bishop of Chester |
| April - Street Pastors Two members of St Paul's - Jacintha Manchester & Carol Michaelas - graduated as Street Pastors in a graduation ceremony on Saturday 4th May, 6-8pm at Brunswick Church, Manchester |
| May - Grave Talk Welcome to an evening of talking about death, dying and funerals! This is a safe, café space, organised by a local church, where people can talk about these big questions, face the inevitable and potentially make their wishes known to their loved ones. |
May/June - Thy Kingdom Come Thy Kingdom Come is a global prayer movement that invites Christians around the world to pray for more people to come to know Jesus. What started in 2016 as an invitation from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to the Church of England has grown into an international and ecumenical call to prayer. This year at St Paul’s, to link in with this wave of prayer, we are setting up prayer stations in church to help people to engage with prayer. Our local schools are being invited in Monday 9th to Wednesday 12th and we will keep the church open 18.00-20.00 on Tuesday 11th June for people to come in and pray. |
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June - Dads and Lads - 15 June
Dads, come along to church with your kids and spend a couple of hours playing. We are going to set up a Play Station, snooker table, table football, basketball hoops, Lego, board games, climbing frame, trains and cars for the younger end etc. Pizza served along with other refreshments. |
June - Whit Friday Procession Afternoon: walk and service in Armentieres Square. We will meet outside the Vicarage at 1:30pm ready to march down into Stalybridge. This was to be the last "Whit Friday Walks" in its traditional form before the disruption caused by Covid. |
July - Questionnaire Many of you completed a Base Line questionnaire this time last year which tried to measure where we were at as a church in terms of our attitude to mission. This year there is a follow up questionnaire aimed at gauging whether we have changed our perceptions at all and feel better equipped. |
| September - Helping your teenagers navigate relationships Helping your teenagers navigate relationships 18.30 Thursday 12th September For those parents with teenagers, or preteens, these years can be fairly angst ridden for all concerned. As they come to grips with their identity, and experience enormous peer/media pressure to behave in certain ways we may feel at a loss as to how to advise them. Encouraging them to form healthy relationships which build them up rather than destroy their self worth is crucial but difficult to navigate. Based on the book ‘Loveology’ by John Mark Comer, I would like to spend some time unpacking the Biblical framework for healthy relationships and discussing how we can best help our teens through these years in a Godly way. If you are interested then please have a chat with me. Rev Emma |
October - Flower arranging workshop We recognise that our four flower ladies do an amazing job in providing beautiful flower arrangements for the church each week. However, we would like to take the pressure off them a bit by extending the rota to more people. If you are interested in learning some basics in flower arranging, come along to our workshop, run by professional flower arranger David Mason, who will be giving a practical demonstration on how to put together a couple of harvest themed flower displays. Come whatever your ability and feel no pressure to join a rota but just to have an enjoyable evening. We would like to use your displays however to decorate the church ready for the Harvest Festival on Sunday 6th October but you can take them back after the service! |
| October - Food Bank From Thomas Dolan - As part of my Gold Duke of Edinburgh award I am going to be supporting our local Foodbank. I am starting a collection box here at St Paul’s and would be grateful for any donations. Whilst the Foodbank is grateful for donations of any food or toiletries, at the moment they are particularly short of coffee, fruit juice, baby food, tinned puddings, tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned fish and tinned tomatoes. There will be a box in the church entrance for any donations. Many thanks for your support |
| November - Door Wreath Workshop Friday 29th November starting at 7pm in the Church Lounge (finishing around 9.30pm). The price is £10. (£5 of this will pay for the wreath that David Mason, the workshop leader will provide, and £5 to cover costs of room hire, David’s time, and refreshments.) You will need to bring seasonal foliage that you would like to go in your wreath, and any additional accessories like baubles, cinnamon, pine cones, flowers (silk and/or real) etc. Last time we had a lot of foliage so if you cannot access any don’t worry. |
| 2020 |
January - Alpha Course The Alpha course is an evangelistic course which seeks to introduce the basics of the Christian faith through a series of talks and discussions. It is an opportunity to explore the meaning of life and faith in a non-threatening manner in an environment where you are free to ask questions and discuss. We begin each session with a meal, followed by a video covering that week’s topic. We then break into smaller discussion groups to talk through what we have seen and heard. |
