Annual Report
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Report by Priest-in-charge to Annual Meeting, St Thomas’, Werneth, 25 April, 2010 I shall give my report as in previous years by following as far as possible the format of the ‘Five priorities agreed by the Church Council in September 2004’ in an effort to see how we are getting on. I shall seek only to mention briefly those items covered in reports given by others. There will be some repetition of my reports of previous years but that is because God not only calls us to new things but also to persevering love in ongoing activities.
We have to do this for two reasons: A) Love for people – the gospel is good news both for the present and for the future. B) We need new members – we are losing 2 or 3 members through death every year, and we could have large drop at any time.As we always expected the numbers are going down slowly but surely. In last year’s report I was rejoicing so much that I reported early that Wendy Jackson was Confirmed, and Tara Das, Lucy Dewa and Murry Shobowale Baptised and Confirmed on Mothering Sunday. In addition it was a wonderful encouragement to all of us. Factors leading up to their decision included our church school, the Holiday Club, the Sunday School and friendships with church members. So, we are called to continue sharing God’s Good News in a clear, attractive and relevant way. Highlights this year have been the Easter and Christmas tableaux which many have found helpful in the stimulus to imagining what ‘it was like to be there.’ It has also been helpful to the folk who have put the tableaux together and those who have taught Year 5 children from our school from the tableaux. While, occasionally, we should have invitation services as at Harvest, Christmas or Easter, all our worship should be accessible both to people who are returning after a long absence and to those who have never taken part. There should be imagination and variety in the preparation of worship. Surveys have shown that more people come to faith in Christ through attending worship than by any other route. And we should grow in confidence in inviting family, friends, neighbours, and colleagues to church meetings and worship. Another example is that of a former St Thomas’ member who met a resident of the parish, Ian Kidder, who told her that he wanted to be Confirmed. Although he was housebound and 80 years of age, Confirmed he was. He was very happy to receive Communion several times before he died in January 2010.
The Social Committee do important work in ‘pre-evangelism’ in providing a context for us to invite others to meet members of St Thomas’. I wonder if we could be more daring in that inviting?
Church Growth is not only about what we do directly in Coppice it is also about how we give to and receive from other Christians elsewhere in the country and in the world. We have been learnt from our friendships with Marta Yacob from Ethiopia and other people seeking asylum. We have made use of the Word of Life Scripture Calendars as we have given them to speakers of various languages. We have become more empathetic towards Ugandan villagers as they have worked with Tearfund to relieve their children of the task of carrying water up the mountain. We have learnt how prayer, patience and discretion are essentials for D and M W in SE Asia, and Nathaniel and Donna Jennings in Bangladesh. We have rejoiced with Beth Jennings and her colleagues in her new homeless Children’s Uplift Project in Bangladesh (which includes mothers). Daniel, Nathaniel and Beth grew up in St Thomas’ and have maintained links even though they have moved away.
2. Worship Including Sunday School and Prayer. These need to be prepared carefully to provide good opportunities for all participants. We need to develop Healing Ministry, which will be of interest to some Muslims if offered sensitively. We need more musicians including singers. Obviously, the people who lead worship have an important, though not decisive, influence on how easy it is for everyone else to worship: the priest, the Sunday School team, the Bible passage readers, the leaders of intercessions, the assistants at Holy Communion, the musicians and the sidespersons. We owe all of them much gratitude for their contributions. Jonathan Shaw offered himself for Reader Ministry (ie. to be a lay preacher) a second time, having been advised last year to work with a mentor Reader in another church and to apply again. Unfortunately he was not selected for training which was very disappointing and mystifying to him and to all of us. Whatever the reasons, all we can do is trust that God will continue to use Jonathan’s gifts in other ways. Both Jonathan and Graham Lees have recently been authorised as Eucharistic Assistants. We have had one Service of Wholeness and Healing each quarter at which most people have requested ministry. And ministry has been available after the 10.30 worship every Sunday. Not many avail themselves of this offer but we seek to be true to the New Testament which records that Jesus spent as much time healing as preaching. Healing includes visiting people in their homes and in hospitals. Many thanks to all who do this, in particular to Barbara Duxbury who also ministers the already consecrated bread and wine. It is often easier to share concerns in smaller groups in which participants feel safer. The Home Groups and the Mothers’ Union (the latter of which also has other aims) seek to provide opportunities for learning, worship and fellowship. More participants in the home groups are taking a turn in leading which is stretching for them and stimulating for everyone else! We’re grateful to Mavis Booth, Pam Brocklehurst and Margaret Taylor for their service respectively as Branch Leader, Secretary and Treasurer of the M.U. 3. Witness to Asians The best way is through individual friendships. In addition we can serve together in, eg. Coppice Community Centre, and the projected ‘Positive Perceptions’ cross community youth project. Karin Whetham, our Parish Worker until October but continuing as a volunteer, has three areas of practical activity: Word of Life, Asylum-seekers and English as a Second Language. Our Wardens have mentioned the Holiday Club the success of which was due to the leadership and attention to detail of Kathy and Graham Lees, to the willingness of team members to volunteer and to everyone who worked with God in prayer. The success of the Easter and Christmas Experiences depended partly on the relationships begun in the Holiday Clubs. ‘Positive Perceptions’ – a project providing an opportunity for individuals in youth groups to discover their family and local histories, so to gain self-respect and, in sharing each other’s stories, mutual respect: after several disappointments in grant applications, Oldham Interfaith Forum agreed to fund it and two groups each met twice with me and Howard Sutcliffe in the autumn. Unfortunately, the winter weather and other factors since have put the project in jeopardy once again and we await developments. ‘The Cross and Crescent’, a course on Islam by Colin Chapman, was used at Lent 2009 – the approx 14 participants all said that they learnt a lot. One ingredient was our visit to the Jhadija Education Centre in Glodwick, and the visits to us – separately - of their men and their ladies. In the autumn the ‘Oldham Reaching Muslims’ monthly prayer group was initiated rotating around several churches and giving great encouragement. I continued as Minutes’ Secretary of the Interfaith Forum. Our Church Council proposed to Oldham West Deanery Pastoral Committee that there should be a Mission Support Priest working in interfaith education. This has been given provisional support and a request made that Oldham East Deanery also consider it. Mission Support Priests are funded by the diocese as extra to the priest-staffing to deaneries.
