‘Get sporty’ is the watchword at St Andrew’s, Leyland. Football is on the menu and the over-55s get together on Monday afternoons for badminton, indoor bowls and table-tennis. It is part of an overall programme of encouraging Christian participation in sport. Other churches haver other emphases.
In the premier league of church websites is Marple parish church. David Currie gets the show out of the starting-blocks at a blistering pace as he takes a viewer round the church and introduces members who, young and old, are seen enjoying life as members of a congregation They look like people it is worth getting to know.
The West Bolton team of churches are not lacking in individuality. One member of the clergy team is a railway buff of the school of Eric Treacy and Wilbert Awdry, St Paul’s, St Luke’s, St George’s and St Thomas’s have one church distributing 300 copies a month of the Good News newspaper. Another hosts a model aircraft flying club (‘we have a very high roof which is ideal for flying the aircraft’), which has gradually lost its close ties with the worshipping congregation. The day will come, it is hoped, when the gap is closed.
A 35-page magazine packed with pictures indicates that Wilmslow parish church – or rather two churches, St Bartholomew’s and St Anne’s – is going merrily about its business. One unusual item is a two-page article on Edith Wharton, the USA novelist. The editor has a cunning plan in this series of articles. During lockdown the magazine can be seen on-line.
Ulverston parish church – UPC as it calls itself – has decades, maybe centuries – of structural problems ((£1.4m of them) to put right and is busy getting itself into a position to pay the bills and have the job done by the end of 2022. They’re calling it restoration mission. The Vicar, Alan Bing, is encouraging the church to ‘encounter God, learn how to follow Jesus together.’ Alpha is part of the programme.
Alpha is also part of the programme at St John’s church, Blackpool. St John’s describes itself as an iconic landmark, opposite the Winter Gardens. At the turn of the millennium a £1.6m renovation took place as a result of which the interior is now a worship-space plus other rooms. A community and conference centre were added. At present St John’s is without a vicar.
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