Link to Church
St. Stephen’s Church building was first used for worship in 1846, and it was the Church members who set up the Church Primary School opposite in 1863. There have been strong links ever since, and we hope these continue.
We would love to see more people, from our Church and School family, at Church on Sundays. Services take place at 10.30 a.m. and, during the service, children have activities in their own Children’s Corner. They are guided and supervised by Church members who have, of course, been appropriately D.B.S. checked. The children love these activities and we get good feedback from adults too.
Several years ago, we introduced “Messy Church” straight after school. Our Messy Church afternoon are advertised in the school's newsletter, and everyone will be welcome. Children do, however, need to be accompanied by an adult. These events have been really successful, they are planned and led by Peter Shone, Jill Phillips and Janet Harrison, and a number of other Church members help too, with activities, refreshments and a short act of worship.
We are very pleased to host School Services at Harvest, Christmas, Easter and the end of the School Year and you are all welcome as you know. Each class takes the lead role in taking these services for us - and we very proud of them for this!
Our Church people want to support School in as many different ways as we can. Our Vicar, Rev. Amy Elizabeth, leads collective worship on Tuesday afternoons and welcomes classes into Church regularly for guided tours, or curriculum-related sessions. Classes from Poplar Street School and Audenshaw Primary have also been to our Church building. The Vicar is also, automatically, one of our School Governors. Other Church members support School events, and help in voluntary roles.
Our mission, of course, is to share the love of Jesus Christ, and his message, in as many ways as we can. We love doing this, and we love getting to know people of all ages.