St Michael and All Angels Houghton-le-Spring

A coveted Red Rose in the Places of Interest Quality Assurance scheme has gone to St Michael & All Angels Church, the Anglican parish church in Houghton le Spring in the Diocese of Durham.

The award recognises the quality of the visitor experience, including the information on offer, the amount of time people stay and the accessibility of the building. It also recognises the work of a team of at least 30 volunteers who give guided tours and welcome people to the church.

The Right Revd Mark Bryant, Bishop of Jarrow, said: “This is a wonderful recognition for the volunteers who come here faithfully week in and week in out to welcome the people who come to this very significant part of our North East Christian heritage.

“What the award is saying is that the quality of the welcome and the quality of the experience that people will have when they come is equivalent to some of our finest and most important tourist attractions.”

Sunderland Mayor Councillor Iain Kay said: “I think it’s quite a tremendous story. It is a badge of honour for Sunderland that a church like this has received such a prestigious award.”

Volunteer Jean Henderson, who formerly received the award from the Bishop on behalf of the church, said: “It was a great honour to receive this award.“

Until recently, it was thought that the history of worship on the site was restricted to Christianity in the existing grade one listed building, parts of which date back to the 12th Century.

However, a series of remarkable discoveries during work to the church in 2008 suggested that the site could have witnessed worship as far back as Neolithic times 4000 years ago.

The work, known as reordering and designed to make the church more accessible and more suited to the needs of congregations in the 21st century, threw up discovery after discovery, which are now celebrated in a heritage centre in the building.

Photos Keith Blundy

Sunday 23 December saw a very special presentation in Church as Evelyn Curry received a certificate from the Rector on behalf of the diocesan Mothers’ Union marking 50 years of membership.  Evelyn was then presented with a bouquet of flowers and a brooch in the shape of St Cuthbert’s Cross by Sue Elsey, the Branch leader, on behalf of the Houghton MU.   Evelyn commented that she had seen a few changes and had gone through a few Rectors! Canon Gwilliam being the Rector when she joined.  The Rector added that it was very appropriate that we celebrated family life and motherhood on the fourth Sunday in Advent, when the church recalls and honours the role of Mary in salvation history.  The presentation ended with all the members of the MU standing and joining together in saying the Mothers’ Union Prayer.

What’s new in ‘KIDS FORUM’

There have been a number of changes and developments with our children’s groups over the last few months.

Mini Michaels. Mini Michaels is a monthly service at 11.30am first Sunday of the month for young families, aimed at children 0-5 yrs. MM is an amalgamation of the former ‘Little Angels’,’ Messy Church’ and the Baptism Welcome, with action songs, a bible story told through the church cat Moses and Messy activities as well as welcoming babies and children for baptism. The service is attended by our younger families and also by the baptism families. Attendance can reach up to 60 people if we have a full complement of baptisms for the month. The service has been very popular with the baptism families and we have had wonderful feedback.

Young Church. Until recently Young Church consisted of mostly older primary aged children who have moved on to become ‘Sparxz’, our church youth group. As Sparxz members are now in secondary education they have outgrown Young Church which in turn is now catering for toddlers and infant age children, with Sparxz members as helpers. Young Church is currently  using Bible story and the themes and crafts we use in Messy Michael.

Messy Michael ran successfully for 2 years at Bernard Gilpin School, but we were left feeling very aware that we seemed to be favouring one Houghton primary school at the expense of the others (the fact that the Associate Minister had run out of messy ideas has nothing to do with it!). It was with much sadness that we bade farewell to Bernard Gilpin School and transferred our Messy Michael team to Burnside Primary school where we have run one session so far. While we miss our young friends at Bernard Gilpin, we have 25 new ones at Burnside spanning school years 1-6. The facilities and the help provided by two teaching assistants are excellent. Everyone…. children, teaching assistants and our team, greatly enjoyed themselves in a very relaxed but busy atmosphere. The school has promised to display the children’s work in their main building. I now have a two year programme in place which will eventually be offered to Gillas Lane school.

Development of spirituality for children and young people at St Michael & All Angels continues to be dynamic, meeting the needs of changing age groups and reaching out into the community.

Rev Margaret Lee

Once again we welcomed the community to our annual Bonfire and Fireworks display on 5 November.  We were blessed with a clear, crisp evening as about 150 children and adults warmed themselves by the fire, enjoyed the fireworks display and tucked into hot dogs.

Thank you to Alastair Bradley, Stan Morson, Anne Goodman and her team for making this annual occasion a special one.

CONGRATULATIONS

We have been awarded membership of the Quality Assurance Scheme for a Place of Interest by Visit England– English Tourism and we are the first church in the north east to reach this standard and receive the award.  We have mystery phone calls, web site checks and a secret visit before we were deemed to be good enough to join the Scheme.  Congratulations to Margaret Lee, Jean Henderson, the Church Stewards and cleaners for all their commitment and hard work in keeping St Michael’s open and spick and spank.  The challenge now is to maintain our high standards!