Vicar

Update - August 2023

Dear Friends,

I hope this finds you well and that you have been able to enjoy something of the typical British summer weather. This update is long overdue, so as we prepare to go into Autumn there are a few things I wanted to tell you about and ask for your involvement in.

Pastoral Care

The last couple of years has seen a big focus on getting church life back to some form of normality and recovering those things we lost because of the pandemic. One of the things I have been keen to develop within our church community is a more organised system of pastoral care. St Michael’s is a caring church, and when people are in need, the church is always good at rallying round. Sometimes however, people get missed, and we can always improve how we care for and support one another as a church family. As such I am looking to recruit volunteers to a new pastoral care team.

This team would meet together once a month with me and would oversee pastoral care within the parish. It’s my hope that a visit, where possible, could be offered to everyone on the prayer lists either weekly or monthly and that some members of the team might also be able to support Mark in the ministry we have within the local care homes.

For those who become part of the team, you would choose how much time you give to being involved in pastoral care, unlike a previous suggested system you wouldn’t be allocated a certain number of people to offer care too.

If you are interested in being involved, please would you let me know by the end of August as I hope to hold the first meeting with some training in September.

Lift Sharing Scheme

A discussion that took place at PCC recently was regarding whether we could set up a lift sharing scheme at St Michaels, noting that we have a number of people in our church family who now don’t drive or in the winter months aren’t able to attend services or events because they don’t like travelling on their own in the dark. Having done some work with the Parish Safeguarding Team we are now in a position to launch this new scheme whereby we can help link those who would like to come to church but can’t get here themselves, with those who would be prepared to offer lifts.

I am really thankful to David Walker who has offered to co-ordinate this scheme. If you would be willing to offer lifts to people for services or other events, please could you let David Walker know. The requirements for all drivers is that they are fully insured, their vehicle has a valid MOT and is taxed, and they have undertaken a DBS check along with basic safeguarding training. Thank you in advance to those who are willing to support this needed ministry.

If you are someone who would value a lift to church, or if you know of someone who might not ask, but would value it being offered to them, please could you also make contact with ???

 

Confirmation Service

Following our spring Alpha Course earlier this year, Bishop Sam of Stockport has agreed to come and take a confirmation service at St Michaels later this year. Unfortunately, Bishop Sam’s diary is fairly full so the only time he could offer was Sunday 22nd October at 4pm in the afternoon. Following a discussion with PCC, it has been agreed that we will cancel the 10am and 6.30pm services on the 22nd October and ask you to join us at 4pm instead as we celebrate those who will be baptised and confirmed.

If you are someone who would like to be confirmed or even renew your baptism promises, please would you get in touch with me as soon as possible.

Outreach Committee

Following the APCM this year the PCC set up a new sub-committee to oversee our outreach ministry. The group meets every couple of months and is responsible for planning and delivering events both within the church, to which we can invite people, as well as activities in the wider community. The group are looking for more people to join them and you can do this is 2 different ways. You can join in with the meetings which undertake the planning as well as delivering events, or you can just be on their team of volunteers to help make events happen. If you would be interested in either of these, please would you let the Church Office know and they will pass your name to Jill Illingworth who is chairing the group.

Finance Administrator

Last year our finance team changed with Rob Watson taking over as treasurer. Its been a good first year but the team have realised they could really do with some more help particularly in the area of administration. So, we are looking to appoint another finance administrator to work alongside Elizabeth Beveridge and Julie Bamber. If you are someone who has good administration skills, can find your way around a computer and would be willing to offer some of your time in support of the finance team please would you make contact with Sue Howgego or Julie Sweeting, our Churchwardens.

Upcoming Dates

The autumn term is always an exciting part of the year as we begin to prepare for the Christmas season and there is usually quite a lot going on. Below you will find some of the events and services that will be taking place, I thought some advanced notice might be helpful.

Friday 8th September, 7.30pm - Quiz night. Tickets available from the Churchwardens.

Sunday 24th September, St Michaels Day Bring and Share Lunch after the 10am service.

