Welcome to the parish of St. Peter’s Halliwell
Rev Alan writes…
The Alpha Course.
I want to use my front page article this week to update you all on our parish Alpha courses. I am hugely encouraged that since we restarted running regular courses in the summer of 2022, we have run 3 courses each year and have a total of 85 guests who have completed the course. Many of these people worship regularly in our services and have continued to meet as part of Connect Groups and the Alpha follow-on group and some have been baptised. Keeping these courses continually running has been no mean feat and huge thanks must go to Linda Foster who has worked hard to recruit groups of leaders and helpers to run the sessions. But the reality is that we are struggling for leaders and helpers at the moment, and we certainly don’t want to cancel future courses having seen so much fruit from the courses over the last few years. So, I am appealing to you all to consider volunteering on an Alpha course, either as a leader or helper, or helping in some way with the catering and organisation.
Read the full newsletter.
Morning Service series - Movement on our Frontlines
Our overarching morning sermon theme for 2026 is Movement.
Throughout 2026 we are learning what it means for the church to be a movement rather than an institution.
We started with the theme of Prayer as a Catalyst for Movement.
During Lent, we considered prayer as a catalyst to all spiritual movements by studying Jesus’ prayers in the Gospels and his experience in the wilderness.
Serving a Movement.
In our next series, we examined the growth of the Jesus’ movement through the church in the book of Acts, to help us discern the role He is asking us, both as individuals and as a church family, to play in His movement today.
Movement on Our Frontlines.
This latest series is based on the LICC (London Institute for Contemporary Christianity) teaching resource called Fruitfulness on the Frontline. You can find more information on this on LICC’s website at https://licc.org.uk/ourresources/fruitfulness/. There is also a book available on this theme.
Our morning services from St. Peter’s Church are live-streamed (slides and audio, no live images) and are available to watch later on our YouTube channel.
Morning Service series - Lessons from the Life of Moses
26 July to 27 September
Throughout the summer our services have an all-age theme, to give our regular Lighthouse children’s leaders a well-deserved break. We are going to be following the story of Moses as our theme and this should lend itself well to both All-Age and Worship for Everyone services.
The Lessons from the Life of Moses sermon series traces the journey of one of the Bible’s most pivotal figures: his upbringing in Egypt, his preparation in the wilderness, and his leadership of the Israelites. It offers profound lessons on faith, leadership, and redemption.
Our morning services from St. Peter’s Church are live-streamed (slides and audio, no live images) and are available to watch later on our YouTube channel.
Evening Sermon series - Teach us to Pray
The theme of our summer sermon series, which starts on 12th July, is “Teach us to Pray.”
We will learn from godly men and women who boldly approached God in prayer in their moments of greatest joy, sacrifice, pain, and confusion.
May the Holy Spirit use God’s Word written and living to connect us more deeply to our Creator as we cry out, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
We meet every Sunday at 6.30pm in St. Peter’s Church and the opening worship, reading and talk from this service is available on our YouTube channel.
Oasis
Oasis is our midweek service – a time of fellowship and friendship at St Peter’s!
Refreshments are served in the church lounge from 10.30am and at 11.30am there is a 30 minute service in church for those who would like to attend.
Do come and join us – everyone is very welcome for part or all of our time together.
Verse of the Year 2026
Rev Alan says:
We’ve been on a journey in our sermons in our morning services as a parish since I started as Vicar just over three years ago.
• Year 1: we focused on the Kingdom of God
• Year 2: we focused on the church as Jesus’ Family on Jesus’ Mission
• Year 3: we focused on Jesus, how we should fix our eyes on him and learn from his example.
In 2026 (Year 4): I want us to focus on learning more about and loving our neighbours, which of course should flow out from giving our whole selves in our love of God and our commitment to his church as Jesus’ Family on Jesus’ Mission.
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St. Peter's Church
Barrow Bridge Mission
Smithills Fellowship
St. Andrew's Church
Parish Centre
St. Peter’s parish church is an impressive Grade II listed building at the heart of the parish. In the 1980’s an extension provided a lounge, kitchen and toilets and more recently a welcoming entrance area has been created between this and the church.
Barrow Bridge Mission is situated in an important conservation area on the edge of Bolton. The attractive community is a former model community mill village and comprises former mill owner and worker cottages.
Smithills Fellowship meets in St. Peter’s Smithills Dean CE Primary School and Smithills Hall Chapel. The Chapel forms part of Smithills Hall and is leased from the council.
St. Andrew’s meets in the Hope Centre, which serves the Johnson Fold estate. The centre has been completely refurbished in the last 15 years, to better serve the needs of the surrounding community.
St. Peter’s Parish Centre is a hive of activity most days with church groups and other bookings.
It is also home to the administrative hub of the parish. The office is open Monday to Friday from 9.30am-3pm.
St. Peter's Church
St. Peter’s parish church is an impressive Grade II listed building at the heart of the parish. In the 1980’s an extension provided a lounge, kitchen and toilets and work is currently underway to provide a welcoming entrance area.
Barrow Bridge Mission
Barrow Bridge Mission is situated in an important conservation area on the edge of Bolton. The attractive community is a former model community mill village and comprises former mill owner and worker cottages.
Smithills Fellowship
Smithills Fellowship meets in St. Peter’s Smithills Dean CE Primary School and Smithills Hall Chapel. The Chapel forms part of Smithills Hall and is leased from the council.
St. Andrew's Church
St. Andrew’s meets in the Hope Centre, which serves the Johnson Fold estate. The centre has been completely refurbished in the last 15 years, to better serve the needs of the surrounding community.
Parish Centre
St. Peter’s Parish Centre is a hive of activity most days with church groups and other bookings.
It is also home to the administrative hub of the parish. The office is open Monday to Friday from 9.30am-3pm.
Safeguarding
At St. Peter’s Halliwell we work hard to maintain a safe environment for all. We are committed to implementing the House of Bishops’ safeguarding policies and good practice guidance.
If you have any concerns or enquiries regarding safeguarding, please visit our Safer Church page here for details of who to contact.