Rector: Rev Simon Drew


Simon has been the Rector of Middlewich

& Byley since July 2011. He is married to

Katy and they have three teenage

children. Before training for the ministry

Simon studied civil engineering at Liverpool

University and then went on to work as an

engineer with a local authority. Simon

trained for the ministry at St John’s

College, Nottingham, and was ordained

deacon in 1999 at Exeter Cathedral.


Prior to his appointment as Rector of Middlewich & Byley Simon worked in parishes in both Exeter & Bristol dioceses. He has also worked as a tutor for a theological training course. As Rector Simon is the team leader with responsibility for the life and worship of St Michael’s & St John’s churches.  


Curate: Rev Liz Woode


Liz is married to Tony and they have two

grown up sons who live in the London area.

She joined St. Michael’s in January 2004 as

a Reader. At the same time, the Bishop of

Chester invited her, to her great surprise, to

go forward for ordination. She has been

serving as NSM curate since she was made

deacon in 2006. She was ordained priest in

2007. In 2010 Liz was appointed Deanery Subwarden of Readers.


As well as the normal duties of a curate, such as Sunday Services, baptisms, weddings and funerals, she often leads the healing service, takes the Confirmation Classes, and acts as pastor to two of the Home groups. She is thrilled to see the church growing both in numbers and in faith, and is keen to bring the love of Jesus to the people of Middlewich and Byley.


Reader: Steve Broadfoot


Steve was licensed as a Reader in 2004.  He,

and his wife Ruth, moved to Middlewich from

Kent in 1998 when Steve got a new job in

Warrington.


He is a Chartered Engineer and, until his

retirement in 2007, he spent his days

designing systems to pump waste water

from place to place.


Now that he is retired, he lectures part-time, and also acts as an advisor for Engineer Aid, assisting volunteers who are working overseas on humanitarian projects.


Steve and Ruth have two married children who still live in Kent and, at the last count, five grandchildren.

 

Steve’s hobbies are books, music, photography, old machinery (preferably involving steam) and visiting the grandchildren.

Reader: Tony Woode


Tony is married to Liz and joined St. Michael’s

with her in January 2004. He has been a

Reader since 1985 and was Representative

Reader for the Deanery when he joined

St. Michael’s but has now handed over to a

successor.


Tony is currently the Co-ordinator for the

Home Groups and Pastor of two of them. He would be pleased if anyone interested in joining a Home Group would contact him.


He is one of the leaders at the Healing Service, on Tuesdays, and is also a member of the choir. His professional life was as an Industrial Chemist at ICI and Brunner Mond and, despite retiring in 2000, is still being called in as a Consultant.


Reader: Christine Hamill-Stewart


Christine is a Reader at Middlewich and Byley

and married to Simon.  Christine is particularly

interested in music and sings with the choir

at Middlewich and plays the organ at Byley

and has many other musical interests.  She

enjoys all sorts of studying and is currently

learning Arabic!


Christine is on the PCC at Byley and a member

of Deanery Synod.



Pastoral Care Worker: Elaine Reynolds


Elaine has lived in Middlewich for most of her

life. She has three daughters and trained as

a nurse before becoming a teacher in 1985.

Elaine has worshipped at St Michael's since

she was 10 and has always taken an active

part in church life being involved in all

aspects of children's work and social events.


Pastoral Care Worker: Sylvia Bosomworth


Sylvia has been married to John for 56 years

and they have three children and five

grandchildren and two great granchildren.

They have lived in Middlewich for 20 years

and Sylvia has been a member of St. Michaels

from the week she moved here. She has

been a member of the church all her life and

Has always taken an active part - running guide

and cub units, Sunday School, Synod, PCC, Youth Clubs etc.

Director of Music and  Jeremy Coles

Family Work:


Jeremy is married to Michelle with two

children, Nathan and Emily. He was brought

up in a Christian Family and is the son of

clergy parents; his late grandad also being

a vicar.


After University Jeremy trained for a year with Operation Mobilisation. He was Youth and Children’s pastor at a church in Bradford for seven years before moving to Crewe to work in a similar role at a Pentecostal Church.  He worked at Crewe YMCA for several years where he became the Housing Manager. The Family attended West Street Baptist Church during this time where Jeremy was on the Leadership Team.

