Master’s Report

Looking back at 2024, it's clear that God has been actively working in our church in so many wonderful ways. Through our student ministry, we've seen inspiring stories of young people (especially young men) encountering and being saved by Jesus. Take the third-year student, for example, who with no prior church connection, met Jesus through our students outside of church and is now preparing for baptism. The annual weekend away continued to be a powerful and formative experience for our students. Freshers' Week also provided a valuable opportunity to connect with new students and welcome them into our family. Looking ahead to 2025, Josh feels a strong prompting to deepen the prayer life within our student body and to encourage more mature Christians to step into discipleship roles, mentoring the many new believers God is bringing to us.

Our outreach in Byker through the Eden project also saw significant progress in 2024. We celebrated our first baptisms from the Eden Team's work, which was a real encouragement, and the establishment of a new worshipping community by the Eden Team in Byker demonstrates how God is growing his kingdom there. The two Alpha courses we ran, with enthusiastic participation from the local Byker community both within their area and at St Thomas', showed a genuine hunger for Jesus. We are very grateful for the initial responses to the gospel we've seen in Byker, and we are now praying that these new believers will grow into disciple-makers, reaching out to even more people in their community and building stronger relationships with the residents of Byker. We're also eagerly anticipating the opening of St Michael's Church, the Lighthouse project in Byker, and we pray it will be a powerful force for the gospel and a valuable partner in our ongoing work with Eden.

In terms of production and creativity, we've been encouraged by the steady increase in people tuning into our livestream services and engaging with us on social media, allowing us to connect with a wider audience beyond our building. The creative effort invested in our productions and events during Advent and Christmas was particularly meaningful and impactful. Moving forward, we have a real need for more volunteers to join our production team, and we continue to pray that our online content will effectively reach those who need it most, ultimately drawing them into relationship with Jesus.

Our approach to worship remains focused on creating an inclusive environment where everyone, from the youngest to the oldest, can connect with God. We're also committed to supporting and resourcing worship across the wider city. It was wonderful to see the creative gifts within our congregation expressed through the many singles and EPs released from St Thomas’ Music in 2024. As we look ahead, we're excited about the possibility of capturing the vibrancy of our worship through a live recording, and we continue to need more volunteers to serve on our sound team, whose essential work often goes unnoticed but is crucial to our Sunday gatherings.

Our youth ministry also experienced some fantastic developments this year. The Youth Alpha we ran in partnership with M10 in Whitley Bay was a real success, with one young person making a commitment to faith and two others now regularly attending Youth Night. It's been particularly encouraging to see our young people grow in their confidence in sharing their faith. This was wonderfully demonstrated at our outreach cafes, where in October, five teenage lads prayed to receive Christ after two of our young people shared the gospel of Jesus with them. We also saw significant growth in NCD Youth, a youth event we initiated in collaboration with other churches within our Deanery, highlighting the power of unity in reaching the next generation. Looking ahead, we're praying that our young people will carry this newfound evangelistic confidence into their schools, sharing the gospel of Jesus in their everyday environments. We also desire more opportunities to partner with other youth groups across Newcastle to see an even greater impact for the gospel among young people in our city.

The Discipleship Year continues to be a vital part of our ministry. We celebrated the successful completion of the year for Grace, Caleb, Liv, and Elise, who have now gone on to serve God in diverse and significant ways around the world. We were equally thrilled to welcome six new DY students in September: Ellie, Barney, Nick, Greg, Chloe, and Sasha. They are truly an answer to prayer and are already making significant contributions to the life of our church in their various ministry placements. Our ongoing partnership with New Wine has been a real blessing in terms of both spiritual growth and recruitment.

We are deeply thankful for the dedicated and growing team who serve in our Open Church ministry. The consistent presence and warm welcome offered by volunteers like Moira and Bob, who are there most days to greet visitors and share the love of Jesus, is invaluable. Their ministry creates a tangible sense of hospitality and openness.

The Alpha course we ran in 2024 led to a number of individuals deciding to be baptised. Alpha remains a vital way for people to explore the Christian faith in a welcoming and non-threatening environment. The launch of our Connect Course in 2024 has been a really positive step in helping those new to our church integrate into our community. We've seen many newcomers attend, build meaningful relationships, and deepen their understanding of what it means to be part of the St Thomas' family. Encouragingly, this course has also facilitated the formation of new life groups, which are so essential to the ongoing discipleship and fellowship within our church.

