Worship
Cell Groups
Welcome
Administration
Visiting and Bereavement Care
Premises
Children
Youth
God Squad/DDC
TAG
The Way
Prayer Ministry
St Luke’s Players ADS
The Knitting Group
Crossroads
St Luke’s Church Hall
Uniformed Organisations
Women’s Fellowship
Mothers’ Union
St Luke’s Halsall School
Groundforce
Bell Ringing
Our core values are fundamental to the health and growth of the church. They are the focus of what we seek in both Cell Groups and all church activities.
All Involved
God gives gifts to every person to be used in the service of others and for building up the church.
Becoming Disciples
We are always becoming and developing our full potential - we need to be open to God’s word and spirit - encouraging one another to grow
into the likeness of Christ.
Creating Community
Jesus commands us to love - this must be worked out in practice on a day to day basis - Cell Groups are the training ground for love.
Doing Evangelism
Jesus told us to GO and make disciples of all people. Our focus must be outward on mission not just inward on maintenance. Our concern is for
others not just ourselves.
Encountering God
We are committed to providing opportunities for everyone to encounter God especially through Sunday worship, Cell Groups and Training Courses.
We value prayer and recognise unless God builds the house we labour in vain.
We aim to meet fortnightly on Mondays although this isn’t always possible. We will often have a Bible study and share news about, and our plans for the various areas we are responsible for. It’s good to be part of a team and to ask opinion and advice from others and receive challenge! Personally, I am particularly grateful to be able to ‘think out loud’ with a team of people in the church across a spectrum, about the direction of St Luke’s.
Sometimes, simply being able to talk about difficult issues is a good thing even if the solutions are not immediately apparent! We met with the PCC to discuss Bishop James’ 3 questions to all the churches in the Diocese: How are we serving our community? How can we kindle our love for God and our neighbour? How can we grow numerically? The SMT was selected for 5 years and are just coming to the end of our 4th, we will be reviewing with the PCC the way in which the SMT has worked with a view, I hope, of continuing with SMT next year.
“God has filled the earth with beauty,
all the world give God your praises,
worship is your joy and duty,
all the world give God your praises.”
Sometimes worship can be a joy and sometimes a duty. Frances Shoesmith gave us lots of creative ideas on worship during the Intro to Mission Shaped church course during Lent 2010.
We continue to explore different ways to worship through the café service and various forms at the evening service e.g. meditation and Iona style.
Other groups worship God at different times and in different ways e.g. using creative skills at the Knitting Group or Crafty Ladies; and worshipping God in enjoying His creation during Groundforce sessions.
Whether we feel it is a duty or a joy, wherever or whenever, our God is worthy of all our praise and worship – let’s continue to enjoy worshipping Him!
“Let His praises sound forever,
All the world give God your praises.”*
(*God has filled the earth – Peter Graystone & Eileen Turner)
We continue to be in a time of change for cell groups. A major challenge is how to encourage people to take on the leadership of new groups. We have lots of people who might join groups (both existing and new members of the church), but not many groups have room to welcome more people.
New initiatives reach out to different groups of people who might not normally come to St Luke’s, and can help people to grow in faith. Connect, café church, knitting group and the groundforce gardening team have continued, and the men’s group became well established during the year.
We need to keep looking for the wide variety of ways in which God wants to use small groups in the life of St Luke’s, and to see how God is calling us to be part of that. You never know, He might be asking you to be part of a group, to lead a new group … or even to step down from leading one!
Since the last APCM the Welcome team been busy preparing a "Welcome meal" for newcomers to St Luke's over the past year. We prepared a Sunday lunch for about 40 of us and shared church events with guests as they seek to know God 's gifts they have been endowed with which can be used in the church and wider community.
Following this in June, we took over the upstairs of Barbacoa restaurant for a very enjoyable Ladies meal, attended by about 97. We also enjoyed some entertainment from the crooning voice of Jamie Somers.
Then it was time to think about "Back To Church Sunday" at the end of September with an invitation to everyone to join an Alpha course which started in October 2010. This was the first year that we met in Costa Coffee in the village and we enjoyed refreshments which we could purchase while hearing about the meaning of life. 14 people signed up from all walks of life and many expressed how helpful the course has been to them. New friendships have been made and we are now offering a follow on course entitled "On the Way" which 7-8 people are coming to. We feel it is a way that we can disciple people and encourage their spiritual growth as individuals.
