St Paul Old Ford annual report 2023
Vicar’s report
Reasons to be thankful
There are numerous reasons for gratitude in the past year at St Paul’s.
Following months of closure, and with the assistance of two grants, we successfully relaunched the church cafe as St Paul’s Kitchen in September. Operating from Wednesday to Friday, and also catering to building users, St Paul’s Kitchen has been a big hit in the community. We’ve witnessed a diverse array of people coming through our doors to enjoy Jeanette’s delicious cooking. Jeanette, who joined our team last year, has seamlessly integrated and consistently impressed. It’s been truly rewarding to observe how she has cared for hundreds of people over the months. Our vision of providing nutritious, handmade meals at affordable prices for local residents is taking shape. This is made possible because St Paul’s subsidises each meal we serve. We’re genuinely enthusiastic about the future prospects of this endeavour.
Last year also marked the addition of Grace to our welcome and hospitality team. And we were thrilled to welcome Debbie Mack to our staff as the new part-time youth worker.
Also among the highlights of 2023 was the street party we hosted in celebration of the King’s coronation. It was a joyous occasion, with over 400 local residents joining us as we embraced the opportunity to extend our traditional St. Paul Old Ford hospitality.
Other memorable moments included Michelle Lam’s baptism in our children’s swimming pool in the vicarage garden, and Debbie’s moving testimony as she expressed gratitude to God for His goodness while reaffirming her baptismal vows.
Thank you Billy, for all your support and always being willing to serve. You’ve been a constant source of encouragement to me.
I would also like to give an extra special thank you to my colleague and friend Rev April. In my time so far at St Paul’s, April has modelled to me what it looks like to be in love with this parish. It has been a huge support and comfort to work alongside her. In her dedication to prayer, her beautiful preaching ministry and her far-reaching pastoral work, April has taught me a lot about what it means to be a priest to our congregation. At times of tragedy, April’s number was the first that I dialled. With her depth of ministerial knowledge, and her unique spirituality, she continues to be a blessing to me, and I’m sure to all of us. So, I wanted to take this opportunity to give April her own shout you. I know I don’t say this enough. Thanks for who you are, and all you do.
Challenges to the church community
In 2023 however, St. Paul’s faced significant loss and challenges that left a lasting impact. Christina, our dedicated team member who keeps our premises immaculate, was signed off long-term for health reasons. Similarly, Grace encountered health challenges that required her to be signed off from work. We also mourned the passing of cherished church family members Mike Zackiewicz, John Day and Eddie Collins.
Personally, I found 2023, particularly the losses we experienced, deeply distressing. However, it is during such trying times that the true character of faith communities is revealed. The unwavering support and solidarity that St Paul’s extended to Grace and I during our own challenges served as a powerful affirmation of our belonging within this community. Similarly, witnessing the care and compassion our church fellowship offered to the families of Mike, John, Eddie, was profoundly moving.
So, despite the sorrow and pain of 2023, it was also a year marked by glimpses of Christ’s kingdom among us at St Paul Old Ford. Through tangible acts of love and support, we witnessed the resilience and compassion of our community. As your vicar, I am deeply grateful for these moments, which remind us of the strength and grace found in our shared journey of faith.
Unsung heroes
Again, I want to take a moment to highlight the incredible individuals who work tirelessly behind the scenes at St Paul’s. While I won’t be able to mention everyone, it’s vital to recognise the myriad contributions that often go unnoticed.
Firstly, I want to commend Gerry, who stepped down from the PCC last year, but continues to be an unwavering source of support for me as vicar. Gerry’s dedication is evident every Sunday morning as he quietly attends to various tasks without seeking recognition.
A special acknowledgment is also due to Tracey, our assistant churchwarden and a member of our bank staff team. Tracey consistently goes above and beyond, ensuring that even the smallest details, like changing the altar candles, are attended to with care.
I also want to shine a light on Jean’s invaluable work behind the scenes. The brilliance of our altar cloths and the cleanliness of our kitchen towels are all thanks to Jean’s diligent efforts.
I want to express heartfelt gratitude to Jackie, Dom and Ray for their selfless service. Not only do they ensure that we are refreshed after every service, but they also proactively tackle any tasks that need attention.
Lastly, I want to extend a special recognition to Tim, Rob, and Isobel for their dedication to running our livestream. Their commitment ensures that our services reach an average of about 40 viewers per week, a testament to the impact of their efforts. It’s clear that their hard work is bearing fruit, allowing us to connect with our community in meaningful ways, even beyond the physical walls of our church.
