Agenda for the Annual Vestry Meeting of

All Saints’ Church, Hoole,

 to be held in Eagle at 7.30pm on

Tuesday 21^st April 2009

1)     Apologies for Absence

2)     Minutes of the Vestry Meeting held on Wednesday 23^rd April 2008

3)     Vote of Thanks to the Church Wardens

4)     Election of Two Church Wardens

Agenda for the Annual Parochial Church Meeting of All Saints’ Church, Hoole,

to be held in Eagle at 7.40pm on

Tuesday 21^st April 2009

  1)   Apologies for Absence

  2)   Minutes of the Annual Parochial Church Meeting held on

        Wednesday 23^rd April 2008.

  3)   Matters Arising

  4)   Report on the Electoral Roll

  5)   Report on the proceedings of the PCC

6)   Report on the Financial Affairs of the Parish and the Receiving and Adopting of the Audited Accounts for 2008

  7)   Report on the Goods, Fabric and Ornaments of the Church

  8)   Report on the proceedings of the Deanery Synod

  9)   Election of 3 Deanery Synod members to serve for 3 years

10)   Election of 4 ordinary PCC members to serve for 3 years

11)   Appointment of Sidespeople

12)   Appointment of Auditors

13)   Vicar's Remarks

14)   Any Other Business

(Questions, comments, observations etc which you wish to raise should be handed, in writing, to John Kirkland not later than Sunday 19^th April 2009)

INTRODUCTION

As I write the Introduction to this year’s report, I am conscious that for many of us the year has been dominated by illness and bereavement. To have at least six members of the church family diagnosed with major cancers during the year is, I think, exceptional, and several more have gone to be with the Lord during the course of the last year. On top of that, other church members have been afflicted with illnesses which have limited their ability to serve and more have become ill and infirm and are no longer able to worship with us on Sundays. In many ways it has been a hard year for us as a church and it can be difficult at times to understand what God is doing.

Some have said to me that they feel we are being attacked by the Evil One at the moment and that may well be true – the Christian life is frequently described as a battle or spiritual warfare and we need to be wise to the devil’s schemes as he seeks to damage God’s work and divide God’s people. However, while we may be puzzled by the Lord’s ways, we mustn’t lose sight of his sovereignty – he won’t allow anything to happen to his children by accident but will work out his good purposes for us in all circumstances. Easy to say but, I know, harder to trust when the storm is raging!

However, there is also much to be encouraged by. We continue to be amazed by the numbers who come to the Alpha courses in the Centre and we are thrilled by those whose hearts the Lord has opened to respond to his message. There is the on-going challenge to integrate new believers into the life of the church, but God is clearly at work by his Spirit in many people.

We rejoice as well in new initiatives this year such as Costa del Hoole. For many, those three days in August were the highlight of the year – to see so many of our senior citizens who wouldn’t otherwise have had a holiday having so much fun was sufficient reward in itself for all the hard work of so many people during that week.

We will be delighted, I know, by the building work in church – although there are frustrations as I write at the time it’s taking to complete the work, we keep getting glimpses of how good it’s going to be with the new kitchen and store, the wonderfully renewed Tower Porch and the clean stonework and fresh paint.

We are encouraged and challenged in equal measure by the numbers of newcomers who attend services each Sunday. Many of those have come in as a result of the hard work being done in Minis, Dinkies, Alpha and elsewhere, and many speak of the warm welcome they have received from church members, but it is a constant challenge to recognise newcomers and help them become part of the church family. We are continuing to look at ways to do that better and hope to add an Information Evening to our Welcome Lunches as a means to help people.

As always, then, there is much for which to give thanks as we look to the future, believing that the Lord who has brought us out of slavery by his mighty power will walk with us all the days of our lives and bring us safely to his eternal kingdom. 

Section One – Church Activities

Advisory Group Report

The Advisory Group was set up almost five years ago to work alongside the PCC, with three main aims.

·      To help the church develop its vision, clarify our priorities in the light of that vision, and assess our activities against those priorities.

·      To help others to discern their gifts and ensure that those gifts are being used effectively.