Sunday 8th October - Harvest Thanksgiving. Donations will be split between the foodbank and Wellspring.

Wednesday 11th October, 2pm - Harvest Afternoon Tea

Friday 13th October 7.30pm - Murder Mystery Night

Sunday 22nd October, 4pm - Confirmation Service with Bishop Sam

Sunday 5th November, 4pm - Commemoration Service

Friday 10th November - Motown Music Night

Thank you for taking time to read this slightly lengthy update, but what I hope you will have seen as you have read it through is we have a lot going on both to support our current church family and also grow our church family. It’s a joy to serve and minister amongst you, and I pray that we all might continue to encourage one another in our faith and shared life together.

God Bless,

 

Revd Calum Piper, Vicar

Update - October 2022

Dear Friends,

 A couple of weeks ago we marked Harvest Thanksgiving which for me is always the start of the run up to Christmas with all sorts of special services and events coming up thick and fast in the next few months. With this is mind I thought it might be good to share an update with a few things that are going on.

 Heating in Church

With the increased prices for gas and electricity, our bills, like everyone else’s, are going up. Every effort is being made to use the resources that we have wisely whilst also making sure that our buildings are still welcoming for people to be in. We have switched the heating on and will always aim to make sure the church is a good temperature for worship. I would however encourage you to make sure you wrap up warm too. Contingency plans have also been put in place in case the temperature in church is too cold on a Sunday morning. If this is ever the case, our worship will take place in the Parish Centre which runs on a different set of boilers. The midweek service is still taking place, but during the winter months will take place in the Lounge.

 Life Groups

In November we are launching something new at St Michaels, although some form of it has existed in the church previously. Life Groups are a smaller setting providing space for community to form and for exploration of teaching in a way that is not possible in a Sunday service. A life group, then, is a group of people choosing to grow in fellowship and community, to grow in faith and support one another in life. The strap line for this church ministry is Growing in love for God and for one another. Hopefully each group will do what it says on the tin. I really want to encourage as many members of the church to join a life group as possible. I think they will be really beneficial for each person but for us as a whole church. Attached is a digital version of the leaflet that was handed out on Sunday (with a change to one groups meeting day). If there is nothing to suit you but you want to be part of a group, let me know. There are gaps in what we are offering to start with, we might be able to set up more groups if needed. When you have decided which group you want to belong to, let the church office know and they will pass your details to the group leader who will then be in touch with you to give you more details. LIFE GROUPS LEAFLET

 Warm Hubs

The Mill is hoping to offer a warm hub for the local community over the winter. Janet Ketteringham, a trustee at The Mill writes: This winter will be challenging for us all with regards fuel prices. For some, just keeping warm will be difficult or even impossible. Stockport Council have asked communities to provide Warm Spaces from November through to March and have offered grants of up to £1000 for heating and expenses to charities and organisations who can open their hearts and doors to let people in to keep warm. The Mill, our youth centre in Bramhall, offered to open each Saturday from 10am to 4pm provided we can staff it. The trustees of The Mill felt three shifts from 10 am to noon, noon to 2pm and 2 pm to 4pm could be possible. We are asked to provide tea, coffee and biscuits (which is made easy in The Mill by us having a cafe area) and also a friendly welcome and conversation.

 If you can give some thought to being part of this massive outreach to people facing a crisis in their lives, and maybe volunteer for a shift, or two or three shifts, or even more regularly, like once a month, then we can do this. Already people are offering to help, which is so exciting and uplifting. We do need a big response to make this work. If you need more information or want to help then please get in touch with either Janet Ketteringham jketteringham43@gmail.com or the church office.