| February - Mission giving We would like to make a regular donation to a number of other organisations of £100 per month, as a starting point. We want to give internationally, nationally and locally to both Christian and non Christian organisations. We would like to support organisations that are meaningful to us as a community so are throwing this out for suggestions as to who you would like us to support as a church. We will then discuss the suggestions and decide who we will begin regularly giving to as a church. |
| March-Coronavirus In light of the Government guidance, the Church of England has said that all churches are to close to help prevent the spread of coronavirus. Our church might be closed for public services of worship for the foreseeable future but we are still alive and well. We can still remain connected through our social media links and by phoning and talking to our older members on a regular basis and our live stream services will continue. Sundays at 10.30am - On Sundays at 10.30am we will live stream a service from church. There will be the usual liturgy and sermon so that each Sunday morning our church family will be able to gather to worship, despite not being physically present in church. The live stream will be available through our website (www.stpaulstaley.co.uk - then scroll down and click on More about this event under Live stream family worship). The link will also be put onto Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/stpaulschurc hstalybridge/) and emailed to as many people as we can reach that way. Weekly Bible Study - In the Bulletin each week I am going to provide some questions that follow on from the sermon to help you to think through and interrogate the text a bit more. What I would like to do is to spend a bit of time talking through the passage via email and/or some kind of video conferencing tool like Zoom on the Wednesday following the Sunday. If anyone is interested in linking in with this please contact me. Emma. |
| April - Food Bank At present Tameside East Food Bank remains open and is running out of St John’s, Dukinfield. They are running low on supplies and desperately need us to keep supporting them. We have therefore set up 3 collection points outside homes within our parish Thomas will pick up from those points on Friday morning each week and take it up to St John’s as long as the food bank is open. |
May - Knitted hearts We are looking for people to knit HEARTS which will be given to people in hospital who cannot be visited by their family. The idea is to knit two matching HEARTS - one for the person in hospital and one to be sent to their family. Our nurses on the Covid wards are reporting that this offers comfort to the sufferers. |
| May - Parenting Teenagers Course A number of us are currently navigating the teenage years with our children (or just about to start). There is no doubt that this is a testing time regardless of how ‘good’ your kids are. Care for the Family have put together a 6 week course called ‘Parentalk - The Teenage Years’ aimed at helping parents parent through these tricky years more effectively. For those of us all living together with our families through lockdown you might be seeing issues raised through this close proximity and constant contact and coming together to talk this through would be helpful. We will be starting on Monday 25th May 2020 at 7.30pm via Zoom. |
| May - Thy Kingdom Come Thy Kingdom Come 2020 Over the last few years we have engaged as a church with a global prayer initiative that has been encouraged by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. During the season of Pentecost he calls us to prayer with renewed effort. Over the past few years we have opened up our church to our schools, community and congregation with prayer stations to engage in. We have also hosted a 12 hours of prayer through the night where people committed to coming into the church through the night to take on an hour’s prayer slot. I am challenging us to 24 hours of continuous prayer starting at 7am on Friday 29th May through to 7am on Saturday 30th May. For this we need 24 people to commit to praying for an hour each over this time period, with some particularly brave (or maybe insomniac) persons to take on the watches of the night. In this time of extreme uncertainty I strongly urge you to join us in prayer for us as individuals, a church, our community, our nation and our world and pray that God's kingdom will come on earth as in heaven. |
| May - Virtual Kid' Church On Sundays at 10.00am we are live streaming Kid’s Church for our younger members. |
