Dear member of the All Saints family
On Sunday we were delighted to be able to announce the name of our new Vicar. This is an informal announcement, ie it is ‘subject to all legal formalities being fulfilled’. So, our new vicar, subject to these constraints will be Revd. Craig Gaudion. Currently, Craig is an assistant curate for the resource church and planting project, Transform Widnes (https://transformwidnes.church).
Craig gave the congregation this message:
My wife Gemma, our two girls and I are incredibly excited about becoming part of the All Saints family and look forward to joining you in seeing God’s kingdom come more fully in Hoole as in heaven. We are so thankful and humbled to be able to be part of this next season of the life and ministry of All Saints – building on the fantastic heritage that you have had through the years and looking to discern with you what God has in store for the future. We believe God is most certainly on the move! We are keeping you all in our prayers in the run up to finally being with you and we give praise to God for all who have been involved in praying and discerning towards this process.
Grace and peace to you all,
Craig and family.
Our parish representatives Julie Tynegate and Andy Creeth were very pleased that Craig accepted the offer to be our new vicar. They were impressed with Craig’s godliness, his commitment to the parish, his sense of vision and leadership to work to that vision, and how his background had equipped him for the role. Julie and Andy are very grateful for all your prayers they felt very supported throughout the selection process. They are also grateful for all those who have contributed to the Parish profile, for those who took such care of the candidates during their visit and interview days, and also those who had Zoom call with the candidates to help them understand more about All Saints.
Please do pray for Craig, Gemma and the family as Craig prepares for his new role and he and Gemma plan the move to Chester.
We look forward to Craig and his family joining us after the summer, with the date of their arrival to be confirmed.
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What a blessing it is to see blue skies, to feel the warmth of the sun, to see gardens blooming with such a variety of colours and to hear birds singing. It was also a blessing to again be able to worship together as many of us were able to do last Sunday. Even though we still don’t have complete freedom to worship God in ways that were previously the norm it was such a blessing to be with God’s people who wanted to enjoy his presence through worship and to enjoy doing so with one another.
We want to commend to you the important message that Charli Perkins brought to us from 1Peter 3; 8-22 entitled Living in Harmony. She described its relevance today in a very personal and honest way. Thank you Charli for such an appropriate, encouraging and, at the same time, challenging message. If you didn’t manage to hear it on Sunday then it is very worthwhile accessing it through the church website. Housegroups are meeting next week – 8th, 9th or 10th June – which will give us the opportunity to think further about the relevance of the passage and to learn from one another.
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Sunday services
The speakers at 9.00am on the first Sunday of the month in June, July and August will be speaking on their favourite Psalm and this month Mike Walker is our preacher. It will be a joy to hear from Mike, please do pray for him. The 10.45 service which is All Age Worship will be live-streamed. Please pray that much blessing will result from that service as well as at 9am and that Emma and all who are involved in it will feel encouraged.
You will have seen in recent notice sheets that the Heart and Soul Café re-opens on Monday. This gives us another opportunity to come together to meet with friends and loved ones, in a low risk setting, for refreshment and fellowship. Your presence will give Rhiannon and her volunteers great encouragement. They have worked hard in planning and through discussion with one another and with Christina, to ensure that the appropriate measures are in place to enable re-opening to happen.
Finally, following on from Charli’s message and in preparation for the housegroup study we would commend to you the words of Paul in Philippians 2.1-18 and in particular vv1-5a. “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interest but also to the interests of others.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus .…..”
The result of all that will be that we will be imitating Christ’s humility and, using those tremendous words of Paul in v15, our lives “will shine like stars in the universe” and so will be seen and will bring glory to God.
John Chester and Andy Creeth, Church Wardens