August Newsletter 2025
Julie Writes
Dear Friends,
This is a longer than usual newsletter partly due to the vote which will take place on 8th September to decide whether the two parishes in our United Benefice become part of a larger single parish. It is a vote which the two PCCs, as your elected representatives, will be called to make. Last month several people responded to the invitation to ask questions about the topic. These were put to Lisa Gilligan from the Fit for Mission team which is assisting parishes in this decision. Jenny has worked hard to give Lisa’s response to all your questions below. Please feel free to chat with the members of both PCCs about this vote.
This month will also see six months since Mark retired, and we entered interregnum. As I said at the time, the process to appoint a new Vicar is a long one but we are making progress towards that. Both PCC’s have now chosen their parish representatives who are now working hard to compile our parish profile. This will be used as part of the recruitment process. Please pray for them in this work
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I would also like to say how heartened I am by the efforts of so many people to keep our two parishes functioning well and ensuring we continue to work hard ‘to grow in number, in spiritual commitment to God and in service to our local community.’ Thank you!
Finally, our summer series, a deep dive into Paul’s letter to the Colossians 3:12-17 is now underway.
Last week I spoke on a reflection I did recently about how as we read and reflect on this passage. It is an invitation for us to examine ourselves and stretch to improve how we reflect God’s image but this morning in my reading I came across an article on the ‘Heartedge’ newsletter which made me think twice about this idea of self-improvement
‘To say that our life is “hidden with Christ” is to affirm that our truest identity is not something we build or earn. It is given. It is found in relationship—with God, with others, with creation. It is steeped in mystery and in love. Rowan Williams once said that the Christian life isn’t about self-improvement—it’s about learning to dwell in the presence of the Other: God, neighbour, stranger.
So, I wonder: what article of clothing might you wear each day to remind you that you have put on Christ? And what simple prayer might you whisper as you dress, grounding your day in the gentle but powerful truth that Christ walks with you?
Prayer Harmony
The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:12
July’s heatwave gave us a glimpse of the damage done to the climate, so we pray that God will guide and encourage people to look after His world instead of continuing to damage it. We pray for all vulnerable people, young and old, who may be made ill by the heat. We pray for all those nations where the changes have brought flooding or drought, ruining crops and causing famine. We pray for those people who live in smog filled cities, where their health is endangered and breathing is laboured.
We pray for the nations of the world where there is conflict and persecution, causing waves of refugees moving away from their homelands. We ask God to help us be caring and welcoming to those who have witnessed deep trauma and fear for the lives of their loved ones, as well as their own. We pray for the peacemakers and those with influence, that they may bring an end to wars and hatred, bring in an age of peace and neighbourliness.
We pray for the young of our district, that they will be protected from the harm caused by drugs, alcohol and other addictions. We pray for the new unit at Alder Hey, that serves the children with Ketamine addiction. We pray for those families who have lost control of their young people and find themselves in despair. He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. Micah 4:3
Important dates for your Diary
3rd August -7th September Joint Summer Series Services continues
There will be one service at 10.30am for 6 weeks.
The Bishop of Liverpool has encouraged all churches to look at Colossians
During the Summer and 3rd August service will follow the theme of Forgiveness.
10th August will be on Love,
17th August will be on Peace of Christ,
24th August will be The Word,
31st August will be on the Water of Life and Gratitude,
7th September Surprise Service followed by a BBQ.
Please join us and make Church part of your summer holidays.
We would love to be able to welcome you all into our Church family, for you to meet Jesus and feel his love for you.
Sunday Evening Worship at 6.30pm at Holy Trinity Church
During August we are going to hold evening worship that will be a mix of services and music.
Aug 3 Holy Communion with a healing focus
Aug 10 Evening Prayer
Aug 17 Informal praise and prayer
Aug 24 Night prayer (Compline)
Aug 31 Evening celebration.
This is a new addition to our Church Calendar for the Summer, led by Rev Paul Ellis, so it would be good to see as many of you as possible. Come and join us and meet Jesus.