I'm so grateful for the faithful individuals who lead our midweek life groups week in and week out. These groups are the very heart of our church community, providing vital spaces for connection, growth, and mutual support. We have an ongoing need for more people to step into leadership roles and for the establishment of more groups to welcome all those whom God is bringing to us.

It remains a profound privilege to welcome new people to our services each week, and we have continued to experience growth throughout 2024. We regularly see individuals making professions of faith, and it has been a great joy to witness a significant number of baptisms and confirmations over the past year, a clear sign of God's grace at work amongst us.

Finally, I am so thankful for you, the church family. It is a huge privilege to serve you all. It's an absolute joy to see you grow in faith, share Jesus with others, and to witness God at work in your lives. It's wonderful to see what God is doing with us as a family, and we simply wouldn't be the same without you. We are diverse, coming from different backgrounds, yet united by Jesus. I look forward to another year of following Jesus, building community, and loving Newcastle together with you!

Ben Doolan
Church Leader

Church Warden’s Report

Since our last AGM we have continued to live and worship in the reordered church building, ironing out the final “snags” that always come with a major building project, so that we can at last consider the project “finished” – although there are still aspects of the building that need maintenance or improvement.

Our Church Council has met throughout the year (usually every 4 weeks) to discuss the governance of the church. September saw the end of the 5-year programme of support for St Thomas’ from the National Church as the Resource Church of Newcastle Diocese, so we now need to become completely self-supporting financially. One big issue that we are considering is how to comply with Charity Commission rules and to move to becoming a “Charitable Incorporated Organisation” (CIO).

Ensuring that we work in a way that is safe for all concerned (Safeguarding) is discussed at every council meeting, and we are very pleased to have appointed our Safeguarding Officers in the year - and we thank Alicia Hook and John Talbot for their willingness to serve.

As the Diocesan Resource Church, our contribution to the life and work of Newcastle Diocese was acknowledged when Ben was made Canon of Newcastle Cathedral – which, together with completion of his PhD, means he is now the Reverend Canon Dr Ben Doolan! We are also playing our part by agreeing to second our Operations Director, Chris Elder, to become the Diocesan Secretary until a permanent appointment is made.

As we follow Jesus our Sunday congregations continue to grow, continuing to be a multi-generational church with people from all walks of life and many different cultures. We are seeing many people being drawn to Jesus, with amazing testimonies as they come to be baptised. Our work with children and young people has gone from strength to strength, as witnessed by the testimonies from the recent Youth residential. Similarly, our work with students, from giving out pizzas during Freshers week to weekly student nights continues to grow. 

We are truly grateful for the work of all the teams that make the ministry of St Thomas’ possible – our tech team, worship team, welcome team, the youth and kids teams, the hospitality team, and of course our service leaders! Our volunteers are vital to the work of St Thomas’ and if you don’t already serve on a team, please do consider where your talents might be used and join a team!

Over Summer ‘24, we consulted online with the congregation on the foundational values of St Thomas’. Using the results and suggestions as input for the whole leadership team for a day of discussions – we finally arrived at our headline values of “Reliance, Family, Joy, Integrity, Innovation”.

But it is not just Sundays! St Thomas’ building continues to be used well during the week, opening Monday – Thursday lunchtimes for people to drop in and leave the busyness of the city behind. Folk come in for a variety of reasons – just feeling drawn to walk through the doors, visiting while on holiday in the area, having worked or studied in Newcastle and attended St Thomas’ and wanting to revisit for old times. We are particularly grateful to the “Open Church” team who serve faithfully throughout the week, providing a warm welcome, conversation and prayer. 

On Wednesdays we have our Tiny T’s Toddler group, alongside an NHS clinic and then Holy Communion at 12.30pm. Evenings bring a whole range of uses for all ages including weekly Student Night (Mondays), Youth Night (Tuesdays), and monthly Equip meetings and Prayer nights.

Our outreach cafés continue to be one aspect of our mission, implementing our vision for loving Newcastle. The additional involvement of our youth teams on the streets provides an entry point for people to come to know Jesus! The work of the Eden team in Byker is now growing at a great pace.

We give glory to God for all that this last year has held and look forward with expectation to what He will do and has in store for us as 2025 progresses.

Ian Dobson and Dot Butler
Churchwardens

Deanery Synod Report

The Deanery Synod has met infrequently over the past year, with limited activity to report. Father Paul Baker serves as Area Dean and continues to offer steady leadership through this quieter season.

