After his visit to celebrate and preach at Mass on St Chrysostom’s day the Bishop of Manchester tweeted:
It was good that Bishop David felt so welcomed. As he came into Church to lead our celebration of Mass he was welcomed by several church members whose first language is not English. He was greeted in Korean, Shona, Yoruba, Urdu, Latvian and Romanian.
Bianca welcomes Bishop David in Romanian
In his address Bishop David encouraged us to follow St John Chrysostom in having a ministry of welcome. This has indeed been at the heart of our ministry at St C’s for many years, and we are proud of the wonderful variety in our congregation.
Reflecting on the morning’s congregation of about 90 people I realised that in their church were:
10 people seeking asylum,
8 people who had arrived in this country for the first time within the last three months,
at least 11 LGBT people
the majority of those present were under 45
and at least 10 different first languages were represented.
One church member said, yesterday, I so enjoy coming to St Chrysostom’s to meet a wonderful variety of people…’
St C’s is a varied welcoming people indeed, – we are proud to be part of “God’s rainbow kingdom.”
St Chrysostom's Church News and Views 