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News and Events
Church EventsSee Diary for times of ServicesMusic, maestro, please!Young people these days have many opportunities to learn musical instruments at school. The Rochdale Music Service in particular is very highly regarded and the children with whom it works often go on to make careers in music or at least become very good amateurs. It is not surprising then that we have a number of children in our congregation who are very talented musically and whom we must do all we can to encourage. The PCC has been discussing for some time how we might do this and the decision has been made to buy a modern digital piano for church which young people could play in our services. I am delighted to say that, after a lot of research by Joy Butterworth and Barry Wild - both of whom play our organ regularly – we have identified a suitable instrument and thanks to a most generous gift from Mrs Mary Shreve, who celebrated her 100th birthday recently, we now have a very good quality digital piano available for musicians to play in worship or at some of the concerts which we have in church or the hall. Our warmest congratulations go to Mrs Shreeve on reaching her century and our most grateful thanks for her generosity in enabling us to buy this piano. 100 not out!Elsewhere you will be able to find more information about the Brigade Centenary celebrations at the end of February. It promises to be a good weekend and there is good cause for celebration because it is a great achievement that St Martin’s has been supporting young people in their formative years for such a length of time. It is also a tribute to past and present leaders that the Brigade has such a good reputation in Castleton. Again and again people speak of their time in Brigade as a very happy time and they remember their leaders with a lot of affection. Clearly some good work has been done and is still being done but the Brigade needs our support and our prayers so please come to one or all of the Centenary events at the end of the month and help us celebrate. Unwanted furniture
All Saints’ RhodesAs Area Dean I have responsibility for the pastoral oversight of 12 congregations in this area and when a vicar leaves it falls to me as Area Dean to take direct responsibility for supporting that congregation. However, because of the falling numbers of fulltime clergy some parishes will not get another vicar when a vacancy arises, and these congregations will need to be supported not just by me or by the clergy of the Deanery but by other congregations as well. At the end of August the vicar of All Saints’ Rhodes in Middleton retired and will not be replaced so we have to begin to work out in this Deanery, the collection of churches in Middleton and Heywood, how we support that congregation. As Area Dean I have to oversee this process and so to begin with we have set up an informal twinning of St Martin’s and All Saints’. At the moment this means principally that Carol, David, Barry and I will be taking some of their services but it could lead to our sharing other parts of our work – and in some cases to their helping us. Please keep the congregation of All Saints’ in your prayers – they are happy with their new situation but there is still a lot of working out to be done. FairtradeWe are now a Fairtrade parish – which means we use only tea and coffee from companies which do not exploit workers in third world countries. To allow us to keep our commitment to fair trade, if you buy tea or coffee for an event and want to leave it for church use would you please ensure it is Fairtrade produce, otherwise would you please take it away with you. We do not now use ordinary tea or coffee and we should not like to see it wasted. Weddings |
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