We will be celebrating this week again with the other churches in Kirkby from Monday 23rd to Saturday 28th January.

The material has been produced by Polish churches and is on the subject of change. A short reflective service will take place at 9am every morning (replacing the normal 8:30am Morning Prayer) in the following churches:

Monday: St. Chad’s

Tuesday: Lifegate

Wednesday: St. Michael and All Angels

Thursday: St. Mary’s

Friday: St. Joseph’s

Saturday: St. Andrew’s.

There will also be a Celebration Service at 7:30pm on Thursday 26th January in St. Martin’s Church. Do come along and pray for the unity of our churches.

The best way to keep right up to date with events in our Kirkby Churches is to have a look at our on-line calendar.  There is always a link to this in the side-bar.  If you use an iOs device like an iPhone or iPad then the WebCal will not display in Safari;  you will need to subscribe using the instructions below.

Subscribing

You can subscribe to this calendar if you would like to view events in calendar programmes like iCal or Outlook.  Our calendar will automatically update in those programmes once you have subscribed.  Most computers will be able to subscribe simply by clicking on the link below.  If this doesn’t work then copy the link and paste it into the “Subscribe” field of your calendar software.

Subscribe to the KTM Calendar

Documents

We also keep a library of documents on-line and available for download.  You can access these via the Documents and Projects link on the sidebar. The downloads available to you will vary depending on whether you are logged on or not.  Worshippers at our churches and Church Officers can request a user account to log in to the web site.

Tower Hill Community Carol Service
Tuesday 13th December at 6:30pm at the Community Centre, Ebony Way

Town Centre Carol Service
Saturday 17th December at 11am at the Bandstand

Carol Concert
with the Band of the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment
Saturday 17th December, 6.45pm at St Chad’s
Admission charges apply £2 children, £4 adults

Morning Carol Service
Sunday 18th December, 11.00am at St Mark’s

Carols by Candlelight in the Chancel
Sunday 18th December, 6.30pm at St Chad’s

Carols by Candlelight at St Martin’s and St Andrew’s
Sunday 18th December, 6.30pm

Crib Service (For youngsters and their families)
Christmas Eve, 2.00pm at St Mark’s, 4.00pm in St Chad’s and in St Andrew’s

The First Communion of Christmas
Christmas Eve, 9.00pm at St Mark’s

Midnight Communion Services on Christmas Eve
11.00pm at St Andrew’s
11.30pm at St Martin’s and St Chad’s

Christmas Morning Services
Holy Communion: 10.00am at St Andrew’s, St Chad’s and St Martin’s
Family Service: 10.00am at St Mark’s

There will be no Tuesday morning Communion at St Chad’s on 27th December

New Year’s Day Services
9.30am Holy Communion at St Mark’s and St Martin’s
11.00am Holy Communion at St Chad’s and St Andrew’s

Beth Collins on stage

ACT WINS AWARDS!!!

On Thursday 29th September, Act were asked to be part of QVC’s got talent in aid of Calder Kids. Act opened and closed the show with performances from the much loved musical Sister Act. The night also hosted a talent contest in which members of the drama group performed by reciting poems that they had written and singing solos. A big congratulations to Bethany Collins and Christine Bott who grabbed 2nd and 3rd place on the night.

Act drama group runs every Monday night at St. Mark’s Church from 7pm and are always looking for new members.

I wonder what Act will get up to next? Watch out Britain’s Got Talent, Kirkby’s got their own!!

Kirsten.

Trafford Hall was the venue for an AwayDay attended by over 60 members from the four churches in Kirkby.  Back home Sunday services were cancelled in all but St Chad’s and the Awayday began and ended with short services in the Trafford Hall Ballroom.

Upstairs the children mapped Kirkby and thought about what was good and bad about church.

Downstairs the adults’ debate was facilitated by the Team Consultant, Harry Bundred.  Church members described what they thought about Kirkby, what they suspected Kirkby thought about their churches then started to dream how the church could represent itself better.

The discussion will carry on back home too.  Members of all our churches are invited to a follow-up meeting: 7.30pm on 10th October at St Mark’s. This will be where we start to work out not just what we think but what we are going to do about it.

You can view the Flip Chart pages here.

Jayne with Bishop Richard

 

After being ordained as a deacon last week, Jayne has taken up the post of curate in the Kirkby Parish. Jayne who is originally from Kirkby has moved into St. Mark’s Vicarage at Brampton Close with her husband Andy and two of her three children – Joseph and Chris. Prior to her training for ordination, Jayne has spent the majority of her working life running her own business. During the last three years whilst studying, she has focused on increasing her listening and pastoral skills, by working part-time as a Crisis Carer.

