All Saints' Church, Preston-on-Tees

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All Saints' Church is a Church of England church based in the parish of Preston-on-Tees, Eaglescliffe.

Background

All Saints' is a Evangelical Anglican Church, a member of The New Wine Network of Churches. It is varied in its liturgical approach.

Sunday meeting are more traditional at 9am, aimed at families at 10.30am and Charismatic and youth-friendly at 6.30pm.

There is Morning Prayer every weekday at 9am, and Holy Communion on a Wednesday at 9:30am.

Mission statement

This church exists to:

  • Worship God
  • Make disciples
  • Share the Good news of Jesus
  • Care for those in need

Church Buildings

The church consists of three buildings. These are the main church building, the Church centre and church house. The main building is connected to the Church centre, with Church house on the other side of the car park. The main building has a worship centre, two offices, one run as the church office and welcome desk by Ann Wood and the other at the back for Rob Pepper the operations manager.

Church Centre

The Church Centre was constructed in the final quarter of 2004 to replace the old Youth Centre. The cost was 750,000GBP raised by the church members. It is overseen by Geoff Snowdon snr. the centre manager. It features a large main hall, two meeting rooms with a removable partition wall between them, a kitchen, and substantial storage rooms.

The main hall of the centre had very bad acoustics caused by the bare walls, floor, and ceiling mean there was a bad echo in the room. Work to correct this has been completed with the use of a suspended acoustic ceiling. There however been some issues with tiles being both broken and knocked out with balls, and other sporting equipment.

Church House

Church House is the rear section of a large house that is adjacent to the church car park. The upstairs of the house has been converted into a two bedroom flat which is currently leased, and the downstairs area now consists of a youth room (refurbished in 2005), a general meeting room, kitchen, toilets, and storage space.

Children's work

Jan Peters is employed as the Church's part-time children & families outreach worker. She works in schools, runs 3 toddler groups weekly, organises holiday family events / big ted monthly events, and is involved in the existing church children's work,seeking to spread God's love to families around the area.

Nicky Farish oversees the team who provide children's work every Sunday and the team of young people.

Youth work

Debbie Hird was the Youth worker up until the early 2000s. In 2003 Adam and Amy Burns were employed full-time as the Church's youth workers. Adam Burns resigned in late 2003 due to ill health, but Amy continued until December 31st 2006. She provided weekly meetings for every age of youth (School years 7 to 11) and did outreach work in the local schools through lessons, assemblies and supporting students in any way she could.

Two new youth workers were appointed after Easter 2007 to continue the work of Amy, but until then, the youth work was being overseen by Hannah Jackson, and lead by a team of volunteers including Richard Wakefield (Rock Solid) and Tim Wye-Williams (WIRED).

The new youth workers were Tim Wye-Willams, and Linday Witherow. Tim started work in mid-April, and Lindsay in September.

Rock Solid

Youth in the school years 7 and 8 (Age 11-13) can take part in the 'Rock Solid' groups held at Egglescliffe School.

WIRED/WIRED UP

Youth in the school years 7 to 13 (Age 11-18) can take part in the 360 youth group. They meet on a Friday evening from 7:00 - 9:00pm.

Young adults

Two groups are open to over 18s who feel home groups aren't yet for them.

PULSE

PULSE aims to be relaxed and fun, but with deep teaching and activities. Amy and Adam Burns ran the Wednesday night PULSE group for 16+ (School year 13 plus) until the end of 2006.

Mission community

The mission community is for those who want a little more challenge and are looking to be more mission-minded, it is an experimental group starting February 2006. Dave and Caroline Hammond run the Mission Community for young adults.

Home groups

There are over 150 people in home groups which meet fortnightly in homes (as the name suggests) around the area. They vary in size and type and are where the essence of Christian community is found. The young adults and youth echo this structure but do so in generationly determined groups rather than geographic or friendship groups like the adults.

Home Groups are also called Cell groups or House Groups.

Gap Year

In 2005 the church set up a gap year called 'Project'. This is currently co-ordinated by Hannah Jackson. The 2006/07 gap year will be rebranded as 'Launch'.

Football Team

The church has two football teams. The teams play regularly in league games on Saturdays as part of the North East Christian Fellowship League. In the 2006/07, both teams are in Division 2.

Parochial Church Council

The Parochial Church Council (PCC) for 2005-2006 consists of:

  • Alan Farish (Vicar)
  • Paul Clayton (Curate)
  • Dave Hammond (Curate)
  • Denis Hart (Churchwarden)
  • Wendy Sheffield (Churchwarden)
  • Janet Atkinson (General Synod)
  • Gillian Clayton (Deanery Synod)
  • Mark Sheffield (Deanery Synod)
  • Geoff Snowdon (Deanery Synod) (Not the same person as centre manager)
  • David Winship (Deanery Synod)
  • Amy Burns (Youth Worker)
  • Bill Cockcroft
  • Keith Dobson
  • Andrew Killick
  • John Littlehailes
  • Nicky Pepper
  • Jan Peters (Children's outreach worker)
  • Jason Powell
  • John Taylor
  • Margaret Vaughan (Treasurer)
  • Charlotte West (Secretary)
  • Sylvia Wilson

This PCC was elected April 18 2005 at the Annual Parochial Church Meeting. Previous PCCs can be found on the Church Website under 'Church Life'.

References

Some information sourced from PCC minutes.