July - Church reopens - 12th July 2020 Having received the guidance that we were waiting for from the Church of England and Chester Diocese we have made the decision to re-open our church for worship on a Sunday at 10.30am. Our first service will be Morning Prayer on Sunday 12th July at 10.30am. Having put a number of safety measures in place, and in compliance with the advice given about how we should conduct worship we are confident that we can provide a safe worship place. However, sadly, there need to be some changes to the way in which we enter and leave the church and conduct ourselves whilst there to make this possible. For those unable to attend in person, the online services would continue. |
| August - Questionnaire about Lockdown
Our Response to the Lockdown |
| September - All Age Service, Thursday Communion, Messy Church
Sunday 6th September will be an All Age Service with a focus on our families with the chance to pray for our children & young people as they return to school |
| September - Call to prayer Wednesday 30th September 19.00 in Church - an opportunity to gather (at a safe distance from one another) and spend an hour praying for our world and its needs. If you are able to access news on your phone bring that, or a recent newspaper. If anyone is up for the challenge of fasting for that day prior to coming to pray then do it!! |
| October - Harvest Harvest Service (4th October 10.30am) will be a family service with our young people helping to lead it. Please bring your offering of food as usual (non perishable in tins or boxes). We ask you to leave this in your seat when you leave and a team will come in on Wednesday to sort this out. We want to create 22 food parcels for the residents at Albion House and send the rest to the East Tameside Foodbank. We would love to see what you have been growing or creating during Lockdown so if you want to bring something to display we are asking that you set it up on the pew in front of you with a little label explaining what it is (if necessary) and what inspired you to do it. It is a way of celebrating and giving thanks for our God given gifts. We will be setting up a Soup Kitchen by the main doors outside after the service. Pay a pound for a cup of soup (lidded and transportable but if you want to be more environmentally friendly bring your own clean, lidded drinks cup). The proceeds go to Toilet Twinning https:// www.toilettwinning.org and if we can raise £60 we can fund the building of a toilet in a community that does not yet have one and twin it with one of ours with it. |
| October - Visit of the Bishop of Chester The new Bishop of Chester, Bishop Mark Tanner, was the preacher at the morninng srvice on 25 October 2020 |
| October - Zoom Bible Study The regular Bible Study via Zoom returns |
November - Rules for attendance at church in Covid Tier 3 areas
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December - Christmas at St Paul's 2020
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| 2021 |
| January - Church closed St Paul’s Church building has closed for public worship With rising transmission rates in all areas of England we have made the decision as a PCC to close the church for the next month and return to services online. We will assess the situation at the end of January and if rates are going down, and a substantial number of people have been vaccinated then we will look to re open on 14th February. If the situation is no better then we will extend our period of closure until the situation becomes safer. Our morning service will be streamed at 10.15am on Sunday morning and will be available for the week. |
January - Zoom events during lockdown
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| January - Food Bank At present Tameside East Food Bank remains open and is running out of St John’s, Dukinfield. So that they can maintain supplies it is good if we can keep supporting them. Now that the church is closed again we have set up three collection points at the homes of members of the church. |
| January - The New Churchyard scheme A faculty is currently being applied for for permission to plant 620 trees on the new graveyard. This whole area was landscaped during the early 2000s in order to make maintenance easier. Unfortunately, the whole area has suffered a decrease in biodiversity and the area is largely wasteland, subject to anti-social behaviour and occasional fly tipping. Our vision as a church is to rejuvenate this area and enable it to become a much better community resource. Our proposal is to turn this into an area of woodland with a mix of different types and heights of trees set in groups so that sightline is maintained through the graveyard (see attached plan). To do this we have teamed up with City of Trees whose 25-year vision is to create a northern forest that stretches from Liverpool to Hull, introducing areas of woodland to places blighted by industry, thus re-greening the land. We feel that this ties into our own Christian calling to steward and care for the land, and that to do this we can to no better than to start on our own patch. The trees will improve the soil quality and biodiversity as well as reduce water logging and wind speeds. The planting is due to start in early March, and the hope is (lockdown dependent) to draw in community involvement in this, both from our church and local schools. We love the idea of this area becoming somewhere that outdoor