Jeremy is a gifted musician and children's evangelist and has developed a wide ministry which includes not only the regular work at St Michael’s but also holiday clubs and youth camps.


Jeremy’s passions include Bradford City AFC, strong curries, music and Jesus - but not necessarily in that order!


He became Director of Music and Family Work at St Michael’s in 2005.


Church Warden: Steve Bailey


Steve has lived in Middlewich all his life and

works full time as an Engineering Fitter

currently for the railways. He is married to

Sue and has three children and five

grandchildren.

Steve joined St Michael’s Church Choir at the

age of 7 and 55 years on he is still an active

Chorister. He was taught to ring the tower bells by the late George Bailey (no relation) when he was 17 and, 40 years a bell ringer, he still rings today each Sunday morning prior to the 09.15 service.

Steve has been a member of the PCC since the age of 18 and has been Church Warden before for a 4 year period.

Steve enjoys DIY and has put this to good use over many years by helping to maintain the Church building and more recently number 28. He has also been responsible for the heating system in Church for some years now and can often be seen complaining when people leave the doors open in the winter months. He’s now looking forward to serving once more as Church Warden to St Michael and All Angels.



Retired Priest: Simon Hamill-Stewart


Simon is a retired priest living in Middlewich with his wife Christine (Reader).


Simon became a priest later in life having taught at a Roman Catholic Independent school most of his working

life.  He has been retired from full time parish work since 2000 but continues to take a full part in the ministry at Middlewich and Byley.  


He has many skills and interests.  He speaks several languages including Russian, is learning Italian and, as a Classics teacher, taught Greek and Latin.


His interests include stamp collecting and singing in the choir and writing poetry.  Mostly, he is just a joy to be around.






Curate: Lorraine Reed


Lorraine teaches Philosophy of Religion at

St Nicholas Catholic High School in Hartford.

She is married to Mike (PCC Vice Chairman)

and they have three adult children and three

grandchildren.

 

Lorraine has been active in Christian ministry since her days as a drama student in Birmingham, and later she studied Theology at the University of Wales, Bangor.  She was licensed as a Reader in  2007, was selected for ordination training in 2009 and was Ordained as Deacon in Chester Cathedral on 3rd July 2011.


As well as preaching and leading services, she leads the card making group which seeks to draw in people who are not yet part of the church family and sings in the Festival Choir.


Church Warden: Graham Ikin



Parish Office Administrator: Beth Deakin



Pastoral Care Worker: Sue Ikin


I am married to Graham and we have two

sons and two grandsons.


We came to worship at St Michael’s and all

Angels in October 2009 and found a warm

welcome. In my previous parish I was

involved in children’s and youth work. I felt

God was calling me to a different ministry, so I went on a foundation for ministry course and this lead to Pastoral training. I was involved in baptism preparation, sick visiting,  home communion and welcoming.


I was licenced as a Pastoral worker in 2007 and my licence was transferred to the Benefice of Middlewich and Byley in October 2010.


I look forward to my ministry at Middlewich.






Curate: Thia Hughes


Married to John, a retired GP, and now Vicar

of St John’s Sandiway.


I became a Christian 20 years ago at

Davenham.  I’ve been Warden,  and Parish

Rep.  I was commissioned as a Parish

Assistant in 2000 and set up the Pastoral

Care network – the ‘Circle of Care’.


I was licensed as Reader in 2006, and during my training, ordination was suggested to me.  I went through the process and, to my surprise, was recommended for training and on the 18th June 2011 was ordained as Priest.


We have a large family – seven children, six daughters and one son – and 10½ grandchildren and 2 step-grandchildren.  My hobbies are my family, concerts, walking our dogs and escaping to Normandy.


I am both thrilled and privileged to be Curate at Middlewich and Byley.  My passion is for family – to value, nurture and encourage everyone, across the ages, stages and wages!  I am very much a people person and look forward to being part of all that God is doing, and sharing his vision to make Jesus known.