Activities | History | Nurture

June 2025 magazine

stjohnstmarkchurchburySaturday, May 31, 2025

Here’s a link to our June 2025 magazine, which is now available in paper copy in both our churches.

Inside this issue we have a report on our VE Day celebrations and a reflection on Psalm 23. There are details about our Benefice Boundary Walk which is on Saturday 28th June. It’s 13 miles if you do it all but you can come and join for smaller sections.

There’s also news and updates from many of our groups as well as prayers for upcoming dates and events in June. Plus the June 2025 magazine has this letter from Ian…

Called into something new

From May through June and into July, it’s been my joy and privilege for the last few years to help lead the Worship and Liturgy Authorised Lay Ministry (ALM) course for Manchester Diocese.

All sorts of people attend this. This year we have three in their twenties through to one man in his eighties. Some are church wardens in interregnum who have suddenly found themselves taking services when they can’t find a priest. Others are at the start of their journey to becoming Readers or Ordained. Whilst many are just interested in the subject and want to know more.

Amongst the 25 on the course, there is one person from Uganda and two from Iran, who are already bringing very different perspectives to our discussions. And we have a wide variety of professions, as well as the retired, represented within the group.

In addition to learning how to put a Service of the Word together (which you might well be on the receiving end of, since for the last couple of years I’ve promised to deliver what they produce) there are sessions on biblical context, use of music, worship with children, worship in Care Homes for young and old, the seasons in the Anglican church, healing & reconciliation services, as well as the use of Taizé, art and poetry.

Eagerness

I was going to say that when so much of the press about the church is negative, it’s refreshing to see the eagerness of such a wide range of people at the grass roots, looking to explore their calling and their ministry. And that’s where the joy and privilege come in – helping them along part of that road in the brief time that we’re together.

One lady told me last Saturday that her daughter had been on the course 2 years ago and that it had “changed her life” – she’d quit her job and was now a deputy head in a Church of England Secondary School. That was very humbling – but I trust that she made the right decision!

However, I’m writing this letter in the days immediately following the announcement of the new pope, Leo XIV. And, at least for the moment, there seems to be less negativity and more a real sense of hope and expectancy – and not just amongst Roman Catholics. From the balcony, Leo spoke about a “rededication to peace” and, at his first mass, that the Church should be a “beacon that illuminates the dark nights of this world”.

I really do hope that Leo’s vision captures people’s imagination. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if that same sense of enthusiasm and being called into something new, that I see in my small ALM group, was characteristic of us too and of all Christians everywhere?

Ian