 Supporting the Mothers Union

The Mothers Union are supporting a charity called Doors of Hope with their appeal entitled ‘Bags of Education’. This charity want to give as many children as possible the opportunity to go to school in places like Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania and Moldova. Unfortunately for some families school is just too expensive. So the idea behind Bags of Hope is to put together a bag of resources to enable a child to be fully equipped to learn. You can find out more on their website www.doorofhope.co.uk. We are inviting people to collect all the items on the list and bring them to church along with a £5 donation to cover the registration fee. We will then collate all the bags and send them off to the charity. The list of items is attached and there are also printed copies in the parish centre. Should you wish to get involved please let Jill Fairhurst know and then bring your donations to the church office by 13th November. LIST OF ITEMS

 Supporting Christians Against Poverty at Christmas

Christians Against Poverty; You may recall Catherine Johnson giving a sermon during the summer concerning CAP, she has asked the St Michaels community for some help leading up to Christmas; Would ST Michaels help with Christmas hampers for Stockport CAP clients?  We put together a hamper for every client we're currently working with, which is likely to be 25 to 30 and I wondered if your church might like to help. item - would 30 people buy a selection box, for example? Other churches have also been asked to help. If anyone in the congregation would like to help please could you let Mark Sweeting (familysweetings@gmail.com) know ideally before 31 October. We are looking for donations towards a target of 24 boxes of chocolates, 24 boxes of biscuits and 20 selection packs. Thank you in advance.

 Services in November

On Sunday 6th November we will hold our Annual Service of Light and Commemoration at 6.30pm. If you wish for someone to be remembered during this service please do add their name to the list in church before Sunday 30th October.

On Sunday 13th November we will join with the nation in remembering all those who have served our nation and made the ultimate sacrifice. Our 8am service will be a service of Holy Communion and our 10am service of Morning Worship will start at 9.15am. There will be a service at the War Memorial starting around 10.45am which it would be great to see you at.

 Christmas is Coming

PCC have signed off on the plans for Christmas so you should see some Christmas publicity fairly soon. To give you advanced warning the annual Carols by Candlelight service will take place on Sunday 11th December at 6.30pm. This is slightly earlier than normal due to the Men’s Football World Cup Final taking place when our service would normally take place. Just in case England make it to the final, it didn’t seem wise to create a clash. Please be thinking and praying about who you can invite to this service.

 Thank you

Finally a thank you. Thank you to everyone that supports St Michaels so generously with their financial giving as well as their time. It continues to be such a joy to serve you as Vicar of St Michaels and despite the challenges we will face over the next few months with a hard winter, I know God will be our strength and we will only grow closer to one another and to the Lord. I also want to say a public thank you to Julie and Sue our Churchwardens. They have been doing an incredible job over the last few months doing so many things that are often unseen, from ensuring the church property register is up to date, overseeing contractors coming to service and fix things, managing staff, caring for me, representing the church on various occasions and even unclogging toilets.

 This afternoon the weekly bible study looked at the letter of Jude, I want to close using Jude’s words:

24 Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, 25 to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and for ever. Amen. (Jude 1:24-25)

God Bless,

Calum

Update - February 2022

Dear Friends,

With the season of Lent approaching I thought it would be helpful to share a Vicar’s update.

Lent 2022

Lent starts on Wednesday 1st March with Ash Wednesday. We will hold 2 services of Holy Communion at 10.30am and 7.30pm. Its my intention to include the imposition of ashes during the service having not been able to include it during 2021.

During Lent there will be three Lent Groups you might wish to join. The first two will follow the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book: Embracing Justice by Isabelle Hamley. Revd Hamley is Theological Adviser to the House of Bishops and was formerly Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury.  These groups will take place on Monday mornings at 9.30am hosted by me and Tuesday evenings at 7pm hosted by Mark.

You can get the book from all good retailers including Simply Books in the Village. Please aim to have read the 1st chapter by the first session.

A third Lent Group will take place most weeks of Lent on a Thursday afternoon from 2pm hosted by Andrea following material entitled Walking Towards Glory.

It would be helpful for preparation to have an idea of who will be joining each group – there is a sign up sheet on the noticeboard above the pigeon holes.

On Sundays in Lent, apart from Mothering Sunday, there will also be the opportunity to join with others for a Lent Lunch of Soup and bread rolls. Donations are invited towards the meal.

