St Paul with Christ Church Salford

The Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Revd. Nigel McCulloch joined the Wise Men on their journey to pay homage to the Christ Child on his Epiphanytide visit to the parish of St Paul with Christ Church in Salford on Sunday January 6th, 2008, the feast of the Epiphany.

The 11 o'clock Sunday morning service at the church of St Paul the Apostle, Paddington included a procession to the Christmas Crib.

Among the 160-strong congregation was Carolyn Whiteway, head teacher of St Paul's Church of England Primary School and Kate O'Sullivan, manager of 'Loaves and Fishes', a local project which works with homeless people offering food, clothing and a wide range of social care services and projects.

Appropriately for the bishop's pilgrimage (which is entitled 'Run the Race') the Commonwealth Games baton was handed back at the end of the service by Tony Roycroft, churchwarden of St Paul's, who is an accomplished long-distance runner. The baton, made specially for the 2002 Manchester Games, is accompanying the bishop throughout his three-year pilgrimage

The service was followed by a reception for nearly 200 church-members and local residents and community leaders. Among the guests was Andrew Akonteh, a political and community leader from Cameroon who runs an HIV charity, which is supported by the parish. Andrew was particularly pleased to meet the bishop and to strengthen their connection with Manchester and its bishop. The bishop also met staff and pupils from Manchester Grammar School who have been

Photos from this Run the race Bishop's pilgrimage

involved in community-based social action projects in the parish for many years, as well as Ian Orrell, former senior member of staff at MGS and his wife, Susan, chief legal officer for the City of Manchester, as well as Frank Corfield of the Royal British Legion, Ann Salt of the Scout Association and Dillip Rattan, representing the Territorial Army.


Incumbent, Canon David Wyatt said 'The bishop's visit brought such delight to so many people. We hope we are doing good things here, and the bishop was keen to affirm the work that people are doing. His visit was a great encouragement to everybody to keep on with the things that we are doing,  as well as thinking about how we can move into new areas of work.'

Some were so impressed  by meeting Bishop Nigel that they have decided to join him on pilgrimage: 'Having met the bishop in the flesh,' says Canon Wyatt, 'a number of parishioners have made the decision to join with him on his pilgrimage to Walsingham this summer.'