teaching and forest school can take place as well as being a more pleasant area to walk through, which in turn decreases anti-social behaviour. Other ideas that we would like to introduce are a line of cherry trees to the left of the cobbled drive, in memorial of loved ones, and a wildflower/ prayer garden area behind the church to the left (see the attached plan). What can you do? We are looking to raise up a group of volunteers from our church who are willing to take care of our graveyard in terms of keeping it tended and litter free, to garden and to oversee and vision what is planted. We also need plants that are local to our area that could be transplanted into the graveyard so please could you pot up and donate those wildflowers that self-seed within your gardens to this project. We are looking for violets, foxgloves, teasels, daisies, hawthorn, briar rose, buddleia, holly etc. Also look out for our ‘wildflower seed deposit’ which will be starting up as we get into the spring. |
| March - St Paul's Gardening Group We propose that Friday mornings from 9.30am-12 become our gardening morning where we can litter pick and tidy. From 8th March you are allowed to spend time in outdoor public spaces with one other person, or with your household or support bubble although you must maintain social distance from those outside your household. |
| April - Tree Planting The planting of 620 deciduous trees will take place on 15th April by City of Trees. Sadly, due to the current situation caused by the pandemic this will not be the community event we had hoped for. However they will be working with a closed covidsecure bubble of ex service men from a charity called Walking With the Wounded to get the planting done in a day. |
| April - Church reopens St Paul's Church reopened for service on Easter Sunday 4 April 2021 |
| May - New Bishops of Stockport and Birkenhead appointed The Venerable Julie Conalty, currently Archdeacon of Tonbridge, will be the next Bishop of Birkenhead, and the Revd Canon Sam Corley, currently Rector of Leeds Minster, will be the next Bishop of Stockport, |
| June - Induction to Incumbency Induction to Incumbency Service - Thursday 17th June A service conducted by Bishop Graham Dow on behalf of the Diocese of Chester to induct Rev Emma Handley into the role of Incumbent (Vicar) from Priest-in- Charge |
| September - Foundations for Ministry course Each year the Diocese of Chester runs the Foundations for Ministry Course. This is an excellent course, open to anyone who wants to grow and develop in Christian ministry and learn how to relate the Bible and Christian thinking to ministry in the church and the world. This coming year (starting September 2021) we are hoping to run it in the Mottram Deanery to reduce the huge distances normally covered in an evening (although at present it will be online anyway). |
| September - Living in love and faith project St Paul's to run a course in September and October where we are invited to sit down together and try and work through these emotive issues in a loving and supportive manner. The LLF team have produced a 5 week course which we are invited to run in our churches to help us work out our theology and tackle some of the deep rooted attitudes that we hold. |
| September - Safeguarding Officer St Paul's new Safeguarding Officer introduced herself and her role. |
| September - Junior Church The re-launch of Junior Church is going to start this Sunday 12th September with a more informal gathering of our primary aged groups where they will have chance to get to know their new leaders and others in their groups and have juice and a biscuit. Children should come into church with their families and leave for their groups during the first hymn. They will stay out for the whole session and not come back in for communion like they used to (but as there will be no junior church on the third Sunday of the month they will get to experience one then, as well as having access to the busy bags). Enrolment began last Sunday at the All Age where registration forms were given out to be completed for each child. Thank you to everyone who responded to our call for help to restart Junior Church and we are excited that this is happening. We have enough people now to run our groups on 2 Sundays each month – the 2nd Sunday Communion and Morning Prayer. |
| December - Outdoor Christmas Fair Christmas Outdoor Festival Saturday 4th December: 3 - 5:30 pm Food & Drinks Stalls * Handmade gifts Santa’s Grotto * Raffle * Carols * Smores Safe environment for all * Some areas may require a mask |
| 2022 |
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| January - Memorial Cherry Trees These trees, 36 of variety: Prunus Umineko, and a crab apple tree for our Spiritual Garden have now all been planted. We are expecting that they will be ready to blossom by March so we will have our first year with the cherry tree avenue in bloom.This is so many that we have extended beyond our original idea of them lining the cobbled drive and they will now encircle the church.  We will then complete the project by
planting bulbs in the early autumn.