Holiday at Home
Tuesday 12th August -2.00p-4.00pm
Singalong, Cuppa, Cake & Chat with Maggie and Mandy
Holy Trinity Parish Hall
Donations for MacMillan
Booking essential: 80 places available
Taxi: drop off and pick up in front of church
Thursday 21st August -2.00-4.00pm
Afternoon tea and folk music from ‘Twilight’
St Michael’s Church Altcar
Cost: Free
Booking essential:50 places available.
Roadside parking is limited.
Please arrange a lift if possible.
Taxi: Drop off and pick up in front of Church.
Up coming in September
Pizza Eaters Youth Group
No Pizza Eaters in August.. We will resume on the 10th September and nearer the time, decide if the weather is right to go to the beach for our first meeting of the new academic year.
Prayer meeting continues Thursdays, 7pm, in the Prayer Room. Just turn up and stay for as long as you wish. Anyone needing a lift, please ring Sylvia on 07872 314103
Bible Study, fortnightly on Tuesday afternoons, continues at Elisabeth’s house, ring Sylvia for details 07872 314103
Sweet Friday Ladies’ Evening.
The next meeting will be on Friday 12th September. Details to follow in the September newsletter.
Water of Life Outreach in Formby Village.
30th August 10.am -12.00noon
Small marque with music, handing out bottles of water with an invitation to visit Holy Trinity Church that will be open and an invitation to the 10.30am service the next day 31st August and an invitation to join the 10.30am service on 7th September with a BBQ. A great opportunity for us to reach out to our local community.
PCC Secretary
We need to pray for someone to feel a calling and come forward to take on this important role as PCC Secretary.
Please speak to Jenny or Peter Hitchcock for more information. Thank you.
Musical fundraiser for Sudan
We are delighted to announce that Gabriel Balasubramanian-Basu raised £1045 for the St Patrick's Missionary Society's work in Sudan at his piano recital on Saturday 5th July at Holy Trinity Church. Thank you to everyone who supported the event and gave so generously; we look forward to seeing you again next year!
Fit for Mission questions answered
1.What does Fit for Mission mean?
The Diocese of Liverpool recognise and are determined to address the significant challenges the church faces which result from declining numbers of people and consequent loss of engagement with our communities.
The Diocese believes that Fit for Mission offers a dynamic and creative way of helping us fulfil our shared vision of a ‘Bigger Church making a bigger difference’
2.Who decides whether we are fit?
Holy Trinity & St Michaels PCC will decide considering views of our congregations’ whether we commit to joining Fit for joining a larger single parish with other parishes. There are 4 options for the PCC to consider.
Option A is we can engage and commit the PCC to start on the journey and help make it work for us and our partner churches.
Option B is that we are engaged but have specific questions or concerns the will need to be addressed as we go ahead. We are committed as a PCC to starting out on the journey and working towards co-creating solutions to these concerns.
Option C We are engaged but with barriers we feel could cause major problems in joining together with others in the way envisaged by Fit for Mission.
We are committed as a PCC to starting out on the journey and to try to overcome these barriers.
Option D We feel FIT for Mission won’t help us address our challenges or support our missional opportunities. As a PCC we are not currently able to commit to starting out on the Fit for Mission journey.
3. What is the structure of the Church /parish.?
There will be a lager single parish with a Parish Rector, who will lead a new PCC and clergy Leadership team providing mutual support and accountability. They will be
Free to focus on mission and ministry while a skilled support team will focus on administration. There will a finance co-ordinator, warden and safeguarding officer in each church communicating between churches and the PCC. We don’t know exactly what it will look like for Holy Trinity and St Michaels as the process will be developed to work for each church in the larger single parish.
4. How is it decided who sits on different bodies?
Looking forward we envisage that local leadership teams will be made up of passionate and skilled individuals who will help to drive local mission and ministry supported by a team rector and a wider PCC who’ll look after governance tasks. This will free up the local Vicar and other church members to engage in the important task of mission and outreach.