·      To listen to God, seeking discernment and praying for the life and mission of the church.

At present the Advisory Group consists of Ruth Ackroyd, Vicki Bulgin, Jim Ellis, Sheila Greenwood, Rick Hemmings, Fiona Jones, Steve Tynegate and me.

We have continued to spend the first part of each meeting in prayer and waiting on God, helped by Sheila who has journalled for the group and enabled us to see how God is leading us and where he has already answered our prayers. Other issues which have been discussed have included our support for DR Congo, the new Diocesan link with which Reg Bolton is involved; Chesterfest, and we have met several times with the leaders of Hoole Baptist Church to pray and discern God’s way forward for our work together in the community; the exercise of spiritual gifts following our series on 1 Corinthians in the autumn; a number of staffing issues, including the appointment of Helen Ellis as Families Work Coordinator.

All-Age Worship Teams

In September we held a meeting of all the All-Age Worship Teams to review these services. Prior to this each member of each team read ‘How to Plan and Lead All-Age Worship’, a Grove booklet by Chris and John Leach. It was encouraging to note that as a Church we were already implementing many of their suggestions of good practice.

At our meeting we then discussed further what was going well and identified areas where improvements could be made. This led to the decision to reconsider how we organise the planning and preparation of the services. Consequently, we have spent some time considering different options for the structure of our teams. As we go to print these are not yet finalised, but we hope to do so by the start of the summer term.

So please continue to pray for this ministry:

For the right way to take All-Age worship forward.

For services which bring all members of our Church Family together in corporate worship.

For services which present a clear Gospel message to our many visitors through baptisms and thanksgivings.

Alpha

Contacts: Stephen Beveridge (348780)

                 Neil Jones (342993)

Things to thank God for:

-       200 non-Christians coming to the Chester-wide Alpha Invitation supper at The Queen Hotel – 40 of these guests were invited by members of All Saints’ congregation.

-       Another 46 guests attended the 3 Alpha courses run at All Saints’ – this makes the total now 326 since Alpha began at All Saints’.

-       A significant number of last term’s guests have gone on to form Beta groups to further explore the Christian faith.

-       2 more Alpha Weekends were held at Chainbridge Hotel in Llangollen for teaching on the Holy Spirit and praying for guests

-       Our collaboration with Hoole Baptist, Queen St. and Northgate Churches

-       Representatives from 8 of Chester’s churches have attended the fortnightly Alpha prayer breakfasts that are held at All Saints’

-       for all the people who have acted as group leaders and helpers, served food and delivered Alpha invites. We are particularly thankful to Christina Beveridge / Helen Dymond for printing the Alpha Invitations and counting them into rounds.

Here’s what a few of the guests say about how doing an Alpha course has benefited them:

-        “I learnt to pray better”

-       “It opened my eyes to a new way of thinking about my faith in God”

-       “It has helped set me on my path”

-       “I got to ask some serious questions about the Holy Spirit which is an area of misunderstanding for me”

Please pray:

-       for the next Chester-wide Alpha Invitation at The Queen Hotel on September 24th 2009. Please can you pray for the right speaker for this event  and also for people to help to promote this event.

-       that there will be a revival of desire to find out about Jesus all over Chester and that the courses will be full again over the next year.

-       about non-Christians that you could invite to an Alpha Introductory night to find out about the course.
  

Building Committee

Chairperson: Ken Wood (343643)

The Building Committee is a sub committee of the PCC made up of PCC members and others with an interest in the buildings and fabric of the church. It is both our privilege and responsibility to look after all of the PCC’s building portfolio, to this end we all consider are roll as vital to ensure that the Church and other buildings are kept in the best possible condition for the currant and future needs of Gods people here in Hoole, to use to his praise and glory.

In the last year we have had many projects at various stages of completion, and you will all be aware of the work going on in the Church itself over the last twelve weeks or so. As I write this the last touches are being made to the new kitchen, and the redecoration is nearing completion. The modernisation and upgrading of the tower entrance should be ready by Easter, for all of the afore mentioned projects the Building Committee would like to thank Sheila Greenwood and Nicky Pickering for there Vision, Skill and Hard Work.