In 2011, we are already planning another welcome meal on Sunday 17th April followed by a Ladies meal on Wednesday 8th June.The Welcome team are looking to expand and would love to see more men or young people joining the team in the very valuable work of welcome that they do week by week.
The office continues to be extremely busy and never more so than at present with the lead up to Easter and the APCM both falling at the same time! It never ceases to amaze me how many visitors we have, over a hundred each week and it is a privilege to be involved in both the darkest and happiest times of people's lives as we chat to baptism and wedding couples but also to bereaved families and it is always exciting when people just arrive from nowhere at times of great need saying they just feel ‘drawn’ to the church.
We aim to be as efficient and competent an office team as any outside organization whilst also remembering that we are a family and although a working environment, and try to be a place where people are welcomed in the same way that they are to Sunday services.
The graveyard is a huge part of the work, with burials, and interment or scattering of cremated remains two or three times a week. Over the last year there has been a huge increase in people researching family trees and requesting information from the burial records, sometimes two or three times a day, often via email from literally all over the world. This is very time consuming and we are hoping in the near future to set up a system whereby people can access records electronically via the web site.
Technology is always moving forward and church software is no different, we have recently introduced ‘Easyworship’ into our 11 am and 6.30 pm services, it’s now just a case of becoming as accustomed to it as we have been with powerpoint over the years. We hope that it will enhance our worship.
I don’t believe the church could function without the dedication, loyalty and commitment of the office team, who have never let me down, so a very big thank you to Brenda, Carol, Paul, Su, Syd, Joyce, Audrey and Harry the ginormous spider who lives in the second toilet! And of course it’s good to have Simon working alongside us, we will miss him when he leaves, although the office might be warmer in the winter without the door being left open! (what is it about men and doors?) Edna ‘retired’ a couple of months ago and we miss her company on a Tuesday but are very appreciative of the work that she has done over the years. I am very grateful to God for giving me a job that I love and people who are a joy to work with and for.
Thank you to those of you who visit the many members of the parish because of illness, bereavement or because they are housebound, this is a very valuable ministry which we know from the many comments made that visits are always well received and appreciated by those who get them. Thanks also to the members of the Mothers’ Union, Eucharistic Ministers, Visiting Team and Cell Groups who also support their members with visits when necessary.
The team meets to allocate visits, so please do let us know if anyone is ill or needs a visit, particularly if they are not part of a cell group because unless we know we can’t respond. You can ring me direct (924 5851) or through the church office which is always happy to pass on names. We would also like to know of any family bereavements in which we have not been involved. This enables us to send cards and invitations to the Memorial Service which takes place in November.
As a church we do like to send a birthday card to those members of our congregation who have reached 80 or over. We would like to thank Carol Roocroft for the work she undertakes towards this valuable ministry. Please do let us know via the office if you know of anyone who should receive a card.
If you would like to get involved with visiting in any way please do have a chat with me. Thanks.
This year has been a bit quieter than the last two, although it has involved numerous visits to churches that have undertaken re-ordering schemes to get ideas for our own. It is an exciting time to move our church into the 21st century and it has been helpful listening to your ideas at our consultation meetings. We now need to start to look at the finer details of the scheme and if you would like to be part of a 'fabric committee' looking at the detail of the re-ordering (picking colour schemes, design of chairs, type of flooring etc) then please let me know, it would be great to have input from people of all ages.
Many thanks too, to all those who faithfully look after our buildings and grounds week by week, keeping them clean & tidy for the many visitors that we have each week.
Pram club (0-3 years) - Nicky Fell
& Bev Seel
Clamberers (pre-school children to school year two) - Nicky Fell & Bev Seel
Explorers (7-10 years) - Sylvia Brown, Dianne Kerr & Kim Sonne
Other Leaders - Sandra Brogan
& Lisa Elliott
First of all, I would like to say a huge thank you to Sue Kenyon, who has stepped down as Explorer Leader after many years of dedicated service. It is the commitment of people like Sue that makes our children’s groups such an important part of our church family. Also Sylvia Brown has moved from Clamberers and is now an Explorer leader. In addition, I am very pleased to announce the arrival of new leaders to join the team; they are Sandra Brogan and Lisa Elliot. Please pray for them as they share in the teaching of our young people.
Our children have again enjoyed a year of fun-filled learning through songs, stories, games, drama, crafts, quizzes, Bible readings and prayer and continued to experience God’s blessings.