The whole aspect will be a beautiful
one, and although it is a closed
graveyard this is a way of members of
our congregation being able to honour
those who have gone before them by
planting something living and long
lasting with a positive impact on the
environmental quality of this area. |
| January - Government Covid restrictions lifted
Mask wearing and social distancing arrangements in Church after 27th January After 27th January the Government is lifting all restrictions associated with the Covid 19 Pandemic. As infection rates are still running high within our area we are going to proceed with caution for the first couple of weeks. • We ask that whilst entering and moving through the building you continue to wear masks. However, once seated feel free to remove your masks if you prefer. • You will be able to sit with people who are not your family group as long as they are comfortable with this arrangement - please check with them!! • For the first few weeks under the new arrangements we are going to reintroduce the alternate pew system so that each group will be at a safe enough distance from another to reduce any potential transmission. This means that we will be able to sing without masks and still feel comfortable. • We will designate the North Transept area (near the Vestry) as a zone where mask wearing and social distancing will continue. This means that those who don’t feel ready to resume ‘normality’ will be able to continue worship with us. In the busier 10.30am service we will continue to receive communion in one kind - just the wafer. We are so grateful for the way in which church members have behaved with love and consideration towards one another despite our range of views on how the pandemic should be managed. As a result we have managed to keep people safe within our building and would like to continue to provide a safe space for worship that caters for the different views and preferences that we all have. |
| June - The Queen's Platinum Jubilee Normal Sunday services at 9am and 10.30am 11.30am Blessing of the Memorial Cherry Trees This will begin in Church with a brief act of remembrance for those people who we have loved and lost and wish to remember with a tree. We will then go outside to the green fenced area and cut the ribbon joining the trees. 12 noon The Big Lunch 'Bring and share’ lunch - to be held outside (weather permitting). Music from Brian Rothwell Outdoor games to follow |
| July - Confirmation Service Bishop Sam will be coming to lead a Confirmation Service on July 10th at 18.30. |
| September - Growing Good Toolkit Is a six session course which we will be running on Tuesday evenings from 27th September till 8th November, Research by Theos and Church Urban Fund explored the relationship between social action, growth and discipleship in the Church of England and identified some common themes shared by churches that are growing in faithfulness and fruitfulness. |
| October - Licensing of lay ministers at Chester Cathedral Helen Witelegg was licensed as a Reader at this service |
| November - Place of welcome On Thursday 3rd November we launch our church as a Place of Welcome. With this we become part of a network of churches and community centres around the country who commit to opening their doors for one day each week, and guarantee free refreshments and a listening ear for those who choose to come in We have chosen to open up now, as we enter the dark and cold winter months, in response to the cost-of living crisis that we see unfolding across our nation. Thursday is already a day when there are regular activities happening in our church centre – an 11am Communion; Lunch Club, and Babes and Tots. We have decided to make use of an already warm centre, and fill in the gaps by staying open for longer and in between these events. We have applied for a grant to enable us to fund this, thereby being able to provide free refreshments/snacks throughout the day and a free meal of soup and a roll at lunchtime. This means that people from our community who might struggle this winter have access to somewhere warm and welcoming, with food available. We have a large team of volunteers, which is fantastic, and means that nobody is particularly burdened by being committed all day, each week. |
| December - Updated advice on church attendance Mask wearing is no longer mandatory but please feel free to wear a mask if this makes you feel more comfortable. We will designate the North Transept area (near the Vestry) as a zone where mask wearing and social distancing will continue. At both communion services we have reintroduced receiving both wafer and wine. This is done by the communion administrator dipping the wafer into the wine (tincture) and dropping it into your palm. In this way we continue to minimise transmission from person to person whilst enabling us to have communion in both kinds. Please indicate when you come up if you would just like the wafer only or just receive a blessing. |
| 2023 |
| January - Diocesan Vision Café Chester Diocese is developing a shared vision for the future of the Diocese of Chester and we are invited to contribute. The grassroots consultation process will "cast the net wide" as we listen to the voices of the widest number of people in our churches and communities with the aim of developing a vision and strategy for the Diocese of Chester. A Vision Cafe is an inspiring drop-in event to share ideas in a fun, creative way. Everyone is invited to come along and take part at one of the events happening in different communities in our diocese. At the Vision Cafe, we will ask people to consider questions such as: • What is the elephant in the room? • What would Jesus do? • Who do we need to reach? This is also a place people can have a chat and enjoy some free refreshments whilst someone captures their thoughts. The events are open to all, regardless of whether they have a connection to the Church of England. |