Amongst other projects you will recall we discovered a large aria of the Church floor that was in danger of collapse, which tested our ability to respond to urgent situations to the full. We would like to thank Christina Beveridge for the way she stepped in to handle the day to day running of that contract. The lights in Eagle and Sparrow have been upgraded to improve lighting levels. Numerous day to day repairs and redecoration jobs are done on an ad-hoc basis and we regularly have smaller projects running.

This is the year of our next Quinquenial inspection and I am pleased to let you know that the Diocesan Advisory Committee has approved our request to once again appoint Tony Barton to be our Architect for this. The inspection will be carried out later this year and a report on the condition of the Church issued shortly afterwards. I should point out that all of the work that was highlighted in the last Quinquenial report has been completed.

As always if you would like more information about the work of the committee just ask one of its members, and if you have an idea how we can improve the buildings please let us know and we will look at it, that’s how Sheila & Nicky started and look what that has done.

The Building Committee are (at the moment)

Ken Wood (Chair) Katherine Jones (Secretary) John Chester, Geoff Collins, Roy Greenwood, Christina Beveridge and Sarah Smith.
 

Café@AllSaints

Contact: Elaine Hemmings (312494)

Café continues to open each Tuesday between 10.00 and 12.00, so do drop in for a cup of tea or coffee and a slice of toast if you are free. Café is open to anyone, both Church Family and the local community, and you will find a warm welcome awaits. We are very grateful to Ann Chesters who runs Café on alternate Tuesdays and to Bill Holt who is always willing to help out whenever required. Having been a regular face behind the counter for some time now, Rene Peters is no longer able to be on the kitchen team but we are very grateful for all she has done for Café and for the many cups of tea/coffee and slices of toast she has provided! Our thanks go to Rachel Thomas, who has been helping us since January, but we are still looking for someone who could serve in the kitchen every other week and if you think you could help with this, please let Elaine or Ann know.

Also available at Café is the Traidcraft stall, run by Joyce Kirby. Café customers enjoy purchasing and consuming her wonderful goodies, knowing that, as Fairtrade products, we are also supporting the livelihoods of farmers in less privileged parts of the world. The chocolate is particularly tasty and can be eaten completely guilt-free!

Please pray that:

Café would be a friendly and welcoming environment for all who come, especially visitors.

Café would be a link and help build bridges into the local community.

Care Group

Contact: Ann Chester (342586)

Care Group No.: 07711 425 366

2009 has been a year of transition for the Care Group.  In September, after ten years of faithful service greatly appreciated by the church, Jane Bolton gave up the role of organiser and I took over, hoping I could maintain the very high standard Jane had set. I was relatively new to the church, but Jane eased the way by giving me a great deal of valued help and advice. 

From September until Christmas time was spent looking at the issues of insurance and CRB checks. (The latter are now required for volunteers)  The work of the Care Group, i.e. the matching of a practical need with a volunteer willing to fulfil it, still went on.  Most of the requests during the past year have been for transport – regular lifts to church services, meetings and events, and some one-offs to hospital appointments.  We have a small group of committed “chauffeurs”, but could do with more especially as the number of transport requests is increasing.

Other requests over the year have been for shopping, DIY, contact with other organisations, meal-making etc.  The details of the whole range of tasks we can cover are in the book on the Care Group table.

New members are always welcome.  Joining the Care Group simply implies a willingness to be asked to help occasionally and feeling free to say “no” if it’s not possible to fulfil that particular need.

Prayer points:

i)               For more volunteers, especially those able to do transport

ii)             That people will not feel they are being a burden in asking for help.

iii)           For the members of the Care Group to continue to be motivated by their faith in Jesus who “came to serve.”

Catering

Co-ordinator: Ann Cottier (301278)

Have you ever heard the saying “If ever you are passing please call in the kettle is always on.”  Well it’s a bit like that at All Saints, yet another busy year of catering.

Debbie and her team of helpers continue to provide us with that very welcome ‘cuppa’ on a Sunday after the 10.45 service.