Living in Love and Faith

You may have heard about Living in Love and Faith (LLF). This is a national Church of England initiative which is about learning together, listening to one another, and listening to God to help discern a way forward for the Church of England in relation to matters of identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage. Having listened to the experiences of other churches in our diocese the Deanery of Cheadle (of which we are part) has decided to host a deanery wide LLF course. The course will be hosted by Laura Reid who is one of the Diocesan facilitators and will take place on Thursday evenings (for 6 weeks) from Thursday 24th February between 8pm and 9.30pm in the Upper Room, Cheadle (SK8 1DW).

This will course will give you an opportunity to share your views in an open, safe and respected place but also allow you to hear the views of others. This time of listening and discernment will feed into the wider conversation happening at National Level.

Finance Team

We continue to look for new team members for our finance team. Graham Knight has served the church exceptionally as the church treasurer for many years and will be retiring at the APCM in May. Should a new treasurer not be found, this duty will fall to the churchwardens, who I am sure you will agree already have a lot on their plates.

Graham has been ably assisted by Ann Walker as bookkeeper who is also looking to step down. We are looking for 2 finance administrators to take on some of the work Graham and Ann have done, not all of the work is finance based, some of it includes making some of our statistical returns to the diocese. If you think you could serve the church in any of these roles, please get in touch with me.

 Children’s Ministry

There has been lots of developments in our children and family’s ministry over the last couple of months, there are a couple of things coming up that it would be great to have your support with.

Between the 28th March to the 1st April we will be welcoming local schools into church to experience the Easter story. We are looking for a team of 10 or more, to act as station guides, to interact with those who visit.

On the 12th April, we will be hosting an Easter Holiday Club Day, where we will be making an Easter Garden, painting eggs, singing songs, looking at pictures from Experience Easter, learning about the true story of Jesus sacrifice for us all upon the cross and inviting everyone to our Easter services. We need a team of at least 5 to volunteer to help out, for the whole day.

Please contact Connie to join the team for either of these activities.

Thanksgiving Sunday

Sunday 6th March is Thanksgiving Sunday where you are invited to bring in your completed pledge cards and offer them to God. There will be opportunity to do this in each service that day but the church building will also be open until 3pm for you to drop your pledge card off if you aren’t attending services at the moment.

Advanced Warning – APCM

Our Annual Meeting will take place on Sunday 8th May at 11.30am. After serving 5 years as Churchwarden Dave Walker will be stepping down at this meeting. There are also a number of PCC members stepping down having served for 6 years. Please be praying about whether you could serve the church as a PCC member of even Churchwarden.

Easter Hope

Finally, following the success of our Christmas art installation of the word ‘Joy’ plans and production are underway for an art installation over Easter. We could do with some help painting the boards. If you are able to assist, could you let me know and I can send you the provisional painting dates.

Wishing you a holy and peaceful Lent,

Revd Calum Piper

Vicar

 

 

Update - October (2)

Good Morning,

Sorry for another email in the space of a month, but there a couple of things I felt important to share with you.

Safeguarding

Firstly, you may be aware that the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse released their report on the Church of England and Church of Wales this week which was reported on by mainstream media. Sadly it highlights very clearly where the Church of England has got things wrong in the past, the ways in which it has failed far too many people, and the way in which some of our current structures and processes need to change. I and the PCC of St Michaels take our duty and obligation to protect all, extremely seriously. We have adopted the national Church of England's procedures and guidelines relating to safeguarding and regularly review these and how they are implemented in our church life. You can find out more information about this on our website at https://www.bramhall.church/safeguarding. Where change is required in how we operate and our policies, we will make those changes as quickly and safely as we can, to make our church family as safe as possible for everyone.   If you want to know more about our safeguarding commitments or want to speak to someone in confidence please don’t hesitate to contact Cathy Hedley our lead Safeguarding Officer, Susan Joyce our Children’s Advocate and Safeguarding Officer or myself, our contact details can be found on the link above.

Harvest

We will be celebrating Harvest on Sunday 18th October at all three of our services. We are inviting the usual donations of non-perishable food which will be split between the Foodbank and Wellspring project. This year we are also support the Christian Aid Harvest Campaign, and any monetary donations will be sent there.

