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The Bishop of Manchester visited St John's top o' th' Moss on Sunday 8th June, 2008 to join congregation and local community in celebrating the 35th anniversary of the opening of the church by St James's Breightmet.
Priest-in-charge, Greg Yerbury said: 'We had lots of people who have been a part of St John's over the past 25 years come back to celebrate with us, so there were lots of old friends as well as those representing the local community today, like our councillors and staff from our local school.
'There were lots of children present, for our special, family-orientated pilgrimage service. The bishop started the service by walking in carrying the Manchester Commonwealth Games baton and did a great family talk: people still talk about it now!
'During the bishop's talk he got us to enact a relay race with him. When he asked for volunteers, rather surprisingly all the Sunday School teachers ended up helping him!'
When the church was first built, it was the only social centre for a substantial new community with hundreds of children and adults involved in a wide variety of ways in the church's life. During the service, Keith Bentley, a former churchwarden told how much the estate has changed over the years as the young families who arrived in the 1970s have grown up and moved on.
Although the number of children on the estate is a fraction of what it was 30 years ago, St John's still maintains a good-sized Sunday School of more than 20, due in no small part to the close relationship between the church and local schools.
Handing back the baton to Bishop Nigel at the end of the service was
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