The God Squad have extended their meeting times and meet midweek as well as on Sundays. They have also renamed themselves ‘Double Digit’ and are now under the remit of ‘Youth’ co-ordinator.
Explorers have continued to experience and share God’s love with each other on the first and third Sunday each month and enjoy meeting and learning together in a very informal and relaxed atmosphere. It is wonderful to hear some of our young people share in our news spot in church; we hope that they will continue to grow spiritually and they need our support.
The ever popular pram club continues to welcome a large number of mums and their children on a regular basis, and it is encouraging that many of its members are from outside our usual church family.
Our Clamberers continue to meet and enjoy learning about Jesus. We are still praying that new members will join in order to give our youngest members of church the opportunity to learn about Jesus from an early age.
Another fantastic addition to our children’s work is the launch of ‘Messy Church’. We have a devoted group of people who have taken on the task of planning and organisation, namely Dawn D’Auvin, Mel Graham and Susie Stubbs, who are supported by a large team that includes people from both school and church. The Christmas ‘Messy Church’ event, held at St Luke’s school, was a great success and we are looking forward to another rewarding Easter event in April.
This year we aim to increase our links with our church school and deepen relationships between leaders ‘new’ and ‘old’ (i.e. length of time served of course!). I would like to say a big thank you once again to all the leaders, who have continued to be committed and dedicated despite leading busy lives. Please support us in your prayers for all those who lead, support and attend, including their parents. If you would like to help in whatever way you can, be it large or small, please speak to any of the leaders mentioned over or to myself. Clamberers and Explorers meet on 1st and 3rd Sundays in church. Pram Club meet Tuesday afternoons in the church hall.
This year has seen a slight change to the ‘youth’ setup at St Luke’s in that it was decided all the groups for young people of school year 6 and over would be considered part of the youth remit. This means that we now have ‘God Squad’ on the 1st and 3rd Sundays each month during the 11 am service and ‘Double Digits for Christ’ (or DDC) fortnightly on Tuesday evenings, both for school years 6 to 8 (10 – 13 yr olds). TAG is for school years 9 – 13 (13 – 17) and meets on the 1st and 3rd Sundays and fortnightly on Tuesday evenings. ‘The Way’ is our open youth club for school years 7 – 9 (11 – 14) meeting in the Church Hall each Thursday evening during term time.
God Squad has continued to be an enjoyable time for 10 – 13 year olds to explore faith and related issues through DVDs and other resources. Paul and Jane Fell continue to lead this group, but have been boosted this year by new leaders stepping forward to help, Sarah Sheridan and Donna Spencer in particular have got more involved. Numbers attending the group have varied this year after quite a number of the top end of the age group moved up to TAG in September. Within this age group this year, a real encouragement has been the setting up of ‘DDC’. It was felt by a few people who had been praying together that it would be good to offer something more than the fortnightly Sunday meetings for our 10 – 13 year olds, and so a fortnightly Tuesday group has started up led by Mary Bunn, Ian Turner-Bone, Sarah Sheridan and Donna Spencer. Lydia Chung was a great help in getting this going as well, though she has currently had to take a back seat due to other commitments. As a group they have been playing lots of games, opening and looking at the Bible together and praying. They particularly enjoyed looking at Bible characters and assessing them ‘X-factor’ style!, and have had a focus on helping others which included a trip to help at the Samaritans Purse shoebox warehouse and raising money to provide cows for a village in the Third World. Again numbers have fluctuated a bit – with more girls than boys, though a good core group is starting to be established. There is some overlap between the group members on Sundays and Tuesdays, this is something we want to encourage more where possible. From this age group we are very excited that Rosie Bunn is to be baptised and admitted to Communion on Palm Sunday.
On Sundays TAG have done a series on Old Testament prophets – having a hilarious time acting the stories out and then also reading about both major and minor prophets. They have also looked at parables (both well known and less well known) again acting, using puppets or cartoons to tell them. They have all learned lots through these series. At their Tuesday meetings in the Crosby Room they have had guests in to talk about being a Christian in their job e.g. work in a hospice (Mary Bunn), Jonathan Deninson about Afghanistan from his perspective in the British army, life as a monk (Father Tom Cullinan), and other guests too. After motivation given by an amazing trip for 9 of the group to Soul Survivor, 12 members are reading the Bible in a year and alongside this have been looking more in depth about the Bible and what it says. The group wanted to learn more about prayer, the Holy Spirit, worship etc. TAG+ has given the opportunity to look at the Bible in more depth for those who would want it.
