Tonight's Christingle Service

 

Beautiful service tonight. Our young people did their own nativity which was really good. Once we'd lit the Christingles and given them out I couldn't resist the temptation to take this photo. It is such a beautiful sight with all the candles lit.

Our Manger at St Phil's

At our Carol Service on Thursday we filled this manger made of bricks with straw for the baby.The bricks are from a derelict site in the area that we hope will be redeveloped in the New Year and as we placed our straw in the manger we prayed God's love to find room in our hearts, our community and our world. We prayed for renewal. It was really very moving.

Carol service at St Philip's

 

It was a really nice service last night, plenty of people there and a lovely mixture. We had children, parents and staff from the school, people from local residents groups, 2 PCSOs, People from one of the bands that rehearses in St Phil's, regular church people, some from the University, the WI and the Angel. Thanks to everyone for coming and making it a really nice event. Beautiful singing from the congregation and from our singing group.

At last we have changed parking restrictions outside St Phil's

 

This morning they've amended the sign for Encombe Place (and I assume Bank Place). We've been asking for this for years, it will give visitors to my house and to church a lot more flexibility. It's great to see the new notice although I imagined it would have been a new sign rather than just putting a couple of stickers on. It has occurred to me that maybe I should have painted the changes I wanted on a while ago but maybe that wouldn't have carried much weight in a court of law...

Salford City College Christmas Concert

Shearwater at St Phil's

Sad day in General Synod

 

This is the ceiling in the assembly hall of Church House. I spent a lot of time looking at this today as I listened exasperated by many of the speeches. There are some lovely, lovely people on General Synod but there are also some very strange & sad people. Some thoughts on today's vote are here: http://manchestercleric.blogspot.co.uk/

Some new photos

I'm not posting on here very often, I've had a couple of technical problems and it's usually a lot easier to Tweet and Facebook. I've got some nice photos from a couple of recent gigs though and thought I'd put a couple up here with links.

 I am Kloot at St Philip's Church.

More photos can be found here

Glissando and The Rustle of the Stars at Sacred Trinity Church.

More photos are here.

The Face

This is a Face of Christ. An unusual view of St Phil's stained glass window. From outside but right up close with the wire grill protection in front and looking very dirty because of the masonry work. Hopefully very soon he will be cleaned up and get new polycarbonate protection that'll let the light through better.

Tomorrow We Sail & We Are Willow

Tomorrow We Sail and We Are Willow played at Sacred Trinity last night and I got a few photos. It was a very lovely gig. Jake Mattison also played but, sorry Jake, I forgot to get the camera out. Some photos can be found on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151248852145491.509219.550395490&type=1&l=3aa7d8c691

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"Peel Park steps"
(taken at University of Salford)

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"A very quiet but lovely Peel Park"

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First frost of the year but a lovely morning

 

I went for a run this morning. I did about 3 miles including two laps of the meadow and then went through Peel Park and back down the Crescent. It was such a beautiful morning that I had to keep stopping to take photos. The two panoramas are taken with the new feature on Apple's camera app.

 

The running track round the Meadow. The Sun obscuring St Phil's.

Looking towards the University and Broughton.

Maps on iOS6 is shockingly, shockingly bad

 

I've just updated to iOS6 and whilst much of it is very good improvements I'd caution anyone about upgrading unless you've got a good alternative Sat Nav on your iPhone (I have CoPilot GPS). The maps are appalling. They have ditched google maps and although I often moaned about google maps, what they've replaced it with is even worse. This screenshot shows my local area where the local landmarks appear to be the Dock & Pulpit Pub which has lain empty for at least 10 years and Salimar Tandoori Takeaway that was only open for a couple of years and was in a building that was demolished about 5 years ago! This map doesn't have St Philip's Church on, St Philip's School or Islington Mill in fact it has very little on except the street names. The Satellite view is very good and does seem to have the new pavements on, but with such out of date information it's pretty redundant. I just tried looking up some addresses and when I found one that it recognised (There was no Sacred Trinity Church and even no Trinity High School!) it gave ok instructions except the pin was on the wrong road. There doesn't seem to be a cycling option and the public transport option relies on other apps so you might as well just use the app direct. Apple need to do something about this quickly, either withdraw it or do some serious improvements quickly.

Our Zoe enjoying Leisure Society at Greenbelt

Literature Thieves - 1st support act tonight

Fantastic rainbow over Manchester

A new lake on Cleminson Street

 

A stupid amount of rain fell this afternoon. I got very wet walking home and this puddle on Cleminson St was amazing.

Our Abby with her platinum award from school

 

She is a really lovely daughter and we are very proud of her. Here she is - a little embarresed about her award.

Mmmmmm... Dates & Cheese!

