The New Parish of St George and All Saints There will be a brand new parish in Douglas next year! The Church Commissioners for the Isle of Man having consulted with all interested parties over the last 7 months have agreed that the two parishes of St George and All Saints Douglas should form one new parish to be known as “The Parish of St George and All Saints Douglas”. This decision had the unanimous support of the PCCs of All Saints and St George’s. The new parish comes into being from 1st January 2015. The Vicar of the new parish will be the Vicar of St George’s and Archdeacon of Man, the Venerable Andrew Brown (who likes to be called Andie, except in a formal context). The Revd. John Guilford will be licensed to the new parish as Associate Priest. There will be two Readers, Miss Heather Paisley from St George’s and Mr. Eric Quirk from All Saints. We will share the Gapper currently based at St George’s, Jon Taylor, now starting his second year, offering 30 hours per week. These five will form the new Ministry Team of the parish and will share the leading of worship and preaching across the two churches. We hope to be joined by a full-time stipendiary minister, either as Associate Vicar or a Curate sometime next year, who will live in All Saints House. Charles Flynn, as a retired Reader who works across a lot, will help out as and when he is available. This is an exciting adventure, and we come together as two equal partners with very different strengths to bring to the union. Neither church has a parish population big enough to form an independent suburban parish in this day and age (ideally about 10k) but together we will have around 6,000 people living in the parish, as well as those who come to work in the offices at St George’s end of the new parish. St George’s has over 200 years of history, a beautiful old building which is well kept, well-heated and has been constantly updated and modernized and serves as the Civic Church of the capital town. St George’s have financial reserves and a steady income stream from rental income. However, its core congregation is now getting older and has dwindled over the past 10 years, although of late some young families and other new faces have joined us. We have a children’s ministry on Sunday mornings (Scramblers and Explorers) and a very popular monthly All Age Praise (our largest congregation most months) as well as Little Angels mid-week. All Saints has a slightly larger residential population and an eager church leadership which is committed to reaching out into that community with the Good News about Jesus. It has a fresh expression of church in its Messy Church congregation which is reaching lots of young families in the area. It also has a mid-week toddler group called Super Saints, but no regular children’s groups each Sunday. Unfortunately its church building is not so well maintained and faces several major problems over the next few years. The PCC struggles financially, living hand-to-mouth – but supported by a very active and well-organised Social and Fund-raising Committee. Between us, we make a decent sized suburban parish and have the resources we need to serve them well in Christ’s name. This new parish will require a lot of prayer, a great deal of patient listening to each other and a Christ-like generousity toward each other, but knowing you all as I do, I am confident that whilst it won’t always be easy or straightforward we will see it through. You are invited to a united service for the new parish at St George’s on 1st February at 10.30am. Please pray for me as your Vicar-designate, as I pray for you. Andie
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 18:20:23 +0000