To all those I’ve mentioned and the countless others who quietly keep our community running smoothly, I extend my deepest appreciation. Your dedication is the unseen but essential lubricant that keeps the wheels turning at St Paul’s. Whether your name has been mentioned or not, please know that your efforts do not go unnoticed. Beyond our church’s recognition, God sees and acknowledges the love and care you pour into our community.
Darius Weithers, Vicar of St Paul Old Ford
Associate priest’s report
Since 2010, I have been an informal part of St Paul’s community and ministry, originally helping with preaching and presiding only, while I worked full time as chaplain to an academy. In 2018, I was offered to come in the building three days a week to offer more formal ministry: continuing preaching and presiding, but also assisting with the pastoral ministry, small groups, and other pastoral offices.
Pastoral work
Given that St Paul’s is open at least 5 days a week, there are always people coming in and out who are looking for help, and while they don’t always know it, looking for God. From April 2023, I have continued to offer preaching and presiding ministry with Darius, our vicar and Billy, our self-supporting minister. And that has been a joy.
I have also met regularly with the Wednesday daytime Bible study with Anne, our pastoral assistant. It’s a time of discussion, learning and humour. I’ve also relished visiting our older shut-in parishioners and those in hospital or sick at home. On the days I’m not in the church building, I am often calling people to see how they are, preparing sermons and orders of service and praying for various issues locally and globally.
Supporting funerals and grieving
I have often offered funeral ministry with people who do not come to church. It is a time to meet families at difficult times, prepare a service acknowledging death and its ache, as well as offering the consolation and love of God. For no matter how near or far people are from God, God is with us. Most poignant have been John Day’s funeral, and – heartbreakingly – Mike Zak’s death and funeral, Eddie’s demise and remembrance, and the sudden death of Angela Doherty. These funerals take a toll on all of us, but yet this is part of being Christ’s body and God’s family.
Since January, I have further reduced my time in the church building but still work at home on other days. As well as the above ministry, I have had some death cafes to help people reflect on life in the midst of death, mostly with people outside the church family. I’ve done these for the last 6 years. This year I took a couple of people to another church’s ‘Blue Christmas’ services for those who might find Christmas a very difficult time.
Other work at St Paul’s and beyond
I am St Paul’s monthly liaison with Helen and Rob Quail, our mission partners in Nicaragua, for their family and personal support. And it’s wonderful to meet with families for baptism preparation and marriage preparation.
Outside the St Paul Old Ford ministry, I have helped prepare candidates for ordination retreats, tutored students on the ‘Peter stream’ at St Mellitus College and I did the last of my evening ‘Beginning Theology’ classes in June. I’ve taught 6 classes a year for over 15 years for that stream of ministry. I’ve enjoyed co-leading the 10-sessions of the ‘Being With’ course with Darius and also with a group of women. And recently I organised our 4 guest speakers for St Paul Old Ford’s 20th reopening anniversary.
The future
As you read this, I have reached 72 years of age and realise it is time for me to let go. How and exactly when is still yet to be formally announced. But it makes room for others to come and gives me space to ponder my continued thanks for this wonderful life God has given me.
April Keech, associate priest
Churchwardens’ report
At St Paul’s, the church wardens do less of the traditional church wardens’ role of being responsible for the church buildings, because we have our amazing building team, led by Venue Manager Divya. We want to thank her for keeping everything running so smoothly. We also want to give a shoutout to the bank staff, who do so much to help our out-of-hours bookings happen. We want to give particular thanks to Trevor, for also being our go-to repair man for many jobs around church.
The main part of the church wardens’ role at St Paul’s is supporting the vicar and helping to make decisions and provide leadership to the church through the standing committee and the PCC.
But back to the buildings, the big things to report this year is the 2 quinquennial inspections: one for St Paul’s and the other for St Mark’s. Every 5 years, church buildings must be inspected by an experienced and qualified professional. These inspections help make sure our buildings are kept in good repair.
The inspections on our buildings were carried out by Alex Sherratt of Matthew Lloyd architects, the firm behind the renovation of St Paul’s in 2004. They have continued to be involved with the church and produced the 2023 quinquennial reports. The reports include a detailed look at the condition of each building and provide a list of things that need to be done, in order of urgency. There are a few things that we need to act on, and the church wardens are working with Divya (for St Paul’s) and the Montessori nursery (for St Mark’s), and others, to get the necessary work done.
