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The Bishop of Manchester visited the parish of St Crispin, Withington on Thursday, November 29th as part of his pilgrimage around the diocese.
The bishop was met by St Crispin's Churchwardens and priest-in-charge, the Revd. Patrick Davies, who, together with other members of prayed, with the bishop in church before he made two pastoral visits.
Bishop and priest then visited two longstanding members of St Crispin's; first at Rustley Lodge Residential Care Home to meet Winnie, and then to the Fallowfield home of Helen. The bishop spoke and prayed with both; anointing them with oil and giving them his blessing before he left.
A parish reception, in the church hall was well attended by a wide cross-section of the local community. Church members rubbed shoulders with their local GP and practice nurse, teachers from William Hulme Grammar School, local businesses, Surestart workers, neighbourhood police and community support officers.
The bishop also met MP, Sir Gerald Kaufmann and church architect, Ian Finney, who took the opportunity to show the bishop the various designs for a new shared building for St Crispin's and Platt Lane Methodist Church, as well as providing a home to other worshipping congregations and community groups that currently use the two buildings.
Members of the two churches were also joined for the Pilgrimage service in church by worshippers from The Church of the Lion of Judah and Manchester Christian Church Assembly (an Indian congregation) both of which regularly use the church hall for worship.
The bishop spoke on the theme of building; describing the people as 'Living stones', building a foundation together.
The Junior Church told the story of St Crispin's, looking back to the original Tractarian vision for the church and looking forward to greater 'co-operation
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