Autumn parish letter

Dear friends,

As summer begins briskly folding itself away and autumn establishes itself with its leaves and familiar smell of expectation and the occasional blast of chill air reminding us of the jumpers and fires yet to come, I thought I might share some of the thoughts on my mind with you, as Christmas planning begins.

1. A change to the weekly pattern. It is gratifying that numbers for the Thursday and Friday masses are buoyant – long may this continue! Tuesday and Wednesday are less so, and so I have decided to discontinue the Wednesday evening Mass. Tuesdays do fine, particularly when we have a discussion group after the Mass, but as the nights draw in, people comment that 7.30pm is quite late. However, beginning in November, we will have a Walsingham Cell Mass on the First Wednesday of each month, with exposition and rosary from 7pm to 7.20 and Mass at 7.30pm.

2. Talking of Tuesday discussion groups, we have a new one beginning soon looking at Meditation and Contemplation in the Christian tradition. This begins on Tuesday 15th October for four weeks, and it is my hope that it might establish a regular meditation session in Church after that.

3. Altar Frontals. You will have seen the new and beautiful frontal in the Lady Chapel in memory of Pam Bryant and her many years of service to our parish. I have also ordered one in black for the Columbarium Chapel, which will help to unify the painting to the altar visually. This costs seven hundred pounds and will be blessed on All Souls Day. It would be splendid if we were able to raise this through donations in memory of a loved one. Please write ‘Altar Frontal’ on the front of a yellow envelope with your donation in. Thank you.

4. We are currently gathering quotes for the repointing of the Narthex and westward prevailing walls, which have been badly damaged from years of wind, rain and salt water lashing them. The work should begin in Spring next year and is likely to cost up to ninety thousand pounds. This, so soon after the quarter of a million pound roof rescue works we had done last year is not ideal, to say the least, and we will have to launch a fundraising drive as well as increase our parish share payments, which were very small over the course of last year as we had the roof done.

All these things will hopefully aid our community here, and we also launch our new ‘St Stephen’s Fridays’ with activities at 2pm (eventually) every week. For now, we have the North Blackpool Film Club launching soon, the Recorded Music Society and our established Tea and Chat on alternate weeks throughout the year. We are also hoping to begin Street Dance classes with House of Wingz shortly in the large hall on Saturdays. As ever, we need to increase the numbers attending our church and campus throughout the week in order to remain viable.

We have a few other events coming up:

13 to 15 September – Heritage Open Weekend, including at 6pm on the Sunday Choral Evensong, wine and nibbles reception and a talk from BBC Comedy Producer Gill Isles.

20 September – Brass Band Concert – see posters.

23 to 26 September – Walsingham Pilgrimage.

15 October – Meditation/Contemplation sessions begin.

25 October – Greek Night in the small hall. Tickets available soon.

22 November – Wine Tasting in the hall.

24 November – Choral Evensong and Benediction with Cantantes Domino.

And then, of course, we have Christmas Fairs and much else to arrange, but we do so joyfully, and with hearts full of love, because we are able to operate this beautiful campus here in Blackpool to the greater glory of God and for the benefit of the people here, those we do know and those we do not yet know. It has not been the easiest Summer, God knows this, but we continue in our mission which we have been given, confident in our faith and rejoicing in the many, many blessings which we receive and will continue to receive as we serve our God and our community.

Fr Andrew