Where are we now?

Our Membership

• We have 205 on our electoral roll with an average adult Sunday attendance of about 135
• Church attendance is gradually increasing and following the introduction of monthly Family Praise Services in January 2004 we have attracted some new families into church
• We consider ourselves to be a friendly and warm church ready to accept new challenges and try new ideas

Our Organisation

• Our Vicar is also Area Dean which means that some of her time is spent outside the parish. We have no assistant clergy but have 4 Readers. We are helped as necessary by 3 friendly and willing retired clergy
• More than 70 people are actively involved in the running of our church, some highly active. We are able to call on a vast range of talents and abilities
• We publish a church magazine 10 times per year, distributing it to the whole parish at least once per year. We print a weekly newsletter

Our Worship

• We have 2 main Sunday services at 8.30 am and 10.30 am with a monthly 5 pm service and informal worship at 5pm on some other Sundays. Our services are a mixture of Common Worship and BCP at 8.30 and ‘All Age’ Family Praise, Baptism, Parade and Holy Communion with Healing services at 10.30 am. The monthly 5 pm service is currently Common Worship Holy Communion. During the 10.30 am services there is a crèche at the back of church and Sunday School in the Meeting Room on the first and fourth Sundays
• We have Morning Prayer on Tuesdays every week and Holy Communion on the first Thursday of each month
• There are a number of mid week bible study groups. We hold Monday evening prayer and meditation meetings and regularly run Alpha, post Alpha and confirmation classes
• We have an adult robed choir, an organist and a music group
• On a monthly basis we visit 1 nursing and 2 residential homes offering communion by extension. We also offer communion by extension to the housebound

Church Activities

• We have Scout and Guide organisations linked to our church and run weekly Mums and Tots meetings and an active open mid week youth club. We regularly run (5 – 11) Holiday Clubs between school terms and at half terms
• There are weekly afternoon fellowship meetings, monthly men’s breakfasts, regular music concerts, bi-annual restaurant visits and a theatre club

Our Links

• We have very friendly and positive links with St Luke’s CE Primary School (Roll approximately 350) and we provide 4 Foundation Governors
• We have a very strong link with the Parish of St Mark Shyira in Rwanda and there have been several exchange visits. We have raised considerable sums of money over the past three years to rebuild a maternity hospital and to support educational work in Shyira. Several of our members sponsor school children. We have raised approximately £40,000 in total

As we achieve our 150th anniversary there is much to give thanks for and we have a solid foundation on which to build for the future

Where would we like to be?

Our Vision is to be “A vigorous and growing church to the glory of God; obedient to the teaching of Jesus Christ; united by the Holy Spirit in loving, caring, serving and sharing the Good News with others.”

We would like to:

• Deepen the prayer life of our church
• Reach out to more people in our parish to share the Good News
• Improve our pastoral care and in particular become better at noticing when people are absent or in need
• Specifically improve our pastoral care for the sick and elderly
• Develop more small groups for both pastoral care and spiritual growth
• Increase the opportunities to get to know each other, to celebrate and socialise
• Connect with and hold on to more young people
• Improve links with our youth organisations including the uniformed youth groups
• Develop our children’s work, building on Mums and Tots and Holiday Clubs
• Welcome more new members to our church including young families

How do we get there?

• By increasing our commitment to prayer
• By engaging with a wider number of our congregation so that we have more fully committed members who will freely give of their time, talents and treasures
• By identifying the skills and experience of more of our church members and mobilising these members into becoming active church workers and leaders
• By considering the wider use of small groups or cells both for pastoral care and spiritual growth
• By considering more formal team structures so that the work of the parish is more evenly shared between the Vicar and Readers and other lay workers
• By improving our communication with the congregation and wider parish, extending the use of our web site
• By building closer links with the residential and nursing homes in our parish
• By looking at how other churches have developed mid week children’s and youth worship
• By supporting Christian Union groups at Range High School
• By furthering our links with Woodlands School
• By the use of e-mail - weekly bible studies, prayer fellowship etc
• By taking St Luke’s out of the church building and into the community on a more regular basis
• By sharing resources and ideas with the other churches in the North Sefton Cluster

Andrew Cox (Churchwarden)