Hot and cold drinks and healthy snacks are enjoyed each week at Minis, Dinkies and Cafe, not to mention the endless refreshments provided by Christina and Helen to visitors and people attending meetings in the church centre.

People have celebrated baptisms, birthdays, weddings and of course we have comforted each other over a cup of tea when we have lost a dear friend and member of the church family.

Over the year, church family members have organised and catered for many different events including the Alpha Courses, Sidespersons Lunch, Housegroup Lunches, Welcome Lunches, Chester Bible Focus meetings, B-It Theatre Co. performances, Chesterfest, Costa del Hoole (three days of fun and food), Harvest Lunch, Marriage Prep Lunches, Senior Christmas Lunch, Christmas Concerts, Strictly Tea Dance, Lent Suppers and Good Friday Lunch.
 

Please forgive me if I have missed anything.  If you would like to help with any events please speak to me or one of our Welcome Team and we will put you in touch with the key people. 

Talking of help, perhaps I can take this opportunity to mention a couple of forthcoming events:-

On June 16^th & 17^th we are hosting the Chester Bible Focus meeting and on September 12^th Christina is planning an Open Day at the Church Centre.  Please speak to me if you would like to help with refreshments.

At All Saints we are very well blessed with the gift of hospitality. I would like to say a big “Thank You” to everyone for your enthusiasm and hard work and for the witness this provides to our community.

Church Centre

Centre Manager: Christina Beveridge (345649)

Wow! What a year I can’t believe I’ve now been doing this job for 17 months! They say time fly’s when your having fun…it certainly does.

A really good year has passed since the last report, seeing a rise in our usage that sometimes frightens me, but in a really good way.

 We’ve had continued use by the regular groups, some new comers i.e. Spanish Classes, Watercolour Classes and big users Primary Care Trust- Step by Step programme (weight management and lifestyle changes) and Pilates.

Groups that have been and gone in the year include Smoking Clinic, Skills 4 Life and Primary Care, all finished due to either lack of funding or interest.

We’ve seen our our church led groups increase in use with groups swelling (Minis) or new ones being created (B-it).

 We continue to see a large amount of use from the local community via parties and celebrations. Charities having functions and meetings here i.e. Dyslexia, Stroke Association, CWHA, Women’s Hostel, Asylum Group,  Light Project etc.. Other users include Chester City Council, Cheshire County Council, Chester and North Wales Orchid Society, Church House, various music concerts and local schools.

 Please continue to pray for the continued use of the church centre, for the safety of all those using it and especially for the growth of all those wavering in the there faith with the Lord.

Church Office

Helen Dymond (322056)

Christina Beveridge (345649)

The church office continues to be the heart and soul of the church centre providing support both practically and emotionally for the church family and visitors. 

Helen the church secretary is primarily the first contact for those people enquiring about weddings, baptisms, funerals and general queries.  She prepares and copies the service sheets, notice sheets, grapevine etc; updates and maintains the church database and much, much more.

Many thanks to Elaine, Carole and Jill who man the office voluntarily on a Monday and Tuesday and also to Gladys and Joan who continue to proof read each week.

Crèche

Contact: Nancy Jones (343491)

The Crèche is available on Sunday mornings for babies and toddlers up to 3 years old or longer if needed.

The leaders are Nancy, Audrey & Jane who have over a hundred years crèche service between them.  We also appreciate the support of other helpers and parents.

The purpose of the Crèche is to provide a pleasant refuge for children during the Sunday morning 10.45am service.  The Crèche also offers respite for parents and others to enjoy the morning service without interruption.

We have several regular attendees in the Crèche and others who come occasionally.  We also like to see families that have come from a distance to attend baptisms and other reunions.

Some of our Crèche members have recently moved on to Scramblers but we are looking forward to having their baby siblings in the near future.

Dinkies Baby Group

Helen Ellis (321625)

Dinkies, which is the group specifically aimed at parents and their babies (i.e. those not yet walking).  It is the only such group in Chester and has therefore proved to be very popular and we currently have about 35 on the Register.

Dinkies is not as structured as Minis – we offer refreshments during the course of the afternoon and end the time with 15 minutes of singing.

