Welcome to the parish of St. Peter’s Halliwell
Rev Alan writes…
Happy Easter!
On Easter Sunday, we will be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour who died to save us from our sins and rose again to bring us new life and hope for all eternity – Hallelujah, he is risen indeed!
Each fellowship will be celebrating with fun, fellowship and food – including an Easter breakfast at St Andrews at 9am; hot cross buns at St Peters from 10am; and bacon and sausage barms after the service at Barrow Bridge.
There has been lots of events throughout Holy Week, including Easter Experience in St Peter’s, and I visited St Peter’s Primary School with Easter treats to say thank you to all the staff.
After Easter, we start two new sermon series – see below for more details.
Read more in this week’s newsletter.
Morning Service series - Serving a Movement
Our overarching morning sermon theme for 2026 is Movement.
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. We learnt how Jesus approached prayer, what he prayed and how he instructs us to pray. If we are going to discern Jesus’ will for our church movement then deep and abiding prayer is essential.
Serving a Movement
In our new series, we will examine Jesus’ movement through the church in the book of Acts. It will offer us an opportunity to discern the role He is asking us, both as individuals and as a church family, to play in His movement today. In Acts 1:8 Luke records Jesus’ final words to his followers just before his ascension. Rather than give a command, Jesus gives a promise,
“…you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
From the birth of the church on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) to its expansion throughout the Roman Empire (Acts 28), we see Jesus fulfilling this promise. Just as the Holy Spirit led and directed the movement of God’s people, the church, to fulfil Jesus’ promise in Acts 1:8, the Holy Spirit is leading and directing the movement of the church today.
Jesus’ promise that His followers will become witnesses for Him to the “ends of the earth” extends to us today so we must ask “What does Jesus’ movement look like? How does Jesus move? How can we serve this movement?” What part of His movement is He asking us to be active in (locally, nationally and internationally)? We will answer these questions as we look at the movement of the early church in the book of Acts.
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 - Pressure Points - The Book of James
Pressure is nothing new. James, the half-brother of Jesus, wrote to Jewish Christians in the first century who faced intense pressure. They had been dispersed because of persecution, and they faced increasing pressure to let faith live only in their heads instead of being evidenced in their lives. James beckoned these first believers to let pressure push them deeper in their journey with Jesus. Today, James invites believers to open their lives to the truth of God’s Word and learn how to deal positively with pressure points.
We meet every Sunday at 6.30pm in St. Peter’s Church and the 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.
For details of all our Easter services click the yellow image to the left.
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See the Newsletter for more details
Newsletter Archive
Read the Newsletter from the last few weeks:
29th March
22nd March
15th March
8th March
1st March
22nd February
15th February
8th February
1st February
25th January
18th January
11th January
Christmas 2025
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.