5. Do we need this and what will it cost us and what will we gain?
Some 38 million pounds has been allocated from the National Church Charity Commission to our diocese to fund the Fit for Mission programme so at local level it will not cost the church. Bishop Ruth says ‘As a diocese we are offering every church the opportunity to collaborate in a completely new way with others, for the sake of the Gospel. This change is focused on growing the church by reaching out to our communities in new ways, so becoming younger and more diverse. And this focus is enabled by forming larger single parishes, and in doing so releasing the energy and gifts of lay and clergy for local mission. Change is not something many relish and yet just repeating the things we have always done, and working harder at it is not making the difference we seek.
6. Why is this necessary?
The church of England is broken and many of the churches in Liverpool diocese are struggling. With numbers falling over the years, even our church, it’s considered necessary to join to share expertise and successes to grow the churches and have wider presence in the community.
7. Is it just another layer of bureaucracy creating expense and diluting real ministry?
The hope is that by taking the bureaucracy away from Church leaders will enable them to do mission as these things will be removed.
8. If it isn’t broken then why try to fix it?
Whilst Holy Trinity and St Michaels are continuing to do well, we have much work to do to bring the under 40’s to Jesus and fill all the roles we need in our Churches.
9. What happens to all the individual church organisation's?
All organisation's will remain attached to our individual churches.
10. What have been the challenges and how have these been resolved.?
There are challenges especially in the early stages working together with the change partners to ensure churches feel have an input into the changes.
11. If Holy Trinity votes against fit for mission. Will we be supported in the same way or will we be ignored because we are OUT?
We will still be supported by the Bishop, Archdeacon and Area Dean in the same way as now.
12. Are all costs met by the Diocese? If not, why?
All costs are met by the Diocese through the grant by the national Church.
13. Wouldn't it be better to give the money to individual parishes / churches for them to decide how best to spend it? e.g. More clergy and ministry focus to grow the church.
The National Church have granted this money to fund a completely new way of working. It could not be given out to individual churches.
14. What would be the position concerning the graveyard at St Michaels if we were to belong to a Larger Single Parish?
Arch Deacon Pete Spiers answered the question.
All churchyards are governed by the Burial Act of 1853 which provides that anyone who lives in the parish, who died in the parish, who is on the electoral roll of the parish, or who is permitted at the discretion of the minister may be buried in the parish churchyard. This would apply to the larger parish in the same way i.e. Any parishioner of the larger parish would be permitted to be buried in any of the churchyards within the larger parish. Similarly, any parishioner would be permitted to be married in any of the churches within the larger parish.
He did also explain that it is possible to reserve a plot within a graveyard if there is space. This option might be attractive to any church members who might be concerned about the number of plots left in the churchyard and the impact widening the parish might have. The link below provides a bit more information.
https://liverpooldiocesanregistry.co.uk/faculty-jurisdiction/graves/
15. What have been the successes in forming Larger Single Parishes.
Lisa Gilligan Change Facilitator in the Diocese says, ‘We are pleased to be able to share evidence of real growth and renewed resilience amongst our diocese, thanks to our clergy, lay leaders and our FfM team.
In Wigan, traditional congregations have fully recovered post-Covid and grown slightly since 2015. New worshipping communities have added 500 regular members - with both new and traditional groups growing by around 15% in the last year.
St Helens has seen the formation of 11 new worshipping communities
and seven Justice initiatives, with 80 new worshippers and a 25% increase in planned giving.
West Derby has planted or developed 5 new worshipping communities and launched 2 Justice initiatives. Planned giving is also up 37%.
Beyond growth in numbers, the Larger Single Parishes are also making significant steps forward with the management of safeguarding, buildings and finances – underpinning the work of our churches by helping to maintain safe and sustainable environments that support our communities in Christ’.
Our PCCs will vote on the four options available for ‘A Larger Single Parish’
(listed in Fit for Mission question 2) on 8th September. PCC members are representing congregations and have been voted in by you, to represent you at the APCM on 12th April this year.
We must pray and trust the right decision will be made for our churches.
From 10th August PCC members will be around church and subsequent Sundays to 7th September to answer any questions and concerns you may have. It is important you express your views, so the PCC with Gods guidance can make the right decision for our churches.
Our postal address is:
Holy Trinity Church
Rosemary Lane
Formby,
Liverpool,
L37 3HA