Joel Barwick is continuing to lead NCD Youth, which has been a real success and an encouraging sign of growth among young people in our churches.

While things have been relatively quiet, we remain thankful for his leadership, and hopeful that the year ahead will bring fresh opportunities for collaboration and shared mission across the Deanery.

Dom Llewellyn and Rich Shaw
Deanery Synod Representatives

Finance Report

Highlights

• The generosity series of talks in February 2024 was well received, with monthly giving increasing 40% as a result. An encouraging step forward as we plan for our financial sustainability by 2029.

• St Thomas’ contributed £95k to the DBF (in addition to our parish offer) as our contribution to the running costs for St Thomas’, we thank the DBF for their financial support over the first five years whilst we have established the Diocesan Resource Church at St Thomas’. From 2025 we will be responsible for meeting all costs of St Thomas’ (with the exception of clergy stipends).

• It was agreed that from 2025, the St Thomas’ Parish Offer to the diocese will increase to £66k in recognition of the support we have and continue to receive from the DBF.

• A large one-off gift of £250k was received with the first instalment of £100k received in 2024.

• £15k was received from St Thomas Chapel Charity which covers the cost of our annual insurance - thank you.

• An exciting development was the agreement to launch Tommy’s Coffee: a coffee cart located in the foyer serving high quality coffee which will be an evangelistic opportunity to connect with a wider community of people, an opportunity to extend the church opening hours, and return a financial profit to reinvest in missional opportunities at St Thomas’. The launch date is now confirmed for 19 May 2025.

• Missional giving to overseas charities was £14k.

Fabric Report

Overall the church building is in good order but, like any old building, requires ongoing maintenance. Several issues arose throughout the year, the major items being: 

• Repairs to the electrics in the Tower to enable the clock to work;

• A replacement bell ringer;

• Repairs to the Hearing loop.

All required statutory checks were completed.

Following the internal reordering, which was largely completed in September 2022, a number of snagging issues remained. Throughout 2024 the major items addressed were:

• Replacement of the gas boiler;

• Minor remediations and cleaning of the structural glass;

The two remaining items (leak to the Baptistry, two main lights not working) were addressed in 2025 and the snagging has now been agreed to be complete.

The Quinquennial Architectural Review (in depth review on the state of the building undertaken by our architect every five years) was undertaken with no critical issues. Some remedial work is required to the roof which is planned to be addressed in the summer of 2025.

During the year there were two key additions in support of our worship:

• the new Connect desk;

• 2 new monitors on stands to provide a better view of proceedings for those sat in the side aisles.

With increasing congregational numbers, the Choir Stalls continue to take up significant space that could be better used. A proposal to remove them was submitted to the DAC (the Diocesan Advisory Committee, which advises on all changes to church buildings and fabric) but was not approved - the Church Council continue to look for a new home for the stalls.

Chris Elder
Operations Director

Safeguarding Report

Our commitment to creating a safe and nurturing environment for everyone who engages with our community remains paramount.

I would like to begin by saying a huge thank you to two new people from the church who have joined our safeguarding team: John Talbot and Alicia Hook. Their willingness to serve in this vital area is deeply appreciated and strengthens our ability to provide comprehensive support and oversight. Both John and Alicia have experience that has enriched the safeguarding team at St Thomas’.

We continue to proactively utilise the Church of England's Safeguarding Hub and Dashboard. These invaluable resources provide us with up-to-date guidance, policies, and tools that enable us to manage safeguarding matters effectively and in line with best practice. We have 155 volunteers on the safeguarding hub where we monitor training, DBS checks and safer recruitment - it is a big task!

A special thank you must also go to Zara, who has diligently undertaken a significant amount of safeguarding administration. Her attention to detail and commitment to safeguarding best practice ensures the smooth and efficient operation of our safeguarding procedures. Please pray for Chloe who has just started as our safeguarding administrator. 

At any given time, we are actively involved in a number of live safeguarding cases. In each of these situations, we work very closely and collaboratively with the Diocesan Safeguarding Team. This strong partnership ensures that we are following expert advice and providing the most appropriate support to all involved.

Our aspiration is to be an example of best practice in safeguarding within the diocese and remain as committed as ever to create a culture of safety, awareness, and care within our church community.

Ben Doolan
Church Leader