Vicar’s Report 2010-2011
I am delighted to report on another wonderful year for All Saints Church. In fact, so many splendid things have happened, have continued to happen and are, prayerfully, soon to happen that it’s difficult to know where to start ...
So, in no particular order ...
We continue to enjoy good relationships with our two primary schools, Dallimore and Ladywood and (mindful of sensitive toes) we are growing a relationship with St John Houghton Roman Catholic School – sadly, as yet we have not made any significant in-roads into ‘the Comp’.
Our brothers and sisters at Hillcrest, Ladywood and Oliver House Care Homes continue to enjoy worshipping with us when we visit them once each month and I must thank all those who regularly give their voices and time to these simple but well received times of worship – of course, more are always most welcome to join ‘our team’.
As you will have gathered from the ever increasing number of reports, our various groups continue to flourish and increase, both in the depth of what they do and in number. Again, I must thank all those who give of their time and energy to organise, lead and support these many and varied activities.
The ‘occasional offices’ continue to bring us many opportunities to meet and to serve others who are presently outside our fellowship. For example, the introduction of special ‘Baptism only’ services appears to have been well received with seven having been Baptised already and sixteen Baptisms booked for the months ahead! (As part of this, the giving of age appropriate ‘Bibles’ to children who are Baptised here, which we introduced last year, has been greatly appreciated). Also, the number of wedding continues to increase with eighteen booked this year and ten booked already for 2012.
I am delighted to report that we now have all the streets in our parish supported in prayer by at least one member of our church – I now need to look at how I can more effectively pass on information about Baptisms, weddings and funerals so that our prayers can be focused when needed.
Our ‘Prayer Visiting’ continues (after a winter break) and we have already visited 25 of our 68 streets! The vast majority of people really appreciate our invitation and are delighted that the church has taken the time to come to them with an offer of service rather than a ‘hard sell’. We also enjoy the occasional door step chat and the occasional offer of a ‘cuppa’. The percentage requesting prayer remains around 10%. These requests also help us to better know the concerns of our parish so that, as we continue, each week, to pray alphabetically, for three streets in our parish, our prayers are better focused.
Our ‘Eleven Eleven’ Parade Praise Service has continued to hold its numbers, albeit with no significant attendance from the Scouts – a more difficult age group to retain. However, we are now looking at a very exciting future ...
I wrote last year of my desire to see the ‘Eleven Eleven’ develop into a weekly service for young people and young families and it seems that God shares this vision (more correctly, that I share His!) for He has brought to All Saints a part-time self-supporting Associate Priest, namely, Rev Rachel Thompson, whose project is to do just that! Whilst Rev Rachel will be involved with our present activities and worship her main time and energy will be given to growing a team to develop our present ‘Eleven Eleven’ and then to develop whatever else may flow from this initiative. We must hold Rev Rachel and her family in our prayers together with this very exciting project to further grow God’s Kingdom in Kirk Hallam.
Over the past five years we have been seeking to grow All Saints Church both in the depth of our relationship with God and in number. I am delighted that we have seen and continue to see such growth. As part of that growth, I felt prompted this year to offer us a ‘Verse for the Year’, namely Joshua 3:5, Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.’ I have no doubt that we have seen, are seeing and will continue to see the Lord doing amazing things amongst us, both as part of His Church and as members of the community of Kirk Hallam. Some of these things I have touched upon already, but I must never forget to praise the many, many things, often unseen and unspoken, that happen within our fellowship and beyond – for example, the love given to family, friends and neighbours through prayer, practical support and simple friendship. We have only to look around our church today to see how many have come back to their relationship with God through this simple and natural sharing.
May we continue to put this wonderful command of Joshua into practice in our lives confident that the Lord will keep His promise.