Our Parish was created by Act of Parliament in 1817 but the church building was not completed until 1823. This year marks the 185th anniversary of the Dedication of All Saints (July 3rd) and – as some other churches and congregations already existed before then - it is a reminder of how long the tradition of Christian witness, mission and service is in Poplar and the East End.  I hope that the celebration of that past will encourage us in our generation to be more effective signs of God’s love and presence here, so do please support the two events planned for this year:-

 

 

July 3rd at 7p.m. – Festival Mass with the Bishop of London,

followed by refreshments in the churchyard

and

November 1st at 12 noon (All Saints Day)

Festival Mass with the Bishop of Stepney

followed by a buffet lunch in the Crypt.

All are invited!!

As always, I express my thanks to all my colleagues, the Churchwardens and other elected officials, and to all who lead or support our many activities as a parish.  Nothing could have been achieved without the hard work, generosity, commitment, support and faith of so many people. We really are fortunate to have a large number of people who work very hard – many often unseen and unknown to the congregation – to ensure the continuance of our life, worship and activities.  My grateful thanks to them all.

Sadly, I also have to record the deaths of three people:  Stan Lewis (a former Churchwarden here at All Saints), Tom Dellor (caretaker here for many years), and Joanne Todd – a stalwart member of the congregation, PCC Secretary and Governor at St. Saviour’s School.  We thank God for their discipleship with us and we pray for their families.  May we share with them in God’s eternal Kingdom.

 

St. Nicholas Church Centre

The congregation at St. Nicholas continues to grow and to be an effective witness and presence of the Aberfeldy Estate under the leadership of Fr. Andrew and the Church Council there. It is good that members of our two congregations feel able to worship together and join in activities in both our churches, especially making special arrangements in the last year with service times for All Saints Day and St. Nicholas Day to make this possible.  It is always a joy to lead or share worship at St. Nick’s and I hope that we will keep the life and ministry of the St. Nicholas Church Centre in our prayers.  Please see Fr. Andrew’s separate Report.

 

Ministry

Fr. John, was ordained Priest in June last year and is continuing to develop his ministry in the Parish and has written a special report on developments in youth work. We bade farewell to one of our Readers, Henderson George, who was ordained Deacon at St. Paul’s Cathedral in July to serve as Curate at St. James, Hackney.

24-Dec-2008nt to assist in pastoral work in the Parish and was licensed by the Bishop of Stepney.  . Modupe Kenku continues the three year course of training for Reader ministry and Emma Triggs has begun the Pastoral Assistants course.  There is also the possibility of another “New Step” course based in the Parish this year for those who want to explore Christian faith and discipleship, which 5 of our congregation completed last year. It is wonderful that more people are thinking about offering themselves for the variety of ministries the church offers, and I ask you to keep them all in your prayers. If you are interested in training for ministry, please look at the notices on Training & Courses in the church and speak with one of the staff team.

I am pleased, too, that a large number of people are involved in the rotas for reading, intercessions and administration of Holy Communion.

 

Fellowship Groups & Mission Action Plan

 

These groups for sharing, support, prayer and learning – each with it’s own distinctive character – continue to meet.  Details about the groups and their purposes can be found on the notice boards and I hope that over the coming year more groups will be formed. The larger the congregation, the more important it is that we have effective ways of enabling pastoral care and nurture in the Faith. The PCC and Church Councils continued to monitor our implementation of our Mission Action Plan.

A reminder that our aim is for our Christian community to be  –

          a sign of God’s presence;

          a source of spiritual nourishment and healing (for ourselves and others);

          a fellowship which welcomes and brings together the community;

          a refuge.

If you have ideas about effective ways of implementing any of these aims, please make them known.

