Master’s Report

​Looking back on 2025, we continue to be so thankful for all that God has done in the life of our church over the past year. It has been an exciting season of growth, new opportunities, and seeing people encounter Jesus in powerful ways!

​2025 will be remembered nationally as a remarkable year. Across the nation, many have sensed a quiet, steady revival bubbling. At St Thomas’, we got to witness this beautiful move of God, seeing lots of people being rescued by Jesus.

​As usual, baptisms were more than a rare celebration, they were a regular and joyful occurrence in our life together. We were also privileged to see many within our church family be confirmed by Bishop Mark.

Some of the stories we have heard have been nothing short of miraculous. We have welcomed people who walked through our doors having never stepped foot inside a church before in their lives, only to find themselves encountering the living God. From these completely unchurched backgrounds to those who had wandered away, people are meeting with Jesus in deeply personal, life-altering ways, proving that the Holy Spirit is drawing Newcastle to the Father through the work of Jesus!

​While there have been some questions over the "quiet revival" data nationally, we simply cannot deny what we have seