St Andrew's, Dearnley and Smithy Bridge

The Christmas Draw at St Andrew's, Dearnley raised more than £700 for the church's Wider Welcome Scheme, for which several more fund-raising events are planned over the next few months.
 
Wider Welcome, is an ambitious scheme to extend, develop and upgrade parish-room facilities for community use.
 
We move into the New Year in the knowledge that 2011 will be the first full year of Wider Welcome operations, a busy and exciting 12 months that will be key to the future success of the scheme, both in the short-term and the long-term.
 
It is hoped to envelop current user groups in our fund-raising activities during the year and to present the PCC with a quarterly financial statement as well as providing the parish magazine with regular progress reports, starting in the March issue.
 
Peter Shrigley has been formally and unanimously elected as project chairman, while Susan Knight, a church warden, has been welcomed to the project team and unanimously appointed as the team's link with both the congregation and the user groups which are currently housed in the parish room.
 
An extraordinary meeting of the PCC was called to endorse the membership of the project team and its terms of reference as required by Diocesan guidelines.
 
We were out and about in the parish during the last few days before Christmas, singing carols at Cleggsworth House and at Lakeside in Smithy Bridge and also at Ashcroft House.
 
We also took Holy Communion to Hurstead, Ashcroft, Cleggsworth and Lakeside, leading up to our Christmas Eve crib service and Midnight Eucharist; the Family Eucharist on Christmas Day; and the usual Sunday services on Boxing Day, the Feast of St Stephen.
 
This coming Sunday (2 January 2011) we celebrate the second Sunday of Christmas with Eucharist at 8am and Sung Eucharist at 10am.