 

Money

 

We managed to pay all our bills last year and make generous donations to charities in addition to the fund–raising that was necessary to meet our own expenses. I thank people for their time and generosity, but also remind us all of the need for continued realistic, regular giving in the coming years as we try to meet our day to day expenses  and  contribute more to the costs of ordained ministry in the parish and the work of the Diocese and national Church. Our contribution to the Diocesan/Ministry costs for 2007 was £44,000 – increasing to £47,740 this year. Despite our giving and fund-raising we are still heavily subsidised by other Parishes in the Diocese and we thank them for their generosity.  At our Stewardship Sunday the Treasurer reminded everyone who pays tax on of the need to Gift Aid their giving so that we can re-claim the tax already paid on every £1 given. I am pleased to report that more of our members are using the weekly envelope scheme, too. Our Treasurer would love to speak to anyone who would like more information on any of these matters!

 

Below I list some of the statistics and events that readily come to mind:

 

the statistics for occasional offices we have performed in the past 12 months (April ’07-March 08) with previous year’s totals in brackets for comparison are :

 

  43 (36) funerals – of which 7 (9) were in church;
    6 (3) burial of ashes in the Garden of Remembrance;
  63 (56) baptisms;
   7 (10) weddings;
42 (32) people were confirmed in June.

Statutory Minister’s fees paid, where appropriate, for services taken amounted to £4182 (£3960) and were paid to the Diocese towards the Diocesan Common Fund..

 

The Prayer Healing Group continues to meet on Tuesdays and the Services of Prayer for Healing will continue to be held at regular intervals in both churches.

 

The work with children and young people continues and some of the parents in our congregation play an active part in the leadership. More adults, however, are needed and Fr. John would be pleased to give more information to any who might be interested.  Our thanks to them for keeping this work alive, especially in Junior Church and during the activities of Good Friday – yet to come!

 

We continued to support many charities as a Parish, including our commitment to the Delhi Brotherhood Society, and overall last year we donated £4,162 to various charities.

 

Our own Parish website – www.parishofpoplar.com continues to get visited by a large number of people every day (many from abroad) and has brought new people into contact with us – and to worship.

 

Volunteers continue to make it possible for All Saints to be open and available at lunch times from Mondays to Saturdays.

 

The annual service of remembrance in November for the friends and families of those whose funerals we have conducted is appreciated and continues to be well attended.

 

The Crypt has been used on a regular weekly basis by the Parent & Toddlers Group, the Tuesday Lunch Club, our new group for young people, and Barnardo’s  outreach work to families in temporary accommodation.  It is used regularly by all the other groups and activities associated with the church and the parish.  Unfortunately, Barnardo’s had to move their outreach work to north London and the work with refugees and children in temporary accommodation has now been taken over in the Crypt by the charity Kings Cross Outreach.

 

The staff continues it’s weekly involvement taking assemblies at St. Saviour’s School. We congratulate the school on its continued deserved popularity with parishioners.  Staff occasionally take assemblies at other schools by invitation.

 

The conduct of regular worship continues to benefit from a large number of people who give their time to ensure that it happens well. My thanks to them all.

 

The Wednesday evening informal Mass continues to attract a large number of people. As part of our Mission Action Plan we will be exploring new ways of developing the varied and informal style of that service.

 

Mention must be made of the “bumper” confirmation in June last year and the hard work put in by so many to make the day a success.  We are good at attracting people of all ages into the Church, but the challenge still remains to develop an effective strategy to help them develop their faith and commitment after the day.

 

The ministers of the local churches continue to meet monthly over breakfast and we have maintained the pattern of regular acts of joint worship throughout the year.

 

The Docklands Singers continue to use the church for at least one concert each year, and our own choir has entered into an arrangement with the choir at Danbury Parish Church to join together each year for a performance of Stainer’s “Crucifixion” in the lead up to Holy Week.

 

It was good to welcome back members of the SPY Club (South Poplar Youth) for their annual re-union in the Crypt. Their fund of stories about the parish as it was is always informative!

 

Excellent new noticeboards have been installed in the churchyard facing the East India Dock Road to advertise our services.

 

The Church now has both a Women’s Group and a Men’s Group and both are attracting good numbers.

 

The Electoral Roll now stands at 279.

 

There are, of course, many other activities and events and many people who have been and are working hard in many ways which have not been mentioned, and, on behalf of the congregation, I thank them all.

 

Finally, many thanks again for all your support. May God guide and bless all we attempt to do together in His name.