In January of this year I asked the Advisory Group and PCC to consider creating a paid position for me for my current role and also to allow me the time to expand it.  I am delighted that the church has backed me and my role as All Saints’ Families Work Coordinator means that I will be looking to develop ways of reaching out to families, both as a support to church families but also to families outside the church. 

PLEASE PRAY:

v  That we continue to make friends with and support those who come to Minis and Dinkies week by week.

v  That we “make a difference”, by being Christ through what Minis and Dinkies offers and by our love and care.

v  For freshness of ideas and outlook week by week.

v  For integration of families who have started coming to church.

Fathers Groups inc. Who Let the Dads Out?

Ian Ornsby, Jeff Mason and Neil Jones

Who Let the Dads Out? is a toddler group for fathers and their pre-school children. A good mix of Christian and non-Christian Dads attend. It aims to:

- encourage fathers to develop good relationships and play with their   children

- create a place where fathers can develop community with other men and support each other

- act as a first point of contact for men who may want to explore the Christian faith.

The group meets on the first Saturday of each month at Hoole Lighthouse Centre and is run in partnership with Hoole Baptist Church. It is regularly attended by 30-45 Dads and up to 60 kids. It forms part of a wide range of Fathering work which includes:

·      Daddy Cool – a 6 week discussion group for new Dads.

·      Soul Man – an opportunity for men to discuss their beliefs and what they pass on to their children

·      “Schools Out Dads About” (SODA) – an after-school club for fathers and their children in Years 0,1,2.

·      Hoole Dads football team – a kick-about for Dads on Wednesdays at 8.45pm

If you’re interested in getting involved in any of these activities please talk to one of us to find out more.

Please pray:

- for safety for the kids

- that these sessions will act as Christian “salt and light” in the community

- for a desire amongst the non-Christian Dads to find out about our faith.

- for the work that is being done to roll out WLTDO nationally and for continued funding for this

Flowers Report

Contacts: Lorraine Talbot (322502)

                 Christina Beveridge (348780)

Christina and I have had a slow start for flowers this year. We decided that as the church was undergoing change and decoration then we would hold back on the flowers. The flower memorial rota will be up and running once all the work is completed in Church.

We both still need help with the flowers so if you could spare one day a month or every other month this would be a great help. Please do not feel that you are not good enough. The Lord has given us many gift's and I'm sure there are a few undiscovered gifts out there! Christina and I are on hand to help if needed.

We also need help to decorate the Church for festivals.  It takes a lot of time and ‘many hands make light work’.  Please feel free to come along and join us.

As with all our festivals our flowers are sent out to the sick and bereaved in our parish and I know that this has helped and meant so much to the people who have received them.

Housegroups

Contact: Rick and Elaine Hemmings (312494)

The housegroups exist to provide both a place where we can meet together in small groups to learn and grow together as we study the bible, pray and worship, and also a place where we can provide pastoral care for one another. We have continued this year to study the same Bible themes and passages as we look at in our morning services, and over the past 12 months we have therefore looked at the early part of Luke, the final section of 1 Corinthians, and we have just completed a series of studies from the beginning of Exodus.

We currently have 9 groups, of which six meet on various days in the evening, and three meet during the day. In addition there are also currently two post Alpha groups led by Pam Male and John Chester. We are in the process of reviewing the number of groups that we run to make sure that we can effectively look after the number of people we have in our growing church.

The leaders have met regularly over the year to pray together, to support one another, and to review how the groups have been going. In addition we have had a training session on leading prayer times, plus two extra meetings for training when we did a listening skills course.

Thank you to all of the group leaders for all of their hard work in leading and caring for their groups week  by week. Thank you particularly to Gwen Harris who has stepped in to lead Rene Peters group, as Rene has had to step down due to her husband being unwell.

If you are not in a group already, please see Rick or Elaine Hemmings, and we would be delighted to point you in the direction of one.

Jon Phillips & The Light Project

Contact: Jon Phillips (400221)

Drama and Youth Worker, All Saints

What a year it has been. We have had some great times with the young people of All Saints and of the community of Hoole and have really seen God work.