This means letting people know or reminding them that C of E Christians are worshipping and/or living on the Coppice. This is often necessary before Church Growth can begin. Our school is a major part of our presence here and I am grateful to all the staff and governors, the Chair of whom has continued to be Pauline Pleasant. With one exception all our 8 foundation governors have been members of St Thomas’, no mean feat in a church our size. The exception was Mrs Yasmin Toor who is a Muslim parent resident in the parish. The Diocese and PCC agreed to this because Mrs Toor was keen to become a governor and she made a commitment to uphold the foundation C of E identity of the school. Each governor has been allocated a year group with whom to relate and visit. We continue to welcome Hulme Kindergarten for worship at Easter and Harvest – families come from all over Oldham and beyond, and seem to belong to a variety of religious and ethnic groups. A few of us are regular attenders of PACT, a West Oldham body through which the Council, the Police and others keep each other informed and seek to work together. The Tudor Community Sports Group was formally set up 3 years ago to manage and develop the all-weather pitch built both for our school and outside school hours for others – I am Chair and Tony Kane is Secretary of this, with Cllr Javid Iqbal as Treasurer. In the year we arranged holiday activities through Greenhill Community Sports Club, Oldham Athletic and Coppice United FC. We made progress towards the purchase of a container for the safe and convenient storage of equipment, and Oldham Athletic have bought mobile floodlights which they intend to use on our pitch, an interesting test for local residents in all age groups! Ken Pleasant was an active committee member of the Coppice Community Centre and of the West End Bowling Club, and others serve locally in a whole host of other ways. A new venture was the introductory programme of Chair-based exercise on many Mondays in the autumn – this was arranged free by NHS Oldham (PCT). Both Karin Whetham and I are members of the Oldham Unity for Refugee Support, the business meetings of which are held monthly in our vestry. In addition I represent Oldham Unity on the Migrant Communities’ Policy Group of Oldham Council and Partnership. I am also the Acting Chair of the International Links’ Task Group, and Vice-Chair of the Lahore Link Group. I draw your attention to our Treasurer’s comments on p 3 of the accounts. I , too, am grateful to those who give sacrificially to the work of St Thomas’, without whom there would be a far less obvious Christian presence in Coppice. If you do not worship every week, do you know that through the envelopes or by Direct Debit you could give every week and at the same time Gift Aid, that is, authorise St Thomas’ to reclaim the income tax paid on all your giving? 5. Relationship with St Paul’s, as we have been requested by the diocese. The Walk of Witness again went well, allowing all to participate including those who could not walk the full route. I am responsible for Weddings and Funerals at St Paul’s during their interregnum, also the Holy Communion on Wednesdays. I found it difficult to celebrate two Communions one after the other and communicants have agreed to share in one Communion, alternating between St Thomas’ and St Paul’s. A few St Paul’s people attend at St Thomas’ – one St Thomas’ person attends at St Paul’s. St Paul’s folk attended Maundy Thursday at St Thomas’ and vice versa on Easter Eve. It has been difficult to take more initiatives in worshipping and working together partly because the extra work involved during the interregnum both for me and their lay leaders, and partly because there new Priest-in-charge needs to be involved in any such new initiatives. It was agreed by Archdeacon Cherry that two representatives of St Thomas’ would sit on the appointing panel because of the likelihood that the person appointed would also become priest-in-charge of St Thomas’ when I retire in late 2013. The Revd Nick Andrewes has been appointed and will be Licensed as Priest-in-charge of St Paul’s on 26 May. We look forward to welcoming him and Gina with their daughters, Isabel and Esther. Thanks It is almost impossible to single out anyone for thanks by name but the exceptions this year are Ken and Pauline Pleasant. They have not only put in a lot of time and energy into their roles but they have also related to us all with prayer and with love. It is also appropriate to give thanks for the life of Margaret Lees who died during the year, remembered as Churchwarden, as Chair of School Governors and as someone who said what she thought with genuine love and tact. And thank God whose Son Jesus said ‘Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.’ |
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