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The second day of the Bishop of Manchester's pilgrimage to Bacup and Stacksteads on 27th June, 2007 began with a visit to Bacup Credit Union, where Bishop Nigel became the 1000th member. The bishop also visited Spurgeon's Family Centre in Bacup which works with local children and families, offering support and providing points of contact for children and their carers.
In the evening, a reception was held at Christ Church to which community leaders and representatives of other community groups were invited. Team Rector, The Revd. Garry Whittaker, said "We were disappointed with the response we got to the invitations we sent out to the community event, though there were plenty of people there, they were nearly all members of our four churches. Sadly a number of invitations just got no response, though we were pleased that local clergy from the other churches of Bacup; Roman Catholic, Methodist and Baptist, joined us for the reception and the service afterwards."
The Pilgrimage service, at Christ Church, was led by TeamVicar, David Woodall; his clergy colleagues busy playing in the music group. All four churches of the benefice, Christ Church, Saint John's, Saint Saviour's and Holy Trinity were all well represented - about a hundred people in total. Movingly the clergy of other Christian denominations not only stayed for the service, but also went forward to be blessed and anointed by the bishop. Bacup's Methodist minister spoke afterwards of "a real sense of the Spirit moving".
The Team Rector, Garry Whittaker reported that 'there were many,
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