Cat Hubbard: Light Project FDA student

It has been really encouraging to have Cat Hubbard continue in her work this year. She has taken a small change in role, on Sunday mornings she has been working with the younger age range and has been doing a great job teaching them and getting to know them. It is really exciting to have her work with us and looking into the future!  

The B-It Theatre Company

Contact: Jon Phillips

‘The B-It Theatre Company’ has now been running for 8 years! We run three workshops every Saturday from 10am-1.30pm for three separate age groups: 6-11s, 11-14s & 14-18s. They have performed, ‘Twelfth Night’, ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’, ‘The Godmother’ and The Twits and James and the Giant Peach and we performed ‘Twelfth Night’ and ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’ again with different groups,  also ‘A Merchant of Venice and then last year we performed ‘Much A do about Nothing’ and ‘A Winters Tale’. Throughout the year we also do small workshop performances. We have a great loyal following of young people and parents. Many of our members are not Christians and have the opportunity to experience Christians who relate to them on their level. We also focus on letting them know how perfectly they are made in God’s image.

An exciting new addition to our work this year has been hiring on Nick Sherratt for 20 hours a week. He finished his light year last year and is now half time with the theatre company and half time with Northgate Church doing youth work them.

We also have two fantastic gap year students from the Light Project Ben Kessell and Lydia Theaker.

This year we have started our B-It Street Theatre Company. We have performed secular sketches about issues we care about. We have also been taking a rug onto the streets and just resting in Chester and letting people come and join on us on the rug and letting them know what we are doing.

We are planning two new groups next term. An adult group and group for people who just want to do drama for fun!

The theatre company partnered with CSCW have been performing in secondary schools this Christmas. A play called Charlie’s Shepherds. A contemporary look at the idea of the Christmas story. We have received very positive feedback.

We have some really exciting plans for next year and can really see God moving in and through The B-It. We are expectant.

Please pray for:

-       The future ideas of the company.

-      Our partnership with CSCW – it has organically grown and it is so good to work with them.

-      Pleas also pray for the street theatre and also our vision of seeing how the church community can grow through our work.

Coffee Bar (years 9-13)

Contact: Tim Dann

In partnership with Hoole Baptist Church

  Coffee Bar runs on a Friday afternoon before D'Biz, but is more of a drop in and out after-school club for years 7-13.

  It is a lot more relaxed and a lot less noisy, so a lot of opportunities to get one-on-one chats with the youth.

  Half of it is also run as a Music Jam time to cater for the more musical youth in the community. 

D’Biz Thursdays

Contact: Gareth Cheesman

In partnership with Hoole Baptist Church

As many of you will know, Jon Phillips’ job changed shape a bit at the end of last year. The Light Project hired on Gareth Cheesman to take on a lot of Jon’s work with the D’Biz network. He is doing a fantastic job and he is also running D’Biz on Thursdays in Hoole now.

‘D’Biz’ our community youth group runs every Thursday and Friday for 11-16 yr olds. Thursdays is yrs 7-8 and Fridays is yrs 9-13. Cat works on the Thursday projects and Tim works on the Friday projects.

They have both been running very well and collectively we are getting on average 40-60 youth every week.

Please pray for: For Gareth as he continues in this work.

D'Biz Fridays (years 9-13)

Contact: Tim Dann

In partnership with Hoole Baptist Church

D’Biz 14-18s continues to see 20-35 young people come through the doors on a Friday night.

The club has been until the last few weeks 95% boys, so it’s been a real answer to prayer to have several groups of girls coming along.

As leaders we are getting to know this group of young people really well, real relationships have been built up, so we have been praying about ways of being able to share our faith. We decided to do this through questionnaires, asking the young people their views on church, Christians, Jesus. The response has been really encouraging. We are continuing to pray for that for the coming term.

 FRANKS (years 10-13)

Contact: Jon Phillips and Tim Dann and Cat Hubbard

This year has been great with Franks. We have been following the teaching plan of the church and once a month we have a movie night and we have some theological reflection on the film. We also have been doing breakfast on Family service weeks which is great and we have been aiming to meet up with the members in the week throughout the term. We also meet up once a month to have band time where Franks members and some other members of the congregation have a great time playing worship tunes.

