Last year we wrote that: ‘As a church we have continued to seek God’s guidance for the way forward in all our ministries, conscious that “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain”’ (Ps 127v1). Throughout the past year we have, of course, again endeavoured to follow God’s leading and guiding, and it turned out He had a few changes for us!  

First of all, we had a change to the PCC as Sandeep Thombre stepped down due to work commitments. Sandeep brought a thoughtful and prayerful wisdom to our meetings and we would like to record our appreciation of his service, particularly as he stayed on until we were able to find a replacement. Happily, Lisa Broome agreed to be co-opted onto the PCC in his place, so many thanks to her too. 

I think it’s true to say that this year has seen more staff changes or additions than any year since the church reopened at the St Paul’s location. Chris, of course, has not left yet, but his moving on will be hugely significant after so many years of building up the youth work. Thank you, Chris, for your many years of hard work and faithful service. At the time of writing we are praying hard and trusting that, as the Lord has called Chris and family to Blackpool, He will provide the right person to take over. We also want to record our thanks to Funmi for all she achieved in her year as Operations Manager - and for so often lighting up the room with her beautiful smile. The PCC are especially grateful for her work in reorganising the church policies - all 34 of them! - into a logical system for regular review. We’re delighted that Funmi is staying with us as a member of the congregation and wish her well in her new job. 

During the past year we also said farewell and thank you to Chris Brecht as Community Development Lead and welcomed Amelia in his place, to run the food banks and community supermarket, along with some website and social media input. Chloe took over from Sweety to head up the children’s work, and Megan and Mahima joined us as interns. The PCC is grateful to the Diocese and other organisations for partially funding some of these posts. Last, but definitely by no means least, it has been a real blessing to have our curate Laura on the team since last summer. 

All our staff work hard to support Claire and maintain the various ministries of the church, but they always go the extra mile for special events, such as the Church Weekend and the Christmas and Easter services. Anyone who attended the Winter Banquet saw how hard they all worked to make it a special occasion for us, so huge thanks to them all. Please do keep all our wonderful staff and their families in your prayers. We believe it’s vital that prayer should underpin the life of the church, so we would encourage you to join the fortnightly Tuesday morning Zoom prayer gathering that was launched in January (see Laura for details). 

The Wardens and PCC are legally responsible for the church buildings, so as ever we are immensely grateful to Graham for the huge amount of work he does as volunteer Buildings Manager. He has overseen various changes to make our buildings more energy efficient and environmentally friendly and this year we achieved our Bronze ECO Churches Award. We would also like to thank particular members of the PCC who do a lot of work behind the scenes, namely our Secretary, Debbie Bainbridge, and Treasurer, Kalpana Shah, plus Dave Bainbridge and Simon Levell, who advise Claire on employment matters and support her in interviewing prospective staff members. 

Hope Church relies on volunteers on many different teams, not just on Sundays but throughout the week, and we would like to thank all those who help out. We are always in need of more volunteers, both for our midweek activities and on Sundays - for hospitality, for the AV team (they’ll train you!) or as a musician, so please do prayerfully consider if you could offer to join a team. Last, but certainly not least, we are grateful to God for Claire our vicar, for her visionary, inspiring and enthusiastic leadership. Please pray that the Lord will continue to protect and guide her, the staff and the PCC as we seek to follow His plans for Hope Church throughout the next year.