Our churches are fabulous buildings in which to perform music, and as well as having a thriving choir that sings anthems most weeks, we hosted a concert by the Manchester Chorale in October. Whilst small in number, our choir tackles challenging rep, including music by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Karl Jenkins, Johnny Dankworth, John Rutter, Mozart and Debby Plummer. I continued visiting St Margaret’s CE primary school twice weekly to run a lunchtime choir for KS2 children and lead the whole school weekly singing assemblies. We welcomed the whole school to church for an Easter service, a Harvest service in the Autumn, and a carol service just before Christmas. In the autumn term I took the school choir to the Stoller Hall for a lively singing workshop and back to the Trafford Centre for a day of singing carols and Christmas songs.
Items were posted to our blog and social media streams every day during Lent, including twice-weekly Stations of the Cross as well as seasonally appropriate hymns, anthems and readings.
Over the summer I took a sabbatical and visited other churches of the mission community for their main Sunday services. I experienced for myself the importance of a warm welcome, someone to sit with, and invitation to stay for coffee afterwards. There was a wide variety of hymns and other music, and some useful conversations about using technology in worship.
In Autumn we said au revoir to our relief pianist, Tom Davenport, who left to study trombone at Leeds conservatoire of music. We wish him well in his endeavours, and he continues to play for occasional services when back in Prestwich during his university vacations.
Throughout Advent we had our fifth online digital Advent calendar, which this year grew to three daily posts featuring bells as well as Christmas and Advent carols, hymns, anthems and readings. This was followed by daily posts for the Twelve Days of Christmas. Huge thanks again to all contributors, who sang songs, or read stories and poems. Our carol service and Midnight Christmas service were both livestreamed and well received.
We continue to post to our blog, Facebook page, Instagram and Twitter feeds daily, and these include “Our Daily Bread” prayers, reflections from the Society of St John the Evangelist, and short daily bible readings. We continue to use our public Facebook page for livestreaming services, and the private St Margaret’s Community Facebook group in which we can offer each other spiritual support.
In 2024 we posted 223 articles to our blog, to which 294 people subscribe. Since establishing our website in 2016, over 94 000 people visited our website over 178 000 times. In addition, we have 564 Facebook page followers, 118 Facebook group members, 184 Twitter followers and 187 Instagram followers. Our blog consistently receives at least 2000 visitors per month, with highs of over 4000 in October 2024 (Harvest) and December 2024 (Christmas). All our blog posts are automatically ‘pinged’ out to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, from where they can also be accessed.
Finally, my sincere thanks to the dedicated singers of our parish choir, Maggie’s Music Makers, and most importantly to Tom our organist.
Dr Carol Porter
Authorised Lay Minister (Digital Church) and Director of Music
St Margaret's Church Prestwich 