Rev Paul, Vicar of Hoylake: Report to the Annual Parish Meeting, 2017

It's been another busy year for us at St Hildeburgh's Parish Church in Hoylake - and it's my privilege to say a huge thank you to everyone who has helped in any way and I include those who are less able physically these days but have supported us with their prayers.

This has been Paul Irvine’s last year as Churchwarden and I know you will all join me in thanking him for helping us through the last several years. His knowledge of the Parish has been invaluable and he has also been a support to Nancy as she took up the role of Churchwarden. Nancy continues as Churchwarden joined this year by Jane Langley - who has agreed to join the team.

Nancy has worked hard over the last year doing much more than we should expect of a warden, not least in her cleaning of the church, organizing the Tuesday community bacon butties and bringing all her creativity to enrich the church. I know that she will also ensure Jane is guided in her new role as a Churchwarden.

We are blessed with our ministry team and I would like to pay tribute to Ruth Calcott who, despite illness, soldiered on until her surgery. We wish her a full recovery but for now she must take it slowly and have time to get well again.  Jill and Mel have kept us on track and have worked tirelessly in all kinds of ways.  We have welcomed Chris Hegg to the team and we continue to be thankful for Peter Ham’s ministry as we look forward to his licensing later this year.

Our Parochial Church Council (PCC) led by Nigel Hall, Mel White and the Churchwardens have done a sterling job again this year and together we have achieved much: new heating, sorting out the roof repairs, and the day-to-day running of the church.

Our income continues to be supported by fees from weddings and funerals which seem to increase every year - which keep me busy! Of course, the main source of our income is from our planned giving scheme - which is vital to our ongoing  ministry. My thanks go to Mel White (Church Treasurer) and George Dafnis (Planned Giving Custodian) for all their hard work. Sadly, we have lost many members of the scheme through bereavement this year and this has had an impact on our finances - so in the coming year, we will be thinking about some sort of planned giving initiative.

There has been much to celebrate this year: Another very successful Christmas tree festival, a strengthening of our links with the local Air Training Corp (ATC) as I was made their official chaplain; continued links with our church school (Hoylake Holy Trinity Primary) and the Hoylake & West Kirby RNLI lifeboats. 

Through joint working with our sister Anglican Church, St. John's Meols, we share the annual lent lunches held at St Hildeburgh's this year, lent groups and the bereavement group and again my thanks to Nancy for providing the puddings!

Our ecumenical/inter-church links are important, so it was good to attend the induction of Rev Peter Sharpe, the new minister at St Andrews United Reformed Church, Meols. I look forward to sharing events with him in the future.

This year we also welcomed the Rev Karl Williams to work between the parishes of Hoylake and Meols, as we are entrusted with his training. Hopefully, many of us will go to support him as he is 'priested' at Chester Cathedral in June - followed on the Sunday by a party in the vicarage garden.

Our 'Messy Church', led by Peter Ham and Jane Langley, is flourishing and links into our regular family service - which is doing well, as we encourage families to join us at less formal services.

Thanks go to Rob and the choir for leading us in all our worship.

Looking outward, we have now established links with the Congo and one particular parish in the diocese or Aru. We support them by our prayers and I look forward for what future opportunities might bring us as we establish our relationship with them.

There have been five communions held in the community: Four in Holy Trinity School and one in a local bar - all successful, and I hope attracted local interest as we join in with and bring the church closer to our community

A big thank you also goes to Peter Surridge and his team who have kept the grounds looking so good and more recently Alex who has volunteered to mow the lawns. We continue to be thankful to our Ladies Guild, who look after the flowers, brass and so many other things.

Our Church Centre continues to assist our income, and Liz Ardus does a great job looking after it.

Val Howell ensures that our baptism families are visited and prepared.

In all, we have had a good year and we thank God for his many blessings. I am reminded of these words from the Bible's Book of Isaiah (chapter 41, verse 10): 

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Your friend, 

Rev Paul

Messy Church: Saturday 13 May 2017 - Book Now!

Messy Church

is back at

St Hildeburgh's Parish Church

Stanley Road

Hoylake

on

Saturday

13 May 2017

4.00pm to 6.00pm

The theme this time will be ...

TREASURE!

All are very welcome - children, mums, dads, grannies, grandads, carers, aunts, uncles ... ! 

There's no charge but booking is essential

There will be ...