For a suggested list of food donations, see our website where there are more details. https://www.bramhall.church/upcoming-events

For more details on the Christian Aid Campaign you can go to their website: https://www.christianaid.org.uk/appeals/key-appeals/global-neighbours-autumn-appeal

On Saturday 17th October at 7pm, I invite you to join us in our first ever Harvest Quiz (hooray!!). Get the family or social bubble together in front of the computer and join us for the first ever virtual quiz at St Michaels where we are raising money for the Christian Aid Harvest Campaign. Tickets per team (household or bubble) are £10 and you can get these by contacting the office. When the office gets the £10, they will give you the zoom login code for the night. It might not be as exciting as Strictly Come Dancing – but it certainly won’t be an event to miss. I hope you will join us! Tickets will also be available on Sunday after our services.

PCC Members

I realise following the Annual Meeting, I haven’t shared with all of you who was appointed to the PCC. So the following people are now members of the PCC:

Hamida Adkins, John Baker (Pastoral Worker) Frances Beards, David Beveridge (Deanery Synod), Imogen Bird, Glynis Brown, Robert Cryer, Georgina Foot, Shelagh Gall, Bryan Goodwin (Deanery Synod), Mark Hackney (Reader) Sally Harwood, Michael Holmes, Sue Howgego, Jill Illingworth, Janet Ketteringham, Graham Knight, Bob Munn (Diocesan Synod) Tricia Munn, Sheila Newbon, Jo Oughton (Deanery Synod), Louise Sell, Sue Taylor, Stuart Villard, Phil Wadsworth (Deanery Synod), Georgia Watson, Rob Watson

I’m also pleased to tell you that Louise Richardson and David Walker were elected as Churchwardens for a further year.

The new PCC will meet for the first time (virtually) on Monday next week, so do be praying for them.

Livestreaming

Over the last few months I have been trying different things to try and provide a good quality livestream of our 10am service. Following a number of changes last week, the stream seemed to go quite well. From this week, we are going to try and put the order of service for the 10am service on our website. So should you wish to follow the service with a bit more clarity you can download the service beforehand.

That’s everything on my post-it note of things to tell you. Stay safe!

God Bless,

Calum

 

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Update 15

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Good Morning,

I hope you are well, I wanted to share a few things with you – so here is update 15.

Closure of Church Building

I keep saying that it is my intention to make St Michaels as safe as possible for everyone, and because of this, I am needing to temporarily close the church over the next couple of weeks. Since I arrived at St Michaels just over 3 years ago, a reoccurring issue in our monthly Health and Safety reports has been the wooden flooring in church, with loose tiles and some tiles now being uneven. With rearranging a lot of the furniture in church, the hazard has only become worse. Following the PCC meeting last week, work has begun today on renovating the floor which will consist of sticking down loose blocks and then sanding and refinishing the whole floor. For this to happen it does mean that I am having to cancel the opening of church for private prayer on Wednesday 15th and Friday 17th July. The church will however be open for private prayer on Sunday 19th between 3pm and 6pm. If work continues as planned, the church will be completely closed next week for the sanding and refinishing. This does mean that the floor will look superb and even better will be safe for everyone when we resume worship on the 2nd August. If you have taken the opportunity each week to use church for private prayer and are now asking the question, ‘where will I go?’, there is always the labyrinth on the back field or the memorial gardens.

Funeral for Anne Ross

Despite the above, Anne Ross’ funeral will take place on Tuesday 21st July at 12.30pm at St Michaels. Due to the restricted number of people allowed to be present, please only attend if you receive an invitation from the family. I expect the funeral to finish around 1pm, so if you wish to pay your respect to Anne, you are invited to stand along Robins Lane from just before 1pm. The hearse, following the service at St. Michaels, will then make its way up Robins Lane, towards Bramhall Lane South, for a private committal service at Stockport Crematorium.

