It was wonderful to get together with other families for our Noah’s Ark themed treasure hunt and picnic. Christian families spending time with other Christian families is a fantastic way for our children to learn the faith in an informal church environment. Time at church is often compartmentalised but sharing food and fun together really does help children and adults alike to see church from a different perspective.
We followed a trail to identify some of the animals on the ark – the resulting ark pictures earned us chocolate coins and lollipops! We also painted lovely rainbows to remind us of God’s promise, heard the story read from the Jesus Storybook Bible and acted it out under a parachute.
Best of all we got our picnic mats out inside and tucked in to some beautiful looking picnics! Praise God!
It is our hope that these events help to encourage and refresh Christian parents; by spending quality time with your children whilst having other parents there to talk about life and faith, provides a supportive environment in which to enjoy discovering God together as a family. Look out for more family events in the new termcard for Autumn when it arrives later this month!
Fuel for prayer from our Mission Partner in Chile
Chile is coming out of lockdown after around 18 months, and as we are enjoying more freedom, one of our Missional Communities (we call them Growth Groups) will be gathering for a picnic this saturday. It is our first face to face gathering after a long time of lockdown and restrictions, so it’s a big thing for us. Please pray for this picnic, that everyone can enjoy it safely, and for it to become an inauguration of a new season of coming back to in-person meetings.
After such a long time of Zoom meetings, many have grown tired and discouraged. Pray for our people to persevere, and for this opening to in-person gatherings to be filled with new commitment and joyful participation. Pray for those who have come to our church online, so that they may become part of our church in life.
Harry King has been a faithful member of our community for a long time. He has been in the hospital fighting COVID related issues for over a month. Please pray for him to get well and fully recover his health. Pray also for his wife Veronica that she may be trusting the Lord and enjoying His peace, which surpasses all understanding.
Thanks for praying for us, it is such a great blessing and encouragement to know that we are united in this glorious struggle to see Christ healing and guiding more and more lives to Himself.
Latest news and prayer update from Neema Children’s Home
Neema Children’s home in Eldoret, Kenya, is a Christian home for children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.
This update (which is no longer available) includes news of Covid-19 in Kenya, school graduations and moves, news about weather and harvests, and the usual helpful encouragement from the Bible.
Letter from Chris and Imogen Slater
What a difference a week makes! It is hard to believe it has only been a few days since the interview and the invitation to become the next incumbent of Christ Church and St Michael’s. We feel so privileged to be offered the role and are most grateful for the welcome and messages of support we have received, the faithful and persistent prayers of the church family, and the diligence of the parish reps as they steered the process.
Needless to say, it has not been an easy decision given the significance of St Peter’s for us over the past 13 years. The church have seen us marry, become a family, and have loved us well as we shared life together throughout that time. Announcing our departure was not without emotion! However, we really feel the Lord’s hand in the move, and as much as we’re daunted, we’re very excited to join you and to play our part in the church family. We look forward to getting to know you all, to establishing firm bonds with you, and to labouring together in the life and mission of the parish.
We would value your prayers, we want to finish well and leave St Peter’s feeling confident about the future, not easy as we prepare to launch an initiative to reach the new addition to the parish boundary and navigate out of the pandemic. Please be assured of our prayers for you too, not least you adjust to the ‘new normal’ and look forward to celebrating 150 years of the Lord’s faithfulness. Whilst the summer looks busy, we hope to begin to make some connections with you prior to the induction.
With every blessing, Chris, Imogen, Isaac and Ezra.
Your feedback is requested
As we look to the future there are three areas that the PCC began to discuss at its last meeting, on Tuesday, and that I would like each of you to consider: Holy Communion, Bibles, and Digital Presence. If you have any feedback or ideas in these areas, please do get in touch with Chris Murphy.
For a further explanation of what we would like opinions about, please click here for the full text of Chris’s latest pastoral letter.
Prayer Update from our mission partners at St. Peter’s Church, Rock Ferry
From 2nd to 5th August we are running our young people’s activity week with St Catherine’s Tranmere. We meet each afternoon for 3 hours. We spend sometime looking at the Bible (the book of Daniel), and a couple of hours doing various activities including a Bake off, a car wash, jobs in the community and a challenge of some kind. Please pray the young people who come would enjoy it and be encouraged in their faith.
From 24th to 27th August we are running a children’s holiday club in the Barn at Rock Ferry Primary School. Please pray for a good number of children to sign up, good fun, faithful teaching and especially for ways to get encourage parents to come along on the last day to see what we have been up to.
On 5th September we hope to start. our new meeting on Sunday morning – St Peter’s @ the Barn. Please pray we would get all practical details sorted, that the team would continue to be excited and encouraged in the way things have come together, and for a good launch on the first Sunday.
Please pray too for Dave and Lucy that they will have some time torest over the summer and prepare well for starting things again in September.
Appointment of New Incumbent for Christ’s Church Barnston and St Michael’s and All Angels Pensby
We are delighted to announce that the Reverend Chris Slater has accepted the invitation to become our new Vicar, subject to all legal formalities being fulfilled. He has expressed his delight at being asked to join us as our spiritual leader.
Chris is married to Imogen and they have two children, Isaac and Ezra. We look forward to welcoming them to our church family!