They have also looked at some topical issues, run Fair trade services at 11 and 6.30, washed cars, visited Father Tom in Ince Woods, and had yet another stay awake. They have visited ‘space’, 12 of the group helped in Narnia at St George's Hall, and the same number have helped in various events with the puppet team. TAG are off to Noah's ark zoo farm in April and plan another Soul Survivor trip in early August. There have been some football matches, film evenings and they are just beginning to link with a new catholic youth group at St Joseph's. Some new members joining has been a real encouragement – both those coming into the TAG age group this year and 3 others joined from other church backgrounds (one is Russian – a 1st for TAG!).
10 of the group play in youth band too and practice monthly for that. Callum Spiers and Matthew Thompson have contributed hugely to this. As junior leaders they also help Joe Magill and Annie Spiers who continue to lead the group.
Please pray for TAG members:-
In TAG, 9 schools are represented – -Chesterfield (6 members), St Michael's (4), St Mary's College (4) Sacred Heart (3), Range in Formby (2), Merchant Taylor Boys (2), Bluecoat (2), St Margaret's (1), Holy Family (1). Perhaps you have links with one of these schools and might start praying regularly for them - they represent THOUSANDS of teenagers, and our young people in TAG want to be salt and light in these schools. Please pray that God will start using them in new ways to pass on Jesus' good news to friends in school.
Each Thursday evening the church hall becomes a hive of activity and chatter as somewhere between 20 to 30 11 – 14 year olds come and play soft football, hockey, badminton, pool, table tennis, table football and compete against each other on game systems for 1½ hours. They also take the time to chat and spend time with friends. Organised activities like card making and the summer BBQ have gone down well, and a fun quiz night is due shortly. Tim and Ann Causer continue to run The Way each week ably assisted by various helpers, and have been particularly encouraged by some new, enthusiastic leaders this year.
Many thanks to all who have helped with and supported these various youth groups in any way! Please do continue to pray for them.
I am grateful to those who are willing to commit themselves to pray for others at the end of every 11am and 6.30pm service and during our Holy Communion services at 9am (1st Sunday), 11am (3rd Sunday) and 6.30 pm (2nd Sunday). During the year we started to meet to pray before the service on these Sundays and ask God for anything (word, impression, Bible verse, picture etc) that we could share with the congregation to draw their attention to the possibility of healing and wholeness in their lives. We have also asked the leaders of the 11 am and 6.30 pm services to advertise this ministry after the last hymn/song so that it’s not just a part of the notices! We are looking to run a short course in the coming year for anyone who is interested in healing and wholeness and exploring ways in which we could offer this ministry to the wider community.
St Luke’s Players is an amateur drama group staging an annual pantomime in January/February with the aim of entertaining an audience of varying ages, raising money for charities and providing the opportunity for drama, dance and music within a Christian environment.
Although our core members are parishioners of St Luke’s Church, as part of our outreach we welcome newcomers from further afield. We are looking to encourage more young people (15 or over on 31 August 2011) to get involved with the group.
This year the group performed ‘The Wizard of Oz’ in front of around 900 people over five performances.
Dorothy, accompanied by her talking and oversized pet dog Toto, found herself in the colourful land of Oz. Having accidentally disposed of one wicked witch, she found herself up against another three, yes, three! Aided by the munchkins, a cowardly lion, a tin man, a scarecrow (seemingly both with Gaelic origins) and a good witch and eventually the wizard himself, Dorothy made it home to Kansas.
Along with our dedicated support staff and excellent dancers, the group produced a show enjoyed by audiences raising £3,500 divided between our chosen charitable causes, Neuroblastoma Research Fund and the Children’s Society.
The Knitting Group have now been meeting every Friday afternoon from 1.15 – 3.15 pm (except Good Friday and 3 weeks at Christmas) for over 4 years. We have grown in the number of people who come and the amount of knitting that we manage to do. All are welcome. Come and enjoy the refreshments, laughter and friendly chat as well as the knitting. Spare wool is always gratefully received.
This last year we have made hats and scarves for the Mission to Seafarers, as well as a knitted Nativity for a school in Southport. We have also made over 2000 items made up of hats, scarves, mitts, gloves and garments which fitted into 22 sacks as well as 19 boxes of fillers. This year for the first time we had a sale of some of our items, this enabled us to send £500 to support Samaritans Purse.
Thanks also to Vera de Villiers who once again organised a successful collection of 207 boxes for Samaritans Purse Christmas Shoebox appeal.
We would like to take this opportunity of thanking anyone who has joined in with the many projects we have undertaken, especially to our ‘out knitters’ for their support and to all those who amaze us by the amount of wool that is donated. We can be contacted via the Church Office (931 3119)
Open Monday – Saturday from 9.15 – 4 pm – everyone welcome to enjoy the friendly atmosphere, a decent coffee (or tea) and a good meal – all reasonably priced. Although the winter weather did affect us – why go out if you don’t have to? - we are now picking up again and getting very busy. We have recently welcomed Paul as Duty Manager and he is full of ideas and has already expanded the menu. Sadly, Ann is leaving us and we wish her all the very best. As usual, we are short of volunteers on some days although at present we have some youngsters from local schools on work experience. If you would like to help just call in or ‘phone. Finally, this year we have been awarded 5 stars by the Sefton Environmental Health Authority. (last year 4 stars)
I am always amazed how good the hall looks considering the use it gets and thank God for the work undertaken by volunteers including Helen who is also our hall cleaner. We have three new people hiring the hall this year for – a textile workshop on various Saturday mornings, a Zumba exercise class on Thursday lunchtime and more recently a booking for a Saturday craft day with possible dates in the future. These are all people from the local community who have heard about the hall and are very impressed.
St Luke’s has a long tradition of working with uniformed organisations. At the moment we have:
1 Rainbow Guide Unit (Tuesdays)
2 Brownie Guide Packs (Mondays)
1 Guide Company (Mondays in Crosby High School)
1 Beaver Scout Colony (Mondays)
1 Cub Scout Pack (Thursdays)
1 Scout Troop (Mondays)
The Scout and Guide associations are part of a worldwide movement. They enable young people to develop their full physical, intellectual, social and spiritual potential and to take an active and responsible role in society. They do this through distinctive and stimulating programmes and attractive schemes of progressive training, which are enjoyable. This is all based on the Promise and Law.
Unfortunately due to lack of leaders one of our Rainbow colonies had to close. We are hopeful that this is only a temporary situation. One Brownie Pack and the Guide company are now meeting at Crosby High School as they could not be accommodated on the same night.
Both the Scouting and Guiding Groups have attended many camps and pack holidays and learnt lots of new things.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the leaders for all that they do for and with the young people.
Meet first Tuesday each month in the Church Hall at 8.00 pm. Each month we have a speaker or demonstration except for July and December when we have our very popular outings. Bonfire night was, as usual, well attended and we were able to give a generous amount to each of four charities. Unfortunately the Hot Pot was unavoidably cancelled in 2010 but we hope to reinstate it this year – date for your diary – 15th October.
Do join us for friendly and enjoyable gatherings – we are always pleased to welcome new members.
The Liverpool Diocese Mothers’ Union celebrated 120 years with events marking this throughout the year.
The annual Deanery Festival was held at St Luke’s and well attended by members.
Cathedral day in October was a momentous occasion with 178 banners being presented. We held a coffee morning in aid of AFIA (away from it all holidays for disadvantaged children). Our annual outing to Llandudno and Christmas meal were thoroughly enjoyed by members and friends.
We continue to support worldwide projects both prayerfully and financially. New members would be most welcome.
A ‘transformational’ year is probably the best way to describe the last 12 months for St. Luke’s Halsall School. There has been the appointment of a new Headteacher, Mr Miller, who took up post in September; the continued work on re-shaping the school’s curriculum to be a more creative, child-centred programme; and of course the final stage of the school’s remodelling.
I am sure you will have been very aware of the building works which started last April and were recently finished in February. Everyone involved at school – pupils, staff and Governors, are delighted with the outcome of this refurbishment and we are very appreciative of all your support and prayers during this time of upheaval. We now have a school which is truly fit for teaching and learning in the 21st century and were blessed to have both the Archbishop of York and Bishop James visit St Luke’s on 11th March to re-dedicate the school and its work to God’s glory.
