St Paul, Astley Bridge

The Bishop of Manchester paid a poignant pastoral visit during his pilgrimage to St Paul's Astley Bridge on June 15th 2007.

After beginning his visit  by praying with members of the staff team at St Paul's, the bishop accompanied the vicar, the Revd. Andy Lindop to take holy communion to the Revd. Betsy Haworth, a deacon in the parish who served the national church as Third Estates Commissioner during the 1980s. Mrs Haworth, who died only a matter of weeks later, was delighted to receive the bishop at her home, and the two of them had plenty of talk about.

Afterwards, the bishop returned to St Paul's, where he shared a special pasta tea with 30 toddlers and their carers. The Vicar, Andy Lindop explains: "I knew that the time of the service in the evening would make it difficult for young children and their parents to attend, so we wanted to plan an event so the bishop could meet them as well." After tea, the children gathered in the church for story-time during which the bishop demonstrated his abilities as a master story-teller with well-known children's stories. The bishop "gave himself 100% to the task" said the vicar, Andy Lindop, "and the children and adults were delighted."

At 6pm the bishop joined members of the local community including, local MP, David Crausby, Councillor John Walsh as well as represent-atives of other local churches and schools for a reception at St Paul's Primary school. This was followed by a short pilgrimage service in church. "This being a Friday night in June, I was slightly anxious that people wouldn't come" says Andy, "but more people than we expected (about 60) stayed to the service. In the midst of a busy week we wanted to keep things simple - our Reader put a presentation together about the story of the history of the church,

Photos from this Run the race Bishop's pilgrimage

and three young  people received the Commonwealth Games baton from the bishop."

Simple though it was, "the service was memorable", Andy continues. "The bishop spoke very inspiringly, in fact, I wished others had come".



Those who had been anointed and prayed for by the bishop were so enthusiastic about the experience that the following Sunday the final part of the service was repeated so that  those who weren't able to be there could experience it for themselves.

'People were very glad that we have a bishop who gets about - It was a very positive experience that has made us think more about our mission and our engagement in mission, in fact, we need to be asking ourselves: "How can we build on the bishop's visit?"'