Chris is currently vicar of St Peter’s Rock Ferry and brings with him a wealth of experience that includes developing youth and community work, outreach, home groups, involvement with the Ferries Families and social aspects of church life. He is currently involved in planting a new church in that parish.
He was ordained as Deacon in 2008 and priest in 2009. He previously was curate at St Catherine’s Tranmere and St Peters Rock Ferry.
At this point we pray for Chris, Imogen and the boys as they look to finish well in Rockferry and will provide more detail about when they will move across the motorway as appropriate and when available.
Partnership with Flame FM
It has been a privilege to partner with Flame FM to broadcast our Sunday services on radio during the Covid-19 pandemic. The technical people working at Flame FM have dealt superbly with the challenges we have created whilst getting to grips with filming, broadcasting and recording services as well as learning our new sound system and we are very grateful for their help. We asked Norman Polden from Flame FM for an update on their ministry:
“We are pressing on with our desire to expand Flame CCR radio coverage. Ofcom now accepts our argument that Wallasey and New Brighton need better reception & a significant number of people there want to be able to receive Flame CCR at home. However Ofcom has problems with finding a suitable FM frequency for that areaso we are focusing our attention on DAB.
Potential service providers have until 20th August to apply for a licence to operate DAB in various specific parts of the UK, and one for Liverpool has agreed to carry Flame CCR as a channel. So we await Ofcom’s decision, plus a launch date for the service, and then we apply to Ofcom for a digital service and music licence, and also sign up with the Service Provider in Liverpool.
Ofcom have responded to our request that, in principle, this Liverpool based transmission can also cover a defined part of Wirral, but we await proof when broadcasting starts. These are nail-biting times. We have a contingency plan of going back to Ofcom for FM coverage if DAB does not give the coverage we need. This is a long slow haul through the maze of modern technology but we are praying our way through it and sense the Lord’s leading, and we appreciate prayer support and interest. In the meantime we maintain our medium wave transmission which in itself is another challenge.
Pastoral Letter from Rev Chris Murphy and our Wardens concerning the relaxation of Covid restrictions
After the announcement earlier this week it seems as though we have grounds for cautious optimism but no complacency. After such a long time of restrictions at church we’re excited to start our journey back to normality. While we understand the Government plans to fully relax current Covid restrictions on 19th July, we recognise that there is a high burden of Covid circulating in our area and want to ensure that everyone attending church can do so safely and without undue worry. Over the next two weeks we will be providing further information on how we plan to open up worship in our churches and activities in our halls.
Please click herefor the full text of the letterwhich outlines some initial thoughts about the unlocking process.
150th Birthday Celebrations Update!
We are delighted that Paddy and Eleanor Benson, Ian and Joan Hobbs, Peter and Ruth Froggatt and Ian and Siru Urquhart have all accepted the invitation to attend our 150th birthday celebrations on September 11th, and are looking forward to seeing their old friends! We are also looking forward to the visit of the Lord Lieutenant of Merseyside, Mark Blundell.
Timings for the afternoon:
From 1:30, the church will be open with a magnificent floral display as well as a pictorial display, both representing 150 years of worship at Christ Church.
2:00-3:00 games and sports for the children.
3:00-5:00 A Victorian Tea. There will be a brief dramatic representation of the life of the Parish over 150 years, as well as prizes awarded for the best outfits, also representing 150 years, with a special prize for the most beautiful Victorian bonnet. If Victoriana is not within your scope, dig out those flapper dresses, 1950s ‘new look’ skirts, 1960s minis (!) or your best 70’s hippie outfits! There will be a paid, licensed bar for cold refreshments, but the tea will be provided.
6:00 onwards. We shall be having a hog-roast to round off the celebrations.
Sunday, September 12th
The Right Revd. Bishop of Chester, Mark Tanner, will be leading worship at evensong at Christ Church, Barnston. This service will commence at 6:00pm and will be followed by refreshments in the church hall.
Postponing the REJOICE programme & an opportunity to PRAY!
The new date for our Rejoice programme Quiz is Thursday 26th of August, with our Prayer and Praise event now kicking off the Autumn term on Thursday 2nd of September. These have been postponed so that we can enjoy them together without restrictions and truly Rejoice together as we recover from Coronavirus as a church.
Following the success of our Let’s Pray prayer service to pray for the applicants and panel involved in the process towards appointing our next vicar we want to continue to pray creatively and together across the Summer.
We will be holding a series of prayer gatherings over the summer; some walking the streets, some gathered around a fire, some focused on mission partners, or our local community of the future of our church. Please do look out for details of these events in order to prioritise them and be a part of it. After all, we are a church dependent in prayer!
Celebrating the baptism of Josiah and Jago Murphy
It was great to get together in larger numbers for an outdoor service on the Vicarage lawn at Christ Church yesterday, and to celebrate the baptism of Josiah and Jago Murphy.
We welcomed back Revd Peter Froggatt to conduct the baptism and preach from Galatians 5:1-12. We were able to sing together as a church family for the first time in over a year and rejoice as we did so! May this be a foretaste of the joy to come when restrictions are lifted just as baptism is that sign of our belonging to Christ – what joy we have now and to come when the restrictions of this life are lifted
