St Hugh’s is a Church
within a school. The congregation has never been large and when the remaining 2
regular congregation members both moved away from Holts the monthly Sunday
services stopped.
Regular assemblies take place in the school hall which is also the Church.
Special services – like, for example Ash Wednesday – take place in school, so the children do experience being in Church.
Baptisms have also taken place in the school. These were real school family occasions, as we baptised a variety of children from the school as well as the child of a member of the school staff. The school children were present at the baptisms, and the whole school celebrated with cake.
Bishop Mark and Archdeacon Cherry
have both been in school as part of the Christianity week. Edith is working
with those in authority in the Diocese to try to increase the presence of the Church
in Holts Village, and Archdeacon Cherry is particularly active in this.
An annual Parish service takes place at St Hugh’s on the Sunday nearest to November 17th which is St Hugh’s Day.
Bishop Mark visited Holts on the 30th May 2017 together with people from Leesfield Parish and Oldham East Deanery on his prayer pilgrimage.
He saw the community cafe, where children's activities were taking place during the school holidays, and was most impressed with the local community initiatives.
We later prayed together outside the cafe and near the school.