Church wardens: Tim Murray and Melanie O’Reilly
Deanery synod report
The deanery synod is a forum where clergy and lay reps from churches across Tower Hamlets meet 3 times a year to discuss and work together on various issues we have in common. Meetings usually take place at St Paul Shadwell, starting with food.
The deanery synod had 3 meetings in 2023. They discussed issues like mission action plans and strategy and the collaborative parish operations project. There was also a social gathering at St Katherine’s Foundation.
There were a couple of new things in 2023. A new lay chair was elected, and the synod also started regular prayer walks around the borough.
Deanery synod reps: Tim Murray and Tracey Yewman
Pastoral team report
Pastoral visiting
The pastoral work at St Paul Old Ford is shared between the clergy, Rev Darius and Rev April, and assisted by the pastoral team: Anne Zakiewicz, Chris Watson, Joy Redman and Doris Ani-Agyei. But there are also many other caring people at St Paul’s, who help each other out, in so many ways.
We meet as a team occasionally to share news and pray, and between us, we visit a few mainly elderly or immobile people in their homes, and sometimes go to see people in hospital. Most of these people were regulars at St Paul’s in the past, and still take an eager interest in hearing news and praying for us. They are no longer well enough to get to church and some – like Moji and Dulcie – are well into their 90s. We always spend time in prayer with them and sometimes give holy communion.
The clergy meet with many bereaved families, and this year we have sadly lost 4 of our church family; Mike, John, Eddie and Angela (in early 2024).
Welcome lunches
Every other month after the Sunday service, we hold welcome lunches and invite new people who have started coming to the church, to help them to meet some of our church members and feel welcomed. Many thanks to our wonderful cooks and welcome team.
Other pastoral team work
On Tuesdays Chris collects all the food and other gifts left in the trunk in the church café and delivers these generous donations to Bow Foodbank. The foodbank is currently based in the old Raines school in Bethnal Green, but it will soon be moving closer to us in Roman Road. There has been a huge growth in the need for the food bank and its vital work.
At Christmas the annual Christmas carols at Donnybrooke Care home and the Eleanor pub were a delight and a great opportunity to take the good news into the community.
Anne Zakiewiez, pastoral assistant
Bible study and prayer
Prayer and Bible study is at the heart of what we do at St Pauls, because in doing these we are listening and speaking to God, and growing in our relationship with God and each other. We’d encourage everybody at St Paul’s to be part of these groups. They will be glad to welcome you along!
Bible study groups
Wednesdays is always the busiest day for church Bible study and prayer groups. There are 3 Wednesday Bible study groups at St Paul’s meeting at different times, which ran throughout 2023.
12.30pm is the church café group, led alternately by April and Anne. They look ahead to the 2 Bible readings in the following Sunday’s service, so they can think about it beforehand.
7.15pm is the fortnightly evening Bible study in the church cafe, with Anne. They have 15 minutes for tea and biscuits, before starting the study at 7:30pm. Like the lunchtime group, they also look ahead to the following Sunday’s readings. They finish with 15 minutes prayer until 9pm.
8pm is the Bible in the pub group at the Eleanor Arms on Old Ford Road. It’s friendly gathering in the relaxed atmosphere of the pub, and they usually read and discuss the readings from the previous Sunday service and try to understand what they are teaching us.
Prayer
On Wednesdays, just before the lunchtime Bible study, there are prayers in the church prayer corner from 12pm, with April and Anne.
The prayer corner at church is open regularly and people can come, pray and light a candle. We are happy to offer prayer on Sundays when the church is open around the service, or any weekday, when the church is open (usually 9am to 5pm) and if someone is available.
Saturday mornings is the online prayer meeting run by Rev Darius. It’s a half hour prayer meeting which people can join from wherever they are.
And at the end of 2023, we started a new monthly prayer meeting on Wednesdays in the church café at 7:30pm. This was formed mainly by the Wednesday evening cafe group and the Bible in the pub group coming together, although all are welcome. They pray the evening prayer liturgy, spend time interceding, and try different ways of listening to God.
Other groups
On Fridays Joy and Beryl lead a knit and natter group in the church café from 11am, with lots of nattering and cups of tea.
In January 2023, April started a new Being With course, which spent 10 weeks exploring Christian life and faith.
Men’s breakfast
The men’s breakfast is coordinated by Andrew, our licensed lay minister. The group meets on the second Saturday of the month from 9:30am to 11am. They sometimes invite a visiting speaker or one of the group will talk about their passion and their Christian life over a tasty breakfast. They share their own stories, and the meeting ends in prayer. They also hold regular curry nights.
