Stories of churches sharing
ministers or even closing down for good are all too common today but one
church is bucking the trend and opening up a new presence in Macclesfield,
the Orthodox Church.
The new Orthodox mission is being
named after St. Theodore of Tarsus, a Greek who came to England in the 7th
century to become its new reforming Archbishop of Canterbury.
The priest serving St.
Theodore�s, Fr. Gregory Hallam, says:- "This is an historic moment both
for Macclesfield and the Orthodox Church. Macclesfield gets its first
Orthodox Church, one of only three in the County of Cheshire. As Orthodox
Christians we also have the honour of serving the people of Macclesfield in
the name of one of old England�s Orthodox saints. All are welcome and all
our services will be in English"
The new church meets for the
first time on Saturday 17th September at 10.00 am in the Whitaker
Room of the Silk Textile Heritage Centre, Roe Street, and thereafter on the
3rd Saturday of each month. As the present congregation grows,
however, Fr. Hallam plans to increase the frequency of services. St.
Theodore�s is currently a mission of St. Aidan�s Orthodox Church in
Manchester but will become, eventually, a parish in its own right.
