Annual Parochial Church Meeting

Rev’d Chris Lion

2023 has been another amazing year for our church with so much going on and what you're going to see over these next few minutes is just a taste of some of the highlights, some of the things that people have really enjoyed being part of over that year and also some of the amazing things that God has been doing in our midst. So I hope you enjoy it.

Speaker 1

Hi all I'm Kinan I used to be a children worker in St Mary's in 22 and 23 and I really enjoyed on the entire period. I invite you guys all come and join me St Mary's and getting Jesus blessings. God bless you all.

Child 1

I love messy Easter.

Jamie-Leigh Kirk

2023, has been a highlight because through meeting Adam Pailing at Charles Street Warm Space I was told about Alpha. I joined the Alpha team, and I instantly knew it's where I needed to be, so I wanted to give back to the church, so I asked about volunteering and they told me about the Toddle Together, which I instantly joined. From there myself and my two children became part of the St Mary's family, and in August 2023 we were baptised. We were all together by full immersion and it was truly amazing and having my friends and family witness such a big step in my faith journey both brought me joy and strengthen my faith further. This past year in the church has been very insightful and joining the church has been the best decision in my family's life. I now see life in a different way.

Sue Dutton

Hi, I'm Sue Dutton and I am the representative for Eco church at Saint Mary Magdalene with St. Leonard’s in Newark. With God's help and some hard work, we have attained our Silver Eco Church award and now we are working towards gold. We are a small group of eco warriors with the sole objective of significantly reducing our Church's carbon footprint by 2035. Saving our planet and caring for God's creation is one of the most important items on the global agenda. Remember, God made the world. It is his and everything belongs to him.

Stephen Bullamore

I have really enjoyed leading the music department at Saint Mary's in 2023. There were several highlights. Our choir sang Evensong in Peterborough Cathedral. Our choristers enjoyed a trip to Grimsby to sing with their choir. We hosted a group from Saint James the Greater, Leicester to sing Evensong and on a larger scale we loved singing with the choir from Mullheim, Germany. Many of the Young people enjoyed exam success with their learning supported by the Magnus Foundation. The choristers enjoyed a bowling trip and we joined with other choirs from across the diocese for the annual diocesan festival in the Minster in Southwell. Many would also point to the Easter or Christmas services as particular highlights. We bade farewell to Mike Dutton as our assistant organist in the summer, and we were delighted to appoint Elizabeth Harwood to that position. It's great to be able to work with Elizabeth, who brings a wealth of experience to the role. But for me, the real highlight is actually seeing when we zoom out and view the year as a whole; seeing our children and young people grow in maturity and confidence in both faith and music is a great privilege. In particular, we have had a settled and growing group of choristers who have gelled together as a team. As a young cohort, we pray that they will stay together for years to come.

Chorister 1

My favourite part of 2023 was the Christingle service.

Chorister 2

My highlight 2023 was when the German choir came to sing with us from Mullheim.

Chorister 3

My favourite highlight of 2023 was when I got my dark blue medal.

Chorister 4

My favourite part about 2023 was when we had our Christingle.


Chorister 5

My highlight of 2023 is when it was Christmas and we decorated the tree.


Chorister 6

My highlight is joining the choir and singing in Church.


Stephen Bullamore

Working with an enlarged staff team has been energising and my thanks go to the clergy and all the congregation for all of their support.

Cheryl Turner

Hi my name's Cheryl and I am the head server, youth worker and social secretary of St. Leonards, which keeps me busy. I'd say my favourite things of 2023 would be our Easter extravaganza, our stay and play sessions and our family Christmas fair/fun day. I choose these ones because they're really family orientated, they're really popular and they are growing every year. It's lovely to see all different families coming together as well as regulars and new people. It's just wonderful watching it grow and I really hope it continues with so much love and happiness in the room and that's just what we really want at St Leonard’s, is just to spread love and happiness to the wider part of Newark, and by doing these family events, connecting them to the word of God, sharing God’s Love with them through these different activities will make them see what benefits they can get from coming to St Leonard’s church, and my passion is just to keep making these events bigger and better and building up St Leonard’s church with lots of new, lovely families.

Lily Grob

The new Prayer Ministry team for the 11:00 AM contemporary service at Saint Mary's started to meet during the autumn of 2023. The team started to pray after the service in November and the uptake to start with was slow, but we're excited to see more people coming for prayer on Sundays now. We're seeing prayers being answered and it's truly exciting to see God moving more of the church family, becoming aware of the ministry and the power of prayer, and our hope is to enable people to feel comfortable and free to come for prayer once, twice or many times anticipating answered prayers.

Nick Carter

When I started my role at the beginning of last year. It felt like a bit of a dive into the unknown, but God has been so kind in bringing alongside me some amazing volunteers in worship and youth, some incredible interns, and yeah, that's been just the greatest blessing to me for this year.

Ryan King

Hi everyone. My highlights of 2023 firstly has to be joining the team here at Saint Mary’s. Thank you to everyone for making me feel so welcome in this job role and also in the church community. It's been amazing to see the growth of our church in the short space of time. Not only at our Sunday services, but also the groups that meet here during the week. It's been great to welcome so many people into this community. I'm very excited for what God's got planned for us in 2024.

Jasmine Clark

My highlight of 2020, we're seeing how God moved through the human through working at Magnus Academy, Newark College, and our own youth group. I've got the privilege to see young people have incredible encounters with God, and I cannot wait to see how God moves through them in 2024 as well.

Andrew Fearn

Good evening everyone. I'm gonna cheat slightly because I've got 2 highlights. The 1st is the Coronation dinner which we held in Church last May. It demonstrated what we can do as a church. We had a great evening and we made some money for reawakening. Second one is a miserable day in December when I was walking just before Christmas when I was walking up a curb. Towards the church and I noticed a missed call on my mobile. So I rang the number back. And the missed calls from Callie Barrett, who's contacted the lottery board, and she told me the fabulous news that we had been granted everything we asked for- about £2.5 million- so that the Reawakening project could continue. It was an emotional moment and the emotions took over again in the vestry when I told people and that was certainly a day and a half to remember.

Danny Marshall

Well, I do hope that you have enjoyed looking back on 2023 and the many things that people have given thanks for and the many ways in which we have seen God at work in the life of this church and the wider parish, and I just want to say huge thank you for all that you contribute to the life of the church here. In the many ways that you serve with your time, with your treasure and your talents, as we look forward to continuing through 2024.