The future looks to be both exciting and challenging at the same time. We are seeking to further develop our outside play areas, school grounds, ICT provision, and the curriculum under the ever changing guidance from the government. All of this takes place with the backdrop of a changing educational landscape (the local authority has disappeared before our eyes) and uncertainty around future funding levels. All of us working in education are used to embracing change, but as always we appreciate your prayers as we seize hold of the daily opportunities to shape both our own and the pupils’ futures and promote God’s love in the lives of each individual. Thank you all,
The highlight of 2010 was Bishop James leading a service of celebration and consecrating the gardens in July.
We have seen more people visit our grounds and find peace, tranquillity and beauty.
The grounds offer a great way of reaching out to our community, and to help people to draw close to God our Creator through the beauty of His creation.
Our monthly groundforce sessions have grown – we often get 15 – 20 people each time. It provides a good way of building friendships, and a number of our group are not (yet!) part of the established church family.
We have been delighted to get through stage 1 of the Changing Spaces initiative. If we are successful at stage 2, we will receive £50,000 to make further improvements. This would fund a new entrance to the graveyard including raised vegetable and sensory garden, re-laid paths, new signage and a cycle shelter with a green roof!
We hosted both a Keep Britain Tidy workshop and an A Rocha conference during the year – both groups attracted by the transformation to our grounds.
With the very much appreciated support from ringing friends at Liverpool Cathedral and Sefton Church, who have turned out regularly to help us on practice nights, we have had quite a successful year.
We rang for most Sunday services during the year and all the weddings and special occasions where our services have been requested. In addition we were successful in ringing two quarter peals; the first on 23rd April for England and St George - 1260 Mixed Doubles, and in October - 1320 of St Luke’s Doubles at St Luke’s Church for St Luke’s Day, this was also to welcome Isobel Louise Slater born 3rd October, daughter of Jenny and Richard.
In June we took part in the Church’s Open Day and from that we had some new recruits come to join us. Sadly because of other commitments they are no longer able to ring, and we also lost one of our regulars. We currently, therefore, have four regular Sunday Service ringers and some occasional helpers, but we would really love to be able to ring all six bells on Sunday mornings, can you help us achieve this goal this coming year?
With the generous support of all at St Luke's we continue to support the work of our missionary partners both in this country and abroad. A brief report is shown below from each of our group members.
Let me take this opportunity to say thank you to Karen Hignett, our former World Mission Co-ordinator, for all her hard work over the last few years. I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to the work of the World Mission Group. Your support is invaluable. Thanks also to Simon for his support of the Group.
The Council met four times during the year and the opening prayers were led by each of the five churches in rotation.
The meetings were well attended and covered a wide range of discussions including the Lent Talks, Crossroads Café, the “Thoughts for the Day” booklet produced by Mrs Terri Whittaker, the “Welcome in Scheme” and Christmas advertising etc.
The Crossroads Trustees were welcomed to the April meeting and gave a report on the current situation, emphasising that Crossroads is there for the benefit of the whole community of Crosby to promote ecumenism.
There were two ecumenical pilgrimages in 2010, the first to Oberammegau in September when we attended the passion play, which was a most moving experience, and in October to Assissi and Rome, another memorable and inspiring tour. They were large parties on both occasions and we particularly enjoyed being able to share each others forms of worship.
A quiz and hot pot supper evening was held in January in SS Peter & Paul’s church hall when over 130 attended. It was an excellent evening and raised £552.00 for the Crossroads Centre.
The “Two Cathedrals” walk on the 23rd May was well supported by the Crosby Group of Churches but unfortunately, few young people took part.
Three Lent Talks were arranged for 7.30 pm Wednesday evenings in St Helen’s church hall on the 16th, 23rd and 30th March.
Ecumenical services are held every Thursday morning at 9.45 am and take place on a clockwise rota basis at all five churches, All Saints, S.S. Peter and Paul’s, St Luke’s, St Helen’s and Moor Lane Methodist. Although we have a steady and regular attendance at these services, we would welcome others to come and spread the ecumenical spirit throughout our churches.
Sefton Deanery Synod has had an interesting and thought provoking year. We had four meetings in 2010 and enjoyed presentations from the ‘In Another Place’ team; Clare Morgan from Y Kids, Bootle; Angela White from Sefton C.V.S. on the faith communities engagement with Sefton Borough Council and in November Bishop James came to hear each Parish’s response and answers to his call to the diocesan synod about the importance of numbers and growth.
A new Deanery family worker has been appointed and St Frydeswyde's and All Saints' are to join together to form a new parish.
So there will be exciting times ahead for the Deanery.