From an early age, Jayne has always been conscious of having a personal faith in God and has always been involved in some form of active lay ministry in the churches where she has worshipped. Around ten years ago after a death in the family, Jayne found her faith being challenged. This resulted in her embarking on a journey of discovery, in which she sought to delve deeper into the faith she had been taught as a child. Initially this led to studying theology through a correspondence course with St. John’s College in Nottingham.

Whilst studying at St. John’s College, Jayne became a lay leader in St. John’s Church, Burscough. She became involved in the development of house-groups, writing small group studies and was a pastor to a cluster of house-group leaders. Before being selected for ordination, Jayne spent three years developing and running a discipleship programme for mature Christians who, like Jayne wanted to deepen their understand of the Christian faith. Jayne is passionate about sharing the Gospel with people both inside and outside the church and considers outreach and evangelism to be an important part of her ministry.

Jayne sees her new role in the Kirkby team ministry as a real homecoming. Jayne says, “St. Martins Church is on the next road from where I grew up as a child, and I can see my first marital home from the vicarage! Bishop James Jones commented earlier this year; that taking up a post in Kirkby would in many ways be like going back to my roots – and this is exactly what it feels like! Being a ‘Kirkby Lass’ and coming from a working class background, I am not what many people would consider to be a ‘typical’ Deacon. Nevertheless, Kirkby was the place where God planted the seeds in my heart for my future ministry, and I pray that by his grace he will allow those seeds to bear fruit in my hometown. I look forward to meeting friends from the past and meeting new people as I serve the people of Kirkby”.

Votives: often a picture of prayer.

We have now managed to put the last piece of a jigsaw of evening worship in place that means there is a service in the parish every Sunday evening.

There has been demand for this for some time and four new forms of worship for the church in Kirkby have been developed over the last couple of years.

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6.30 evening services now follow the following pattern:
1st Sunday: Taizé Worship at St Martin’s
2nd Sunday Café Church at St Mark’s
3rd Sunday Reflections at St Andrew’s
4th Sunday 1662 Evensong at St Chad’s
5th Sunday Healing Service on rotation

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Taizé Worship
Follows the reflective and musical traditions of the Taizé Community in Burgundy, Southern France.  The repeated contemporary chants throughout this half hour service give a peaceful opportunity for prayer.  Held in St Martin’s on the first Sunday of every month.

Café Church
Adopts the familiar rules of the High Street Café.  This is more about being church than doing church.  The Bible isn’t read out loud but a passage of scripture is printed on the menu each week. Hymns aren’t sung but there is always music playing. Prayers aren’t said but they can be written on altar cards.  A sermon isn’t preached but there is a lot of talk and chat.  All welcome for good food and hot drinks - Café Church is easy church – at St Mark’s on the second Sunday of every month.

The “Reflections Service”
Provides a fresh take on big themes using multi-media and multi-sensory ideas to get you to think and inspire fresh prayer. Third Sunday of every month at St Andrew’s.

St Chad’s
A traditional church building and a traditional form of Evening Prayer from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer is on offer there every fourth Sunday of the month.  This is by no means new but it is new to the present generation of churches in Kirkby and was the last piece of the jigsaw we have put in place.

Four times a year there is a fifth Sunday
Each month this happens there will be a service of Wholeness and Healing moving around the four of our churches on a rotational basis.

Andy & Lynne on their wedding day

Revd Andy Heber and Lynne Livingstone sealed the knot on Saturday 4th June at Orangefield Presbyterian Church in Belfast. The day was blessed by fine weather for a photo-shoot at Stormont before returning to the Church Centre of a reception.

After a couple of weeks away in the quiet of West Ireland they have now returned to Kirkby where Lynne is beginning to settle in.

More pictures below..

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The scene in the Church car park

Stormont Gardens

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Vicky, Vera, Irene, Betty Irene and Christine singing for Help for Heroes.

ACT is a new venture in Kirkby.  Before Christmas these singers would not even speak in public.  But on 26th March, under the tutelage of Jill Ridgeway and Vicky Collins they stood before a live audience and sang, told jokes and read poetry to raise funds for Help for Heroes.  The concert was at St Mark’s Church and was a big step for those who took part.

They are now recruiting new members to have some fun along the way, learn how to have good presence on the stage and perhaps even stage another performance.

The whole crew on show - Jill and Dave Ridgeway far right.