-       Please do pray

o     that group continues to bond

o     that we can continue to be faithful with God’s word and what He is saying to us.

o     that we will have a very real and corporate understanding of church. 

All Saints’ Preparing for Marriage 2008/09

Contacts: Lyn & Geoff (318813)

                Tim & Sue Noakes (681973)

                Jeff & Cath Horn (370158)
 

Marriage Preparation has continued over 2008/9 with two events held on the first Sunday in November and February involving 12 couples. All couples getting married in church are invited to attend. 

The sessions explore the practicalities of married life in an informal yet structured and fun way.  They last about  three and a half  hours on a Sunday afternoon and are designed to get couples talking to each other about things beyond their wedding day for example who will put the rubbish out (generally him) how much football is valued ( generally low by her).

The afternoon is based on a workshop format with video clips and one to one discussion. The focus is practical including topics such as Getting on Together, Dealing with Conflict, Money and Values and Children.  God’s design for marriage is at the heart of what we do, one Christian couple that attended referred to the event as including a ‘good use of Christian influences, thought provoking but not preachy’.   Marriage preparation is a good outreach opportunity and at least two couples who have attended this year seem to be coming to All Saints’ quite regularly.

Marriage Preparation involves the church family in several ways; leading the sessions, catering, serving, praying and childcare for the leaders, all supported by Helen in the church office.  A lovely lunch is always provided which, from feedback we know always exceeds expectations.

Thank you to Ann and Dave Cottier for their excellent practical example of a kingdom marriage at work in the kitchen this year and we give grateful thanks to God and everyone who has helped make Marriage Preparation a success.

Feedback this year was, as always, very encouraging.  This is what couples have said:

What people said they would take away from the day 

       Communication is key

·      Thinking about money issues

·      To love and respect each other

·      Dealing with conflict

·      Importance of talking

·      To listen more

·      Think about the way I react to things

·      Different ways to deal with conflict

·      Points for my personal development to support my marriage.   

Prayer Pointers

· Pray for all the couples who have had contact with the church through marriage and over the years and for God to strengthen marriages generally.   

· Pray for willing childcare providers for the leaders on the days of the sessions. 

· Pray for how God may want us to develop this ministry in the future.

As always it’s a great privilege to be involved in this work.

Minis Toddler Group

Contact: Helen Ellis (321625)

Minis’ continues to go from strength to strength.  Currently we have approximately 150 families in total on our 2 Minis Registers.  Regrettably, our popularity has, once again, meant that we have closed our books for any new families but it does mean that we have the benefit of strengthening the relationships that we already have within the groups and get alongside people and gain their trust.  I believe that we have noticed that there has been an increase in the number of families coming through the doors of the church on Sunday mornings, and not necessarily because they would like to have their children baptised/service of thanksgiving. 

Our enthusiastic and hard-working team, volunteers mainly from our Church family, support the work of Minis.  Cathy Batchelor and Sarah Mason, my “right-hand women” are a fantastic support especially at our ‘All Together Time’ as they help me in doing the talks week by week and singing the Blessing Song to each of the 30-50 children by name, with hardly a mistake!

Music Group

Contact: Elaine Hemmings (312494)

Meet the team:

Cathy and Sarah: keyboard

Hannah: keyboard and guitar

Will and Nicki: guitar

Jim: bass

Mike: bass and guitar

Berni: bass and drums

Katherine: Violin

Jackie, Nicky, Elaine: Singers

David and Colin: Organ/keyboard

Carole, Mark, Paul, Reg: Easyworship

It has been good this year to step outside of usual duties at Church and lead the worship at Chester Bible Focus, both here at All Saints and St. Michael’s Church.

Our usual practices continue on Thursday evenings, but, at the time of writing, these are taking place at Elaine’s house due to the building work going on in Church. We are looking forward to the improvements and, in the meantime, we are very grateful to Ken Wood for setting up our microphones, microphone stands, music stands, foldback speakers, keyboard etc. etc. week by week.