• Craft activities
• Worship
• Songs
• Games (including Scalextric by popular demand!)
• A hot meal for all

Please book now by emailing your name with number of adults & children to:

info@sthildeburgh.org

PLEASE NOTE: All children MUST be accompanied by adult(s)

It will be fun, it will be fantastic and it will be messy!!

Join us for Lent Lunches in Hoylake: March 2017

Join us for

LENT LUNCHES

at

St Hildeburgh's Parish Church

Stanley Road

Hoylake

Fridays in March 2017

(3, 10 & 17 March)

They all start at 

12 Noon

with a short service in

St Hildeburgh's Parish Church

(Stanley Road, Hoylake)

followed by

home made soup and a bread roll

in the Church Centre

  

The lunches are being organized jointly by

St John's Church, Meols

and

St Hildeburgh's

- ALL are very welcome

and there is no need to book

The dates are

3 March, 10 March, and 17 March 2017

  

There is

 No charge

but any donations received

will be given to

Christian Aid

The themes will be:

• Friday 3 March: "Following Jesus - the cost of discipleship"
• Friday 10 March: "God's Love for the World"
• Friday 17 March: "Life out of Death - dying seed brings new life"

 ... do join us!

 

Rev Paul (Vicar of Hoylake): Thoughts for February 2017

As many of you may know we have introduced a new Communion and Blessing service into our rota of services. I would like to share with you part of my sermon which I preached at that new service on 12^th February 2017 ....

"One of the most important things we do as a church family is to come together with Christ as our head and to share bread and wine as we remember what he did for us. Communion is central to our worship and I know many of you will agree that it is part of what makes us who we are today. That said, we must also understand that for many who have joined our church community it is a little difficult to understand especially when it is wrapped in a language that is very ‘churchy’.

Today is about beginning to share the mystery of the Eucharist in a way that excludes no one. It struck me recently how the church is one of the few organisations that is open for non-members - I mean that it’s not about us and what we want or feel comfortable with, but for every member of our parish outside of these walls. This means we sometimes need to adapt to the needs of those who are either outside the church or newly acquainted with it.

So this service is my attempt to bridge the gap a little, see how we go and ask our new church members if they understand what’s going on, are they feeling welcome and most importantly are they meeting the Lord in worship?

My hope is that you will work with me, join in new songs and hymns, persevere with the new format and make your priority to grow the kingdom.

We all need to trust that God will lead us and as Daniel put his trust in God so must we. It says in scripture “So Daniel was taken out of the den and no harm was found on him because he had trusted God.”

Much of the Bible is about teaching us to trust to be faithful and to wait on the Lord because he is doing new things in this place and in this generation.

One of my favourite readings in the bible is taken from  Matthew 19:14 when children are trying to draw close to Jesus, and his well meaning disciples try to chase them away. Jesus has none of it and calls the children to him, takes them in his arms and blesses them. He rebukes his disciples ‘let the children come to me for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.’ In other words, don’t get in the way of God’s little ones - they are much loved by the Father.

Similarly we too, all of us, are his children - whether we attend church regularly or not. The elders of the church should be doing anything and everything they can to bring down and remove all that hinders any journey to the Lord.  What an awesome responsibility we have to provide a place of accessible and acceptable worship. This week Gillian and I spent a few days away by the banks of the River Severn and close to our hotel was an ancient church first recorded in the Domesday Book but sadly no longer a place of weekly worship, more of a museum to an age gone by. Nothing it seemed had changed in that place for a very long time - some might see that as good but my feeling was no more than a feeling of sadness for missed opportunity.

We have to be willing to try new things, we have to willing to be part of God’s evolving plan we have to join in with Him, our amazing God, and He is truly amazing. With God nothing is impossible. We must trust in his plan for us, the things of Him will grow and thrive and we must be willing to review all we do in His name and never be afraid to try new things or new ways of doing what we have always done, perhaps using our screen to help illustrate a sermon?

The most important aspect of all what we do must be that we do it with a generous heart, loving and forgiving each other when we get things wrong, keeping the faith, keeping on trying and remembering who we do it for.

It is so easy to dismiss something because we don’t find it familiar.  Let us not miss this opportunity to work together to grow God’s Kingdom here at St Hildeburgh’s. That doesn’t mean throwing away what we have here already which is fine and wonderful but does mean introducing new ways of moving forward."

Your friend,

Rev Paul

February 2017