The Vicar's Report 2025

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:31-34

One of the things that is often so close to a life of faith, which we see again and again in scripture, particularly among the disciples and dare I say certainly in the national church is huge anxiety, is huge worry. Personally, I know all about anxiety intimately, as I have shared on more than one occasion, as I suffer from anxiety disorder and have done so for many years now. The problem of course with anxiety and fear, at least in my experience, is that it robs the enjoyment of the present where there is much to celebrate. God is unequivocal in scripture, as there are at least 365 different verses in which we are told not to fear and not to worry. For me this shows two things. First clearly we need to learn to trust, but secondly, it’s also obvious that the temptation to overly worry is a very human reaction, which is no doubt why God almost seems to have it on repeat! As I prayed about what to say to you all this morning, as we celebrate our community, this was the scripture that comes to mind and the key target for the next 12 months. To seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and to not worry about tomorrow. This, I suspect, will be easier to say than to practice! But in this report, in all aspects of our beautiful church community, I want us to move from worry to trust and a deepening of discipleship.

If you remember, 12 months ago our church was very much dealing with financial worries. All the projections were in the red, although by the time of the APCM, we were becoming a little clearer that we probably would just keep everything in the black. This was to be followed by uncertainty about the future viability of Saturday Morning Coffee Break as Rosemary stepped away from running it, and by the line dancers who rented our hall for a considerable period stopping their classes. Naturally, this would bring a lot of concern and worry. Would we be able to pay the ever-increasing parish share? Would we be able to think about repairs? What about getting the organ fixed? Over the course of the last 12 months though, we have seen, with much thanksgiving, that not only were our financial needs were met, but more than that we have, for the first time since I have been vicar here, predicted from the first budget in January, to be in the black all year. This turn around was in a large part due to the huge generosity of our congregation, as back in the first quarter of 2024 after I spoke to everyone about our giving as part of our worship, our church responded. Through your generosity our church can flourish which is no small feat in an environment where so many church communities are struggling. We are now in a position where we will need to apply for our own charity number as our income has increased. Of course you will understand from the financial report that although we are in a much happier place, we are still vulnerable. Regardless, our this turn around is a massive cause for celebration and is a healthy place for our church community to be in and we should rightly celebrate. We are able to pay our bills and for that we give thanks to God and all the people who donate both money and time. Its important to also celebrate the huge contribution Jo and Geoff make to our church life as they continue to work together to keep our books in order, organise budgets and pay bills.

Alongside this we continue to see good use of our church building for missional activities and community outreach. Our toddlers continue to thrive thanks to the volunteers who faithfully provide for them. Warm space goes from strength to strength, working alongside Helen Ashmore Funeral Directors to provide a monthly place for a bereavement group and a solicitor offering free legal advice once a month. The volunteers who provide wonderful food each week ably led by Don have blessed those people coming in through the door and now many of them are joining us for the services around Easter and Christmas as they encounter the love of Christ through the service of His people.

Saturday mornings continue to go from strength to strength as a new team took over in September following a time of uncertainty in the early summer. The community that flourishes around this amazing outreach continues to grow and thrive doing exactly what a Christian community should be doing, serving people. On top of that of course is the amazing amount of money that it raises towards church funds. Thank you to everyone who does so much to keep this intense and demanding service going.

The community use of the building continues to be an important part of what we can offer Cleveleys. We have a new Thursday afternoon Line dancing group, who have settled in happily. There are more exercise classes and the Taekwondo continues to go well.

The uniformed organisations continue to do wonderful things for the young people of the parish and that continuity of service over many decades, means that many an adult of either sex, will come and tell me about their fond memories of 2nd Cleveleys. Although these organisations have their own struggles, it is important to support them as far as we can. It is also important to thank the church community as often, particularly if the groups are small, we do significantly subsidise them as they use the facilities and heating. A question over the next 12 months, as we continue to support their wonderful work, is to ask how links between the worshipping community and the uniformed organisations can be reforged, not in the way they were in years gone by, but in a new way, appropriate for the 21st century. This, I hope, will be something for the PCC and the uniformed organisations to consider together.

The Capricorn singers continue to be a wonderful group that have become very much part of our wider church community. It was lovely to celebrate their 40th anniversary with them and see them go from strength to strength as they continue to have concerts throughout the year. The Capricorns of course will be hosting a special fund-raising concert for our windows appeal in June which is wonderfully generous, for which we cannot thank them enough and it is a genuine joy to have them in our building.