Searching the Archives

There is a project we need to undertake as church that requires searching through our archived material. I am looking for someone that would be willing to go through our archives, in an efficient but detailed manner on my behalf to complete this project. If you are interested in more information, could you let me know.

Confirmation of Election of the Bishop of Chester

The new Bishop of Chester will have his election as Bishop confirmed tomorrow in a service that will take place completely online. The new Archbishop of York will also be involved. You can watch this service at https://www.chester.anglican.org/confirmation-of-election/confirmation-of-election.php. The service will start on Wednesday 15th July at 11am.

Reopening of the Parish Office.

We will be reopening the Parish Office on Monday 20th July. To start with the office will be open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings and will be staffed by Karen. I am absolutely delighted to be welcoming Karen back to work, as it marks another step in the right direction of our journey of recovery. Hopefully in the autumn we will begin to un-furlough other members of staff too. With the office reopening, we are required to ensure that our building and particularly the office meets government guidelines and is COVID secure. So below are some guidelines I would ask all of us to follow:

  • Please contact the office by phone or email where needed.

  • Please only visit the office if absolutely necessary.

  • If you visit the office, please observe all social distancing measures that have been put in place to keep us and the office staff safe.

  • Do not go behind the office desk at all. This is our administrators space, even if they are not there, nobody should be entering into the space due to the risk of transmission.

  • Be patient. There is a fair  amount of stuff that needs catching up with, as well as beginning to navigate the minefield that is understanding guidance about hiring out our buildings and creating a booking system for our services.

Thank you in advance for your support and help!

Any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I hope to release more details about booking for services next week.

With every blessing,

Calum

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Update 13

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Good Afternoon!

I hope you are well. I promised a further update on Sunday and its now Tuesday and I still haven’t sent it – sorry about that. Here’s a few updates for you.

Prime Minsters Statement

The Prime Minister has announced today that weddings and public worship can resume from the 4th July. As with all the decisions so far, the official Church of England guidance may take a couple of days to filter through. Whilst I am keen to resume public worship in our church building, I wont make any final decisions, and therefore announcements on this, until the PCC have met to discuss this. There is a PCC meeting scheduled for Thursday 9th July, so please be praying for your PCC members, as we will have various decisions to make about how we return to public worship.

Jess’ Licensing as Associate Minister of Stockport and Brinnington

On Monday 29th June, at 7.30pm, Jess will be licensed to her new post as Associate Minister for Stockport & Brinnington. Due to churches still being shut, this will take place virtually, and she would like to invite you to join her as she marks the beginning of this new ministry. The service will be led by the Bishop of Birkenhead and will take place on Zoom, the details of how to access this are as follows:

 Please click the link below to join the webinar:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83371997256

Young People Quiz the Bishop-Elect of Chester

This evening at 7pm the new Bishop of Chester will hold two virtual gatherings with selected young people from the diocese. Young people will have the opportunity to ask the Bishop questions and play a few games with him. I’m delighted that a member of our youth group – Georgia Watson, will be involved. You can watch this session at 7pm by either using the following link and info, or by watching on facebook.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82113668873

Webinar ID: 821 1366 8873

Open Church

The church remains open for private prayer between 9am and 12pm and 3pm and 6pm every day. In my original email I stated the guidance that I had been issued. Since then, the government have relaxed things, so the only guidance I will offer is, if you choose to come down to church, please clean your hands and observe social distancing. The judgment about whether it is safe for you or not, is in your hands.

Pastoral Care Network

As lockdown began we launched, rather quickly, a pastoral care network to keep in touch with people and support those in need. I am very thankful for the members of the church who have helped on this. The wardens and I conducted a review of this yesterday and will be making some changes in the next couple of weeks. In the short term we asked for help from members of the PCC. Going forwards we want this network to be part of how we offer pastoral care at St. Michaels. There will be a need to change some of the groups, and some  of the group leaders may not want to continue. As a result, if you would like to be involved with the Pastoral Care Network, whether you are a PCC member or not, please would you let me know. We reckon we will need around 25-30 group leaders to make the network effective.