April - The Bell Tower
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| May - Whit For a variety of reasons the traditional Whit Walks - originally taking place on the Friday after Whit Sunday, but in the recent past, on Whit Sunday itself - have had to be discontinued. The churches in Stalybridge are hoping to establish a new tradition of a public event at Whit. This is what we have decided: Instead of the 10.30am morning service we will meet with our brothers and sisters from the other churches in Stalybridge in Armentieres Square at 10.45am. • We will begin with a prayer and a blessing, • and then move together, with the brass band accompanying us (and banners if we wish), to Cheethams Park (the flat area near the entrance) ready for a • service of unity and witness at 11.30am. This will be lead by the leaders of the represented Churches, involve our usual sung worship, accompanied by our brass band (Boarshurst Silver Band) and the worship group from Reach Church. • This year our speaker will be Christian comedian Andy Kind. • After this act of worship we will then sit down together for a Big Church Picnic. From this simple beginning, our vision is to grow this event year on year into more of a festival in the park, hosted by the churches of Stalybridge. |
| May - Ring for the King On the 6th May many churches in the UK will be ringing at various times in the morning, to commemorate the King’s Coronation, St Paul’s bells will be ringing between 10 and 10.30. |
| June - Schools Week Experience Pentecost A team from our church will be running Schools Week once again. We haven’t been able to do this since before Covid hit, so it is good to be able to welcome our local primary schools (St Pauls, Wildbank, Stalyhill Junior) into our church. This time round we are going to focus on Pentecost. The church will be set up with a series of activity stations that tell the story of Pentecost and the impact that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit had in birthing the church. Church Open for Prayer: Tuesday 20 June 3.30-4.30pm, then 6.30-7.30pm We welcome church members, and parents/carers of Staly Hill Primary School children to come along to our church which will be open on Tuesday evening for prayer, and the opportunity to engage with the Pentecost Prayer and Activity stations that will be set up. |
| June - Service of Prayer and Healing Please join us for a service where our focus is on praying for our world, community and those closest to us, and receive anointing and healing. |
| September - Jesus shaped People course This programme, based on the Gospel of Mark, helps churches explore and embed five priorities that Jesus modelled in his three year ministry - people; teaching; team building; prayer and prophetic challenge.It’s aim is to help those of us who have been followers of Jesus for a while recover our confidence in the Gospel; discover new vision, depth and purpose for our lives and churches; find new ways of engaging in our local communities; turn around negative mindsets and uncover blind spots, and attract new members, seeing people come to faith. We will be running 10 discipleship sessions on a Tuesday evening starting on 12th September at 7pm. |
| October - Sermon Podcast The church began to make the main Sunday sermon available as a podcast: |
| October - Healing Ministry Training Day Bishop Graham Dow was invited to come and lead a training day at St Paul’s aimed at encouraging us to be bolder in our prayer for one another. This day teaches us to how to listen in to God’s voice in prayer and use the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and words of wisdom, to bring healing to people’s lives. The aim is to train people to offer prayer ministry at the end of services so that our church becomes a place of healing and prayer. |
| December - Tornado The Tornado on December 27th 2023 caused considerable damage to the church. Aall the ridge tiles to the North Transept roof were lost together with damage to a number or roof tiles, roof ladder, CCTV & security lighting, paving and a buttress capping stone dislodged. |
| 2024 |
| Jaruary - Bubble Church On Sunday 14th January we are opening our Church Lounge at 9.15am for a new service aimed at young children and their families. Bubble Church (https://www.bubblechurch. org/) describes itself as 'a Sunday church service especially for babies, toddlers, and young families. It's a puppet-packed, Jesus-centred, coffeeand- croissant-fueled, 30 minute kids and families adventure.’ We have been chosen as a pilot church as part of a national Church of England initiative to run this new expression of worship over the next few years.. The main doors will open at 9.15am for families to come in and have breakfast as they arrive, croissants, fruit, tea, coffee and fruit juice. At 9.30am each family will find a bubble (a circle of carpet) and we start the service. The service only lasts 30 minutes. There is prayer, lively worship, a Bible story using puppets and a chance to respond to the story with an activity, all led by our Bubble Church Team - Judith Willis, Alison Smith, Carolyn Luckman, Lynda Allcock, Ruth Richardson and our Youth! |
January - Churches Together in Stalybridge Worship Gatherings |