Venue manager’s report
We were all delighted that St Paul’s café officially reopened in September 2023 after an 8-month closure. Our new cook Jeanette lives locally and has settled in brilliantly. And she has started new initiatives such as sourcing meat from a local butcher and developing a weekly changing menu of new favourites like shepherd’s pie, jerk chicken and stew with dumplings. We are gaining new customers alongside our valued existing regulars. Also, opening the café (on Wednesdays to Fridays, 11am to 3pm) would not be possible without the help of our old friend Rose, who is such a reliable volunteer.
Another new face in the building is Grace Weithers, who took on the role of welcome and hospitality coordinator in April 2023. She is kept busy on the reception desk, increasing our income through hiring out space for private parties, and our regular hirers, like NHS respiratory care and exercise, Strong Mamas, and our new classes like Muay Tai kickboxing for under 12s. We have also expanded our partnership with our tenant, Ability Bow, which has begun providing affordable community exercise classes on Tuesdays in our meeting hall.
We have increased bookings through using the online space hire platform Sharesy, which allows new customers to find us and give us a try. Through Sharesy we have taken on the Breathwork class, baby showers and engagements. Our flexible spaces make the venue appealing to lots of different users and the team – including our valued bank of part-time reception staff and cleaners who come out-of-hours – work hard to make sure events run safely and successfully.
In October we hosted a Black History Month celebration for the second year running. This is a free community event organised by Anita and Susan from the Lady Lane Market which brought people together creating fun memories and increasing well-being. The day consisted of craft workshops for all ages, a Lindy Hop jazz dance performance and opportunity to join in. Two guest speakers – Salome Dior Williams (film producer) and Tina Amuzie (founder of the ‘Educate an African Child’ charity), as well as music, raffles and food completed the day and we hope to host them again.
Our quinquennial inspection came around again and was led by Alex Sherratt. This resulted in a 100-page report identifying the condition of the building in detail and suggesting when work will need to be done. Thankfully, no major urgent works were identified this time round, although there are a number of repairs in the pipeline that we are planning for. As the report says:
“St Paul’s remains well cared for and properly managed by dedicated people… improvements and upgrades are undertaken where necessary in order to enhance and adapt various aspects of the building to suit the needs of different users.”
We are very grateful to have a venue team of passionate people who work extremely hard to make sure St Paul’s continues to be a space that is safe, welcoming and hospitable for everyone who enters the building.
Divya Beeharry, venue manager
Youth worker’s report
I wasn’t around at the beginning of the year. I started a phased return to work, starting with one day a month in March and slowly built up to 21 hours by August, by adding a day each month.
I completed the practical side of my degree in September 2023 which was an apprenticeship in youth ministry and mission. Due to my mental illness in 2022, I was unable to complete the university and essay side of things. The London diocese and St Paul’s were so patient and understanding about my illness and the need to take my time. I began with youth Sunday school, then added the Rise youth club on Mondays. I loved being back! It felt like home from home: my church family.
Sunday youth started small in March 2023 but slowly increased and by December 2023 we had 5 to 7 young people regularly attending. The young people were keen to learn and inspired me to look deeper into my own faith. My challenge was to make the sessions fun and relevant to life today. With help from Darius, Jessica and April I learnt new ways to do this.
I returned to Rise in May 2023 and it ran really well with the help of our amazing volunteers Charis, Angela and Darius. It started slow with low numbers and some young people didn’t return. But we remained optimistic and kept going. We lowered the age of young people attending down from 11 to 10 and that helped to increase numbers. By December 2023, we had 10 young people regularly attending Rise on Monday nights.
Darius gave me new opportunities to try new things like learning to do a youth service. I was nervous but valued his faith in me to be able to do it. The Christmas youth service was a big one for me. But so many people stepped up to help from the congregation and it was wonderful and very inspiring.
In September 2023, the post for a new youth worker came up at St Paul’s. I thought that I’d maybe assist them and carry on doing what I was doing. But God had other plans and I got the post! I felt like everyone knew that would be the case but me! The people at St Paul’s made me feel so at home and wanted. I truly cannot imagine working anywhere else.
It was a pleasure watching all our young people grow physically, mentally and spiritually. And also having my daughter along for the journey. Everything that happened in 2023 led to my confidence in my role today and my dreams and hopes for the young people in 2024.
Debbie Mack, youth worker
Finance update
A verbal report on finances will be provided at the APCM, and there will be an updated statement on the website after the 2023 accounts have been subject to a final independent evaluation.
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