The slideshow below shows preparations after the Sunday service for the Christingle service on Christmas Eve.

On Sunday evening we held our annual Carol by Candlelight service. There was a large congregation and the service began with the Springfield School Choir singing Silent Night (in German) and then the attention swung to the back of Church where some of the St Paul’s Choir ladies continued the carol. During the “O Come All Ye Faithful” carol the congregation sang with their individual candles lit.

After the service mince pies and mulled wine was served in the Church Hall. The photos below were taken during the service.

Our Christmas Tree Festival was successfully completed during the weekend despite the threat of Storm Darragh. Many visitors attended and were treated to music, several children’s activities, refreshments and of course the numerous decorated trees. Revd. Lisa took parties of small children in fancy dress on a ‘nativity’ journey round the chancel. There was also a Santa’s Grotto for the children. The booklet detailing the trees is reproduced below together with a slideshow of photos taken during the event.

Dear friends,

Hope you’re keeping well and looking forward to our Christmas events and services.

Just a quick reminder that this weekend – Fri 6th, 7th, 8th Dec we have our Christmas Tree Festival taking place at St Paul’s. 

We hope and pray that with all the events and activities going on in Sale town centre, folks will also take the opportunity to come into St Paul’s, enjoy a mince-pie, mulled wine and live music. 

We are extremely fortunate to have groups of musical volunteers giving up their precious weekends to be with us, so can I just please encourage you to invite friends, family and neighbours to come along to support. Our musical programme:
Sat 7th Dec 10.30am – 11am Sale Salvation Army Junior Band
Sat 7th Dec 2.30pm-3.30pm James Goodwin Ladies Choir
Sun 8th Dec 1-2pm Sale Brass Community Band
Sun 8th Dec 2pm-3pm Local organists will play a selection of music.

We also have Revd Lisa running story-time on Sunday at 3pm and there are lots of crafts activities for both grown-ups and children and Nativity dressing up if you’re still looking for a Christmas card picture.

We have the Blue Christmas Tree set up for those wishing to remember a loved one, Sale High school students added the first tag yesterday as they continue to mourn the sudden loss of a Yr 11 footballer. 

 Debbie from Christians Against Poverty will be with us on Saturday if anyone would like to have a chat, CAP are always on the lookout for volunteer befrienders.

We do have St Nick aka Father Christmas in residence with us too, however if you haven’t yet booked a ticket I’m afraid you might have to catch up with him another time.

Festival times are Fri 6th Dec 2pm-6pm, Sat 7th 10am-5pm and Sunday 8th 12-5pm.

We will be holding our usual pattern of services on Sunday- 10am All-Age worship with Wiggle the Bible bookworm and 6pm Holy Communion.

Sunday 15th Dec – 6pm Carols by Candlelight

Christmas Eve 5pm Christingle & Crib Service, 11.30pm Midnight Communion

Christmas Day 10am Family Communion

Those that have signed up to help on the rotas, a massive thank you in advance, these are really important events on our calendar and provide a great opportunity for visitors to come through the doors. 

Whether you’re a welcomer, helping on refreshments, selling raffle tickets, pushing around Henry hoover, decorated Christmas Trees or assisting Fr Christmas, a big -thank you.

And in the midst of the busyness let me offer a prayer from the Church of England #followthestar campaign,

“Lord Jesus, come at evening time with light, and in the morning with your glory, to guide our feet into the way of peace, this Christmas and always, Amen”.

If you’re struggling to pick up your daily prayer book, can I recommend an app called ‘Pray as you Go’ which has beautiful reflections, music and a time of prayer using scripture. There’s also Compline and podcasts which are really helpful if you’re thinking during this season how to refresh your prayer life. 

Hope to see you over the weekend,

Yours in faith,

Becky

Revd Becky Mathew 

Vicar of St Paul’s Sale

The photo below shows the start of our preparations for Christmas. This will be continued during the week ready for the Tree Festival beginning on Friday.

The link below is for the December magazine including the Vicar’s letter and details of our Christmas events.

The posters below give details of our upcoming festival

Foodbank Christmas Closures

Unfortunately local foodbanks are closed from 23rd December 2024-3rd January 2025. 

St Paul’s Church Hall pantry shelves will be open during after service refreshments on Sunday 22nd December and by request after services on Christmas Day and Sunday 29th December. 

Please contact a member of clergy or church warden.

Please note there will be no evening service on Sunday 29th December and no midweek Communion on Wednesday 1st January.

The following paragraphs detail areas which require some types of help,

Please get in touch if any of these interest you.

Could you be our new Churches Together in Sale representative? Meetings take place once a quarter and are held midweek in the evenings. This volunteer role would suit someone with good IT and communication skills, who enjoys working with others and has a desire to get involved with where God is at work in the local area alongside those worshiping in local churches. You will need to prepare a short report for the Parochial Church Council so you can feedback from Churches Together meeting any actions that need taking.

Would you consider being an OWL?

The OWLs course is for those who find themselves leading worship on an occasional basis, (no more than once a month) and do not feel called to licensed or ordained ministry. 

People who have trained as OWLs so far include those planning and leading worship in specific regular services (for example, monthly café church, Taize, Iona, All-Age), those who occasionally lead Morning or Evening Prayer on Sundays, or Churchwardens and others leading services during a vacancy.

A 4-week course in Leading Public Worship is part of the process of becoming a locally authorised Occasional Worship Leader. The course works for people who have been leading worship for years as well as people who are starting out. OWLs are discerned and authorised locally in the parish-so please contact Becky or any member of the clergy in the first instance if you’re interested or would like to know more.

Occasional Worship Leaders – Diocese of Chester

Help Needed!

Our Christmas Tree festival is nearly upon us and we really need to identify folks who can help in various ways:

This might be helping to clean the church beforehand and help set up trees and move furniture

We need folks to help with publicity- distributing posters, flyers and encouraging friends/family/local business to come along!

During the festival itself we need volunteers to help with stewarding, refreshments, assisting with crafts, selling raffle tickets and being prepared to chat with our visitors.

After the festival we need help with cleaning, tidying up, moving furniture and hoovering. 

If you can offer any help please do contact Lisa Clarke/Revd Becky (stewards/welcome) (or Eileen Craven & Joyce Green (refreshments) and Vicki Moore (Santa’s Grotto).

Many thanks,

Becky