Produce Table

Every year, Robert Cryer and others do a sterling job growing vegetables and selling them in aid of our Newala link. Unfortunately we have had to cancel all fundraising activities for the foreseeable future – but we weren’t able to stop the onions growing in the allotment. So from tomorrow there will be a produce table available in the foyer of the parish centre. If you would like some fresh veg, do pop down to see what’s there and make a donation in return for what you take. There will be some gloves available – please put on gloves before handling any veg – and do remember to wash it (both the veg and your hands) when you get home.

Grant from the Diocese

The diocese have recently cashed in an investment dating back to World War 2 and have made a grant to every parish in the diocese of £2000. This is very kind of the diocese and one of the things on the agenda for PCC next month is looking at how we spend this.

Congratulations

Finally, congratulations to Sally and Phil Harwood who celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary and Fred and Doreen Donnan who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, both last week. None of them look old enough to have been married that long.

Thanks for taking time to read this email – Jess, Samuel and I hope you are well, and look forward to worshipping with you again, hopefully in the not too distant future.

God Bless,

Calum

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Update 12 - Your Parish Church is Open for Private Prayer

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Good Morning,

I’m pleased to confirm this morning that St Michaels Parish Church will reopen for private prayer today following government guidance and various changes to our building to make it as safe as possible. Whilst I hope many of you will find this helpful, I am required by the government guidance to encourage those who are considered vulnerable to continue to stay at home. This includes those who have a health condition and those over 70.

The church will be open for private prayer each day during the following times:

9am to 12pm

3pm to 6pm

you do choose to make use of St Michaels, unfortunately there is a list of do’s and don’ts that we have had to put in place.

  • If you have a continuous cough, a temperature, or loss of smell or taste please stay at home.

  • Please use the hand sanitizer to clean your hands on the way in and the way out.

  • Please observe social distancing of 2 metres.

  • In church, please only sit with someone from your household.

  • If you wish to light a candle in the prayer corner, please light the tealight from the main candle and replace it back into the sand.

  • If you wish to use a bible or prayer book, you will need to bring your own, and take it home with you.

The government and the Church of England have also said that small funerals can also now take place within the church. Before this happens though, further risk assessments will need to take place, which I hope will happen this week.

Attached are a number of resources you might find helpful in prayer. There is also the prayer labyrinth outside on the back field.

If you have any questions, concerns, or want to chat, please feel free to call.

Regards,

Calum

Daily Reflection - 1st May

Every day this week Calum is going to be highlighting a charity as part of the 2.6 campaign to support charities through the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Today in his daily reflection Calum spoke about 3 charities.

1- Age UK. They are working to supporting many elderly and housebound folk around the country. They are delivering food packages, providing advice over the phone and contacting those in isolation to make sure they are ok.

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/

2- Christian Against Poverty. This national charity supports those stuck in the cycle of debt and provides them with a means to get out of debt and get their lives back on a good footing.

https://capuk.org/

3- Wellspring Stockport. This is a local charity supporting the homeless in and around Stockport who might more vulnerable than ever before. They also support those who are at risk of being made homeless, especially during this crisis.

https://thewellspring.co.uk/

Daily Reflection - 23rd May - Thy Kingdom Come Novena - Day 2

Every day this week Calum is going to be highlighting a charity as part of the 2.6 campaign to support charities through the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Today in his daily reflection Calum spoke about Tearfund and in particular their Tap Twinning Project. We have the privileged of access to clean water, in many places around the world this isn’t the case. A major part of the strategy for fighting Covid-19 has been through good hygiene. There are places in the world where this isn’t possible, and if it is, there might not be the education in place to support it. Tearfund is working to change this through their Tap Twinning Project.

https://www.toilettwinning.org/tap-twinning/

Daily Reflection - 27th April

Every day this week Calum is going to be highlighting a charity as part of the 2.6 campaign to support charities through the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Today in his daily reflection Calum spoke about The Children's Society. They work with vulnerable children right across the UK supporting them for as long as you need. You can find out more about them on their website!

https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/