ProfileThe churches of St. Margaret’s and St. Mark’s Wrexham

St. Margaret’s Church

St. Mark’s Church

IntroductionSt. Margaret’s and St. Mark’s churches are situated within the large town of Wrexham. St. Margaret’s being in the area known as Acton and Garden Village, an area consisting of predominantly private housing and St. Mark’s Caia park being situated on one of the largest housing estates in Wales.

St. Margaret’s St. Margaret’s church is an active and lively church situated in the Garden Village area of Wrexham, it serves a community of approximately 7,000 people. The congregation of around seventy people enjoy a choir and a Sunday Club with membership of up to twenty children. There is also an active Mother’s Union and a very well equipped Church Hall, which hosts a wide variety of activities for the church and community.They describe themselves in this way “We are a 'middle of the road' church who combine innovation, informality and

a sense of humourwith an enjoyment of tradition and ceremony and choral worship.

A Variety of worship is enjoyed here

There is an 8.15am said Eucharist each week followed by a 9.30am service. The first Sunday of the month being an All Age Service and the third Sunday of the month being Morning Prayer. The Second and fourth Sunday’s are both Eucharist’s.

The cleric appointed to this position will find excellent links have been formed with the four schools in this district, regular request for assemblies to be led are made and also the request to take up a position of governor may well be made.

There is active and enthusiastic laity in the Family of St. Margaret’s always willing to get involved and eager to play a full part in the life and worship of the church. While they enjoy their existing styles of worship they are, in their own words “Always happy to explore new ways of being church.”

St. Margaret’s have always been able to pay their Parish Share on time and their bank account remains in a healthy condition.

St Marks Whilst the congregation is small elderly and reducing they deserve credit for maintaining the light of the gospel in the 54 years since the establishment of a church building in what was then Queens Park with many people devoting years of their lives to the maintenance of worship here. Recently the bishop has recognised this service by granting two certificates of long service.The church has a history of social action with previous Vicars leading involvement in social projects such as

Establishing a credit union in Queens Park and involvement with the Caia Parc partnership ( Rev Gerald Griffiths) and

Establishing TCC ( Rev Mike Harrison). St Marks was one of the founding 7 members of TCC.

St Marks Church Wrexham presently has a very active NSM ( Revd Eric Owen ) serving their community and Leading the services at the church which serves a community of approximately 15,000 people in the area formerly called Queens Park now Caia Parc.The church was built in 1963 AD on land donated by Fenwick Palmer of Cefn Hall . The site was chosen because it is on the highest contour point in the area .It is in line with St Giles in Wrexham.The statue of St Mark and the wooden cross in the porch of the church came from the original church of St Mark which had been established in Regent Street Wrexham to help St Giles parish church in its mission. That church of St Mark was demolished in the 1960s to accommodate town centre redevelopment. Originally there was a Lady Chapel in the new church this was converted into a Parish Room so for many years the church has had a dual use - the rear part of the building is used for various community based activities, including

Monday lunch organised by Age Concern Mothers’ Union Morris dancing on Thursday nights 5pm to 9.30 pm Mothers and Toddlers meet on Tuesdays and Wednesdays Band rehearsals Bingo once a month in the church lounge on the last Wednesday in the

month Craft Group meets Thursdays YWAM Kids Group during recent school holidays

Work has been done recently on the church building to address long standing issues such as leaks in the roof and heating.In recent times the church has faced difficulties with some residual legacy issues, including finance. However in the last year the financial position has been helped by an innovative use of the vestry as an office for a local builder who paid £3500 to the church and repainted the kitchen and last year was able to meet its commitment to Parish Share in full. The members of St. Marks fund raise tirelessly, which for a small congregation is admirable. The treasurer feels, at this moment in time, that our Parish Share obligation will be met again this year – the first quarter having already been paid and sufficient funds in hand to meet the second payment.

The church in Wrexham is involved actively with Cytun and Mission Wrexham and the latter is exploring a project Developing Ministry on Caia (Queens) Park with a view to ecumenical involvement in mission in St Marks. In the last year the church has sought to renew or to reinvigorate its role in social action and to build on various activities, which continued to be carried out in the church building despite those issues.

The church is now progressing a grant application to increase its involvement in community activity. The diocesan Parish Funding Officer Tracey White is giving assistance in this process. The local MP and AMs are supportive. Engagement with the community is increasing with press publicity demonstrating this commitment eg visit of Welsh Rugby International Scot Williams.The diocesan Engaging Officer Sarah Wheat is assisting the process of engaging with the community and meetings are taking place with local charities, NHS representatives, the Salvation Army food bank and others to increase this involvement.

Wrexham.Wrexham is the largest town in the north of Wales. It is the administrative centre of the wider Wrexham County Borough, located in the east of the region. It is situated between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley right alongside the border to Cheshire, England. As the largest town in the north of Wales, it is a major centre of the region's administrative, commercial, retail and educational infrastructure.

At the time of the United Kingdom Census 2001, Wrexham centre had a population of 42,576, and the wider Wrexham Urban Area, as defined by the Office for National Statistics, had a population of 63,084, the seventh largest in Wales. The county borough of Wrexham has a population of over 130,000. The town has a large shopping centre with all the major outlets present.

There are very good transport links, Wrexham being served with a mainline railway station and good arterial roads for access to the M53 to Liverpool some forty five minutes away, the M56 to Manchester about an hour away. Access along the North wales coast is served by the A55 dual carriageway some four miles from Wrexham. The City of Chester is five miles to the north, again there are excellent road, bus and train links.

There are good number of schools spread across the benefice and numerous doctors’ surgeries.

A well appointed four bedroomed house will be provided with this position.