All this building use is ably supported by our brilliant Hall Manager Lindy alongside George whose faithful dedication to keeping ancient boilers going and serviced is so appreciated. Thank you both.

Our worship continues to be a source of joy. Both congregations, the mid-week eucharist and the Sunday worship are continuing to thrive and particularly on a Sunday morning we are regularly running out of service books, having grown beyond the maximum of 70 I printed some time ago. We continue to be blessed by Nick’s ministry and as he goes deeper into retirement, we have been very blessed to be joined by Lynda and Ian Brady, who have added such joy to our community and a blessing particularly for myself over the last few difficult months in my family. I never thought I would use a tambourine, but I was wrong! It is also wonderful to see more people serving as crucifer, reading and praying. These are all signs of a growing, healthy church. The big festivals continue to be very busy and we were amazed at 130 people for Easter last year, but who could have imagined 170 this year! On top of this, our church looked amazing during all the festivals, decorated by Jean and a big team making this place so beautiful, thank you to all those who helped.

Our BCP with healing service is growing and myself and Don are exploring how we might increase the number of people who offer prayer ministry to meet the need. Tuesday Bible Studies continue to go well and members of the group are growing in confidence in leading and praying.  Our morning prayer group now meets Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays and it has been lovely to see people grow in confidence in their own ability to lead or read. It is the best kind of news for a vicar to see people growing in discipleship and confidence. The worship of our community is ably supported by our sacristans Irene and Peter who do so much to help in the background, ordering supplies and preparing services. Viv has for many years been an amazing co-ordinator of all thing’s rota, making sure that all the services are provided for and people available and organised to offer all the ministry that we do offer well. Having decided to step down from this position I would just like to invite her up to receive a little gift from all of us here to say thank you for serving our community in this way for such a long time. Also thank you to those who have stepped up to take on responsibilities for rotas going forward.

Over the last 9 months we have seen the development of an ecumenical choir – who could have predicted that a year ago! Our choir first gathered to perform a musical in the Winter Gardens in March, which was great fun. A number of the choir wanted to keep meeting on Sunday afternoons and so Sound of Hope choir was born, specifically with a remit to go out and sing in the community, which we did on Holy Saturday at the comedy carpet. Unconfirmed rumours suggest we also may well be singing at the Blackpool Circus for Christmas, so watch this space.

In the wider community, we continue to be an active member church of Cleveleys Churches Together, which I Co-chair. We enjoyed welcoming our sisters and brothers in Christ to the vicarage garden to enjoy a BBQ last year and the regular prayer lunches are lovely times to pray with other Christians in Cleveleys. Unfortunately, with two ministers retiring imminently and some colleagues in not very good health, our towns other churches do need our prayers at the minute.

Our SAS group continues to grow and develop in its mission to the young people of the parish. It has been wonderful to welcome several new helpers, and in particular to see Julie begin to lead our teenagers in art projects, which they are thoroughly enjoying. Thank you to all who have made SAS possible. It is particularly important to give special thanks to Jo, who has been amazing at helping support the children and me at SAS over nearly 4 years, having stepped back at Easter to concentrate on her many other ways of serving our community. Jo, please accept this small gift of behalf of the church family in thanks for all your work. Thank you to all who support SAS financially, it is really allowing us to create a lovely service for the children.

Alongside that we continue to support the young people of our parish and our area. I am regularly in Northfold School both teaching and doing assemblies, and alongside my occasional work as a governor at St Aidan’s and as a chaplain to the cadets, we are enabling ministry to the children of our parish and beyond.

Our special events continue to be areas of pride, despite what hard work they are. Who could have imagined that the Christmas Tree festival would raised £4500 for church funds, a grand more than last year and our spring fair was also a great success. More important than any amount of money was the way it engaged our community and opened our building for all. This, alongside the many other concerts and events, made sure St Andrews was often front and centre of our community with the Abana Bell Concert with the Lytham St Annes Shanty Crew being a particular highlight. We continue very much to be involved in community events in the town. What all this says of course is that St Andrews is an open, fun and friendly place where people can thrive. That is to be celebrated. 

