St. John's Church

18/12/2023

Returning after a four-year gap ... the Snods Edge Christmas Eve Crib Service! 5:30pm on Sunday 24 December (not 5pm as you may possibly have heard ...): please come and share the parish's start to the Christmas celebrations, and come early to be sure of a seat.

24/04/2023

Only In Yorkshire 😂


The Famous Hare & Hounds Hebden Bridge

11/02/2023

22/12/2022

On Christmas Eve, Saturday 24th, there will be a carol service in the Spinney (in the garden over the road from the Church Hall) at 2pm. Or in the Hall itself in case of bad weather ... Coffee and mince pies in the Hall afterwards. All welcome!

21/09/2022

The Revd Malcolm Railton was due to be licensed as Interim Minister at St John’s, Snods Edge, on Monday 19th, but that service had to be cancelled due to the late Queen’s funeral.

It’s now been confirmed that his licensing will take place on Monday 17th October, at 7:30pm in St John’s.

Although that is the formal licensing, he is in post as of now, and will be leading worship at St John’s for the first time (or rather, the first time in this capacity) this Sunday, 25 Sept. Do please be there to welcome him if you can.

13/09/2022

The Revd Malcolm Railton was due to be licensed by the bishop of Berwick as interim minister of St John’s on Monday 19 September. As everyone will know, this is now the date of the late Queen’s funeral, and so the licensing service has regrettably had to be postponed. We don’t yet know when it will take place but will of course announce this as soon as we have any news.

However, the postponement of the formal service does not change the fact that Malcolm will actually be taking over as interim minister as of that date, and that his first Sunday leading worship for us in this role will be 25 September, at 10:30am as always. If you can make it there to welcome him that day, please do.

09/09/2022

The Queen's death leaves us speechless ... mourning the nation and her family's loss; honouring a good end to a life well lived; remembering that 'God save the Queen' is a prayer as well as a song, and a prayer that has now, we trust, been answered.

At 4pm Saturday 10 September there will be a short gathering of prayer in St John's Church to give thanks for the Queen, and to pray for the nation, the Commonwealth, her family and the new King. Please join us, either in person or from wherever you are. The parish's book of condolence will be available in church from then onwards.

Naturally, this week's news will also be a focus of our regular worship at 10:30am on Sunday 11 September. And of course the church is open for prayer 24 hours a day.

03/07/2022

The Archdeacon of Lindisfarne was in church today to make the following announcement:

‘The Rt Rev Mark Wroe, Bishop of Berwick and acting Bishop of Newcastle , is pleased to announce that the Rev’d Malcolm Railton, at present assistant curate of Tynmouth Parish, is to be appointed as Interim Minister for 12 months to St John’s Shotley Bridge. Final arrangements for his commissioning are still to be arranged but it is expected that this will be in church in Monday 19 September 2022. Please keep Malcolm and his wife Glynis in your prayers as they prepare to begin their ministry among us in the parish and deanery.’

Malcolm himself adds: ‘If anyone, including Bishops, Archdeacons, and Churchwardens, had said to me six weeks ago, that I would be going back to Snods Edge as a minister, I would have laughed at them. That was not going to happen! Yet here we are. The good Lord does move in mysterious ways and clearly has a sense of humour. I look forward to returning, with great anticipation, hope and excitement about what we can all achieve together if we work with God.’

This is unexpected and very welcome news, and the return of an old friend. A couple of details to underline, for the avoidance of doubt: as an interim minister, Malcolm will not be living in the vicarage, but his sole pastoral responsibilities will be for our parish, and he will be leading worship for us (almost) every Sunday. It is a 12-month appointment since this is being set up with a view to making a plan for a longer-term arrangement for ministry here – but that does not mean we are looking at a hard deadline in September 2023: extending this arrangement by a few further months is entirely possible.

26/05/2022

Today is Ascension Day, forty days from Easter. We’ll be marking the feast with a short service at St John’s tonight at 6:30pm. Do join us if you can.

15/05/2022

We're now in a position to say something about the future shape of ministry at St John's, now that the parish is formally in vacancy.

The Archdeacon of Lindisfarne and the Area Dean attended our PCC on Weds 11 May to discuss this question. What they are proposing, which we as a PCC are warmly supporting, is that we aim to appoint an interim minister soon – within weeks or months – who can provide some immediate pastoral oversight for this community. Exactly what that means remains to be seen, because it depends on finding the right person, though they are optimistic that such a person could be found. But to give you an idea of the kind of thing we are thinking of: this would be a priest who would not be resident here but rather someone living reasonably nearby who would be able to visit frequently. This interim minister would lead our Sunday worship and would be able to devote perhaps a couple of days a week to pastoral work here. This would be quite a short-term arrangement – my hope is that we might be able to have someone here on these terms for a year or perhaps more, but it might conceivably be less, and in any case we’d probably want to review the arrangement after, say, six months. The point is that it would provide us with the time and space to take stock, to think and to pray together about what the longer-term future of the parish and its ministry might be. As to the process: if we find a possible candidate, we’d invite them to come to lead worship for us on Sunday so we can all get a sense of each other, and also to meet the PCC, before making a decision. And without making promises about timing, I am told there is a realistic hope that we’d be able to have such an arrangement in place by the end of this summer.

I hope you agree with me that this is good news!

12/05/2022

A reminder that the Annual Parochial Church Meeting at St John’s will take place this Sunday, 15 May, immediately following the (shortened) 10:30 morning service. Anyone who is a member of the congregation, or on the electoral roll, or who simply lives in the parish is welcome to attend and take part.

Two things to note. First, we expect to be able to say more at the meeting about the future shape of ministry at St John’s and may even be able to answer any questions about that (we’ll give it a go, anyway). Second, the PCC (that is, the Parochial Church Council, which oversees governance of the church) is now really quite under-strength. Anyone who feels able to put themselves forward for PCC membership would be very welcome: if you’re at all interested, please reply to me to let me know and raise any questions, or alternatively simply stick your hand up on the day when we ask if we have any volunteers.