Following the most recent addition of the parish magazine, I wished to keep you informed of the ongoing development of events in All Saints’ church, as many of you have asked about recent events. There is a lot more that I could say about other events and many other ‘good news’ stories to relay from across the parish, but here are some highlights. Over the past few weeks at All Saints’ Church, we have continued to be very blessed. We have had two bishops visit our Church, including Bishop Philip, who joined us for our confirmation service at which 9 candidates were confirmed! This was the first confirmation at All Saints for around 15 years and gives an indication of what parish renewal has taken place in our church. Bishop Jill also joined us in May for a Q and A at our 4pm Closer service, at which she spoke about the Holy Trinity and we were encouraged by welcoming over 70 people into All Saints that afternoon.

We have also been blessed in many other ways these past couple of months. It was wonderful to welcome St George’s choir to our church for choral evensong, and not only did many came away from that service saying how beautiful it was, but it was also well engaged with online, too! In fact, through social media, All Saints’ has had over 6000 hits this last month alone.

There have been many other positive events over the past few weeks including school Eucharist, prayer walks and quizzes, but as we look forward to the future just a few event must be mentioned. First of all, we are growing in our ministry towards the men at All Saints, which means we will be holding a men’s breakfast on Saturday 29th June, from which we hope to develop a longer term men’s ministry. We are also looking at growing our women’s ministry and at doing more work on the streets of the housing estates around our church, as we partner with the Chorley street pastors. In fact, as I write this letter, some from our parish are on pilgrimage to Walsingham, and I have asked several to keep the work of the street pastors in their hearts. Furthermore, as a combined parish we hope to soon begin a Youth Group on Friday nights, alternating between All Saints’ and St Georges with volunteers from both churches. Through this, we hope to be able to reach the next generation and form relationships through which people will hear the good news of Christ. This will be hard work but we are trusting in God that, through this and other activities such as the holiday club on the 13th – 15th August (9am- 12:30pm), that we will be able to encourage the young people in our parish. As you can see, there is a lot happening just involving All Saints’ church, never mind the many amazing things taking place in St George’s at this time, yet these things only are able to work because of your prayer and hard work, so may I take these last few words to thank you for all that each of you do, especially you who are praying for us. God is doing great things in this parish.

Blessings,

Fr Jordan