The big challenge for our community continues to be our building, but this is not without good news also. The windows are in dire and direct need of repair, and it has been a huge shame that we have not been able to use our main organ recently. The good news is that we have secured some funding to help and are able to afford to get them secured and made safe with work commencing in the beginning of September. Through much work behind the scenes with architects and other experts, we have permission to get them fixed and we are praying for the approximately 145K we need to repair the two worst affected windows fully. We have also seen the organ have a major repair, which has seen the organ back in regular use, until the window blew in. There is a lot of building work yet to do, including replacing our ancient boilers, but we pray, through the generosity of our congregation and our community and a grant or two my prayer is that by next year we will be able to report good news on all fronts especially with Herbert’s group helping secure funding, interest in our project and apply for grants for which I cannot thank them enough. Please keep praying and special thanks to David who does so much work coordinating all the repair work that is needed on our building.  

Ministry continues to grow in our church family, with Peter and Claire reaching the end of their ALM training in the coming weeks, while Don and Janet continue to ably grow into the ministries to which they are called. Our pastoral team will be led by Janet who will be our lead Pastoral minister working with myself, Claire and Peter. Don and I are slowly working on a discipleship package to help each one of us, from enquirer to long term member, deepen our discipleship. Thank you all for responding to Christ call on your hearts to faithfully follow Him.

Perhaps the greatest sign of a healthy church is the need to hold elections for the PCC with more people wanting to serve than there are places. I want to thank everyone who has served and is stepping down and particularly to those who have volunteered to serve our community in this way. Although someone will be disappointed today, please know that I believe every single one of you would be a great addition to the PCC and I do hope whoever is disappointed will be able to speak to me to see what other leadership opportunities there are in our community. One area in which we are going to need support in a busier church, is in asking for people to consider being an assistant warden, assistant treasurer or assistant secretary. Our church officers are holding responsibility for so many things, particularly in a busy church, and it is vital for everyone’s sake that corporately we help to help lighten the load. Please prayerfully consider if this might be something you volunteer for that God might be calling you to for the blessing of our community. I also want to make clear that there will never be any pressure from me to serve or judgment if you need to step away. Please, do help our leadership team, and consider if you might just help a lending hand as an assistant warden, secretary or treasurer.

I know I will have missed things, and having written this, I can’t quite believe just how much we do and achieve as a community. All thanks and glory be to God, because undoubtedly, He has blessed us again this last 12 months.

In the introduction to this report as I reflected on the scripture at the top, I mentioned that I believe our focus needs to be on seeking His Kingdom and His righteousness and to let go of all fear. As a growing and healthy church, the load on our key volunteers and, dare I say, even the daft vicar has increased. This leads firstly to exhaustion and understandably and naturally leads to anxiety. Phrases like ‘we are not getting any younger’ or ‘who will do it if I quit?’ or ‘if only we had x number of people we could’ are symptomatic of this understandable anxiety. I wonder if over this next year we might do something radical? I wonder if we might put aside our worries and do exactly what Jesus says and ‘seek first His kingdom and His righteousness’. Might it be, that the Lord, in His mighty power and provision, has given us everything we need or will give us everything we need and that with a little prayer and creativity we might serve Him how He asks? This is no easy task, but in the impossible job of being a vicar, I have learnt the hard way, that only by trusting completely in Him first in prayer and not in activity, can we hope to see His blessing. It’s a lesson I keep having to keep coming back to. What I don’t think we are called to do, is so much activity that we burn out – so lets together learn to be wiser and choose to ‘seek first His kingdom and His righteousness’. There isn’t any medals in heaven for doing too much.

This seeking first His kingdom and righteousness and very deliberately putting away worry is difficult. Our role as a church, is not to keep a building going, nor is it to raise money, or to even fill every seat although of course I pray that we will do all three in God’s generosity. Our role is to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness’ or in other words to follow Him and to learn to do so without anxiety, to move from the scared disciples in the boat, to the apostles proclaiming Christ at Pentecost. This year, I want us learn to put fear aside and together for us to learn how we share our faith with others, and if you find that fearful, remember we are putting fear away! I remain utterly convinced that through faithful prayer and God’s goodness to us, we will be able to continue to grow in depth and blessing, to learn more and more how we are called to serve each other and our town and to see miracles in this place. Let us pray for a blessed next 12 months, let us pray that together we might learn to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness’,  let go of fear and rejoice over the blessings we receive and give.