Dear Friends,
Summer is upon us and many of you will be heading off on your holidays, but the life of the parish goes on. At the end of this month sees the arrival of our new vicar Revd Toby Webber (Wednesday 29th July 7:30pm in St George’s Church) and so this letter may well be my last for a while.
The vacancy has been just over a year and one of the wonderful aspects of that time (for me at least,) is the numbers attending church has been maintained and I thank all of you for keeping faith and for your continued worshipfulness and prayers.
It has been a wonderful privilege to have led practically all of the services along with Fr Jordan and I need to record my grateful thanks to so many of you. The Churchwardens for their unwavering duty in ‘running’ the church and being the port of call for any issues that have arisen. The Treasurer and Finance team for keeping our heads above water, and the Mission & Discipleship team for keeping our focus on the gospel and our raison d’etre. Our PCC members for all their hard work. A special thank you to those who joined me for Morning Prayer every Friday in church to pray for our parish and to ask God to guide someone to be our next vicar…and he has delivered! I must thank our Organist & Choirmaster for diligently producing hymns and anthems for every sung service and of course, the members of our fantatic choir. Our ALM for leading various prayer meetings and for leading or assisting at the monthly worship in Primrose Gardens. All our volunteers in church, sides people, the flower guild, not forgetting the members of our maintenance team, our cleaner, our Hall Manager, the Tuesday morning coffee ladies.
And where would we be without our DAMS members to brighten up our lives with shows and pantos!? The list is not exhaustive, and thank you to the groups that provide fellowship and social interation in the community outside the church…Badminton, Mothers’ Union, Thursday Ladies Circle, Men’s Fellowship.
If I have missed anyone out, my apologies, but it just goes to show that the mission of God does not rely on one person, but many, many other willing helpers, and to the unsung heroes, I give you my heartfelt gratitude.
All in all, my friends, this all goes to show that Jesus is alive in our parish and his mission and to fulfil our motto: “Closer to Christ, further out for Christ.” With every Blessing. Revd Peter
A letter from our new vicar, Rev Toby Webber:
I am writing this from my old parish in Clayton-le-Moors, near Accrington, where we’ve just had a service of confirmation. I know that you have one coming up very soon at St George’s and All Saints’ as well. Confirmation is such a special occasion in the life of faith and its always a joy to witness. I still remember my own confirmation, way back when I was 12. Having been brought up as a Cradle Christian, going to church and Sunday School it was an occasion to own my faith and something I took seriously. I love the line that in the present version of the service the bishop addresses directly to each candidate just before he or she lays hands on the candidate to confirm:
“Name, God has called you by name and made you his own.”
Those words are a powerful reminder of the fact that we are each personally created by God, and each in Christ personally called to be his children, his own treasured possession. As those known and loved by God, and set right with him by his own grace, we are called to trust and obey, following in the way of Jesus. That call to follow can take unexpected turns and little did I expect a year ago that I would be returning to Chorley and coming to join your two wonderful churches!
Years ago when I was in Chorley before I was a young single curate, no doubt a bit ‘wet behind the ears’. I come to you hopefully with a bit more maturity, certainly with a lot more experience under my belt. And not on my own but as part of a family. In fact, the confirmation we just celebrated was very special as my eldest, Annabel, was amongst them. Annabel will turn 12 in September and start at St Michael’s which she is very excited about. My wife is Rebecca, and she teaches science in a Catholic High School in Preston. We are both originally from down south – though different parts, I’m a Devonian whilst she grew up in Winchester and then Chichester (we met up a mountain in Switzerland – perhaps a story for another time!) We also have two lively boys – Gideon and Aidan. They will go into years 5 and 3 at St George’s School from September.
On 29th July Bishop Joe will officially confirm my appointment here by committing to me the ‘cure of souls’ of the parishioners of your large and diverse parish. Not just the care of those who are regulars, but of the whole parish. A heavy responsibility – though not one to be exercised with heaviness but with joy. But certainly one which I can only begin to address with the working together of the whole church family and above all by stirring up the gift of the Holy Spirit day by day. As confirmation reminds us, the strengthening, transforming presence of the Spirit is the inheritance of all Christians. May we be united in that Spirit and empowered by it that the mission of God may go forward here in this next chapter in the life of the united parish.
In anticipation of getting to know you and serve with you
Toby
Revd Toby Webber