Unfortunately, a number in our team have been seriously ill this year and we have missed having them around. We think especially of Will Henshaw, Reg Bolton and Paul Tinson. Their absence from the team has shown us just how valuable they are and how much they contribute.

Open to God

Contact: John Kirkland (322056)

Open to God gives us a chance to pray together and wait on God as a church. We will each have our own personal pattern of prayer, perhaps using the All Saints’ Prayer Diary with its themes for each day of the week and every day of the month, and we pray together in housegroups, often focusing on our own needs and the needs of those we love. Open to God gives us an opportunity to pray more widely for the work here at All Saints, for our local community and for the world for which God has given us responsibility.

We continue to meet on the Wednesday after the first Sunday in the month, and once a term we meet in housegroups rather than in the Church Centre. On those occasions we try to have a theme for prayer – for example, we have used material supplied by Tearfund very successfully – and those times have been well-supported and have helped some church members to begin praying out loud in the group.

As well as Open to God, we also meet fortnightly at 7.30am on Wednesday mornings to have breakfast and pray for Alpha and on the alternate Wednesday morning we meet to pray for the church.

Pastoral Team

Contact: Alex Lewis (316545)

I am reminded of the parable of the mustard seed when I consider the Pastoral Team. We are starting small but we will grow bigger and stronger as we strive to make All Saints’ a truly caring church. We have a team nine visitors who are trained in listening, are CRB checked and who are beginning to support and visit some of our Church family. Pastoral visitors respond to requests for short term and long term visits. We welcome any request for visitor to call.

Alex Lewis, Pam Male and Elaine Hemmings

Pathfinders (years 7-9)

Leaders: Catrin Hubbard and Tim Dann

Pathfinders has seen a regular 6-10 attending on Sunday mornings. We have been looking at a series called “Talking about Jesus”, using video clips illustrating His incarnation, miracles, teaching, attitudes, death and resurrection. These have all been great to go through and discuss with the young people.

We will be running communion classes again next term for a few of the Pathfinders, including on relatively new member who has expressed a wish to be baptized, so we’re looking forwards to that.

We continue to meet socially on a Wednesday night every week.

We thank God for Hayley, a student who has been brilliant in helping leading the group this year. We are praying for a replacement in September.

We are also praying for the group of Pathfinders who should be moving up into Franks in September, for wisdom in handling that.

Preaching Team

Co-ordinator: John Kirkland (322056)

In addition to thanking those who are part of the regular preaching team – Ruth, Vicki, Bill and Jeff – and Ron, who continues to take about half of all the funerals we conduct, it has been very encouraging this year to welcome other preachers to the team. As well as a number of people who have spoken at the All-Age Services on the first Sunday of the month, Jon Phillips, Tim Dann, John Chester and Kate Kirkland have all preached at least once this year. We pray that God will continue to raise up gifted teachers who will help us to hear the Bible speak to us today.

During the past year we have studied the early chapters of Luke’s Gospel, 1 Corinthians 12-16 and Exodus 1-15 on Sunday mornings and in housegroups, and it has been very encouraging to hear people talking about the passages (and what the preacher said) afterwards. In the evenings we have complemented that with teaching on Isaiah 1-39, the doctrine of Creation, God’s purpose for his church, the Christian Hope and Matthew 14-18.

The challenge to preacher and hearer remains the same – to hear accurately what God said to his people then, through the original authors of Scripture, and to hear what God is saying to us now, through the same words and by the ministry of his Holy Spirit. Like others, I have been challenged by the repeated emphasis in Scripture on the danger of hardening our hearts to God’s voice – our goal is to know God better, be strengthened in our faith and grow deeper in our obedience.

Rainbows

Leaders: Kate Cossins (409282)

Helpers: Debbie Jones and Katie Matthews

Rainbows is part of Girlguiding UK, the largest voluntary organisation for girls and young women in this country.  Rainbows is for girls aged between 5-7 years old, and our group of 15 girls meet on Tuesday evenings at 5pm for an hour.

We take part in various activities such as craft, singing, and games based on our motto of ‘look, learn, laugh, love’, the aim being to educate the girls about our world and how to look after it, and the people in it.