How do you get to be officially Manchester's no. 1 carpet superstore?

 

This was the question I was asking myself as we followed this van along Eccles Old Rd. Strangely it doesn't have much about it that reveals it's obvious number 1ness. I'm tempted to think that "officially Manchester's no. 1 carpet superstore' may be a trade name for a third rate carpet operation. Or am I just very cynical? It could be that they are so good at their job that they don't feel the need for fancy livery or a proper name, it may be that they really know about carpets and genuinely are the best in their business.

It's funny how people like to make bold claims we live in a world that is full of bold, and usually false, claims. Even churches like to make big claims and fall into the "worldly ways" of advertising. I was told off by someone recently for using phrases in my publicity like "We try to include everyone..." or "we like to think we're quite friendly...". I was told I ought to state things more boldly but I think it's better to try to do well and to let others judge how good you are.

Middlewood Locks

Sunday 17th from 10.45 at St Phil's we have people talking to us about the future of the wonderful vacant site in the foreground of this picture. They're doing consultation on it. The site is 21 acres so it is a really important piece of St Philip's parish. A little more info can be found here: http://middlewood-locks.com/

Lovely June weather is getting the river Irwell seriously high.

I went for a run this morning and was quite surprised to see how high the river is. We have had a lot of rain though. I'm thinking that it would have to rise quite a bit more before there was any flood risk but it is thought that Lower Broughton is will get flooded some time in the next 50 years or so. If June carries on like it is we'll maybe get some flooding again in Salford, although I really wouldn't wish it on anyone. Let's hope we start to get sunshine!

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!

On holiday in Dorset enjoying the scenery

Annual Whit Walk

James Blackshaw at Sacred Trinity

Nerina Pallot

Chris Helme

Michele Stodart at Sacred Trinity

Michele Stodart of the Magic Numbers played at Sacred Trinity on 19th April 2012. It was a really nice gig with support from Josephine and Alexis McLean. A few more photos are here: https://picasaweb.google.com/108102980736713744459/MicheleStodart?authuser=0&feat=directlink

The Weir

This is the Weir on the River Irwell from the Meadows. I love this spot. There's greenery and space and yet the city is all around. In this picture the towers you can see are from the left: Salford Cathedral, St Philip's Church, Beetham Tower. The old industry that was alongside the river has long gone but the new planned apartments haven't come yet. There is currently an application in for this site between Silk St and the river for student accommodation.

My Wednesday afternoon photography group came down onto the Meadow the other week and were wowed by it. We'll be posting some photos next week.

Alleluia! He is risen!

One of our "Stations of the Cross"

 

This is "Jesus falls for the 3rd time" by Ron Redshaw. You can see the whole set this week any lunchtime (12-2) at Sacred Trinity. They're well worth seeing and we have other artwork on display as well.

Art launch at Sacred Trinity

New link on river Irwell path has opened

Fantastic decorated eggs from the children at St Philip's School

The light pours into St Philip's

Beautiful light from the setting sun shining through the West doors.

And then James and Hilda arrived for our Tuesday evening service

Buddleja versus building

It may take a while but it looks like eventually there will only be one winner and it won't be the building!

Lots of activity in Greengate

This is the view at the moment from the old Exchange station car park looking towards Sacred Trinity. The church is just to the right of the red 123 sign. The river and Manchester Cathedral are to the left. This is the site of the old Victoria bus station which is going to become an exciting new public space.

Really busy on Sunday at Trinity

We had a great turnout on Sunday at Sacred Trinity with Manchester Universities Guild of Change Ringers out in force as well as a good turnout from regulars and a couple of newcomers. Nice buzz.

Not as pretty as usual.

The scaffolding that has gone up at St Phil's as we start the stonework repairs.

The Fell Clarinet Quartet doing a concert for schools

They're doing the lunchtime recital today but first they're doing a concert with children from 3 local schools. Really good fun and very interesting.

Joseph Brotherton has come home

Joseph Brotherton was Salford's first MP and a leading vegetarian. He was an important Victorian reformer and campaigned amongst other things for the urban masses to have access to green spaces. He was one of the movers behind the opening of Peel Park which was one of the world's first public parks. His statue was erected in the park but later on sold, moved around a bit and ended up on the wrong side of the River Irwell. For the last few years he seems to have been stranded on a rather neglected patch of river bank looking longingly at the fair city of Salford across the river. Now he's been moved home and will be part of the new river walkway between Salford Central Station and the Lowry Hotel.

Salford University Big Band

As usual it's a really nice gig tonight from the Big Band. They sound really good in our lovely acoustics.

New map for visitors to Chapel St area.

This will really be very helpful to visitors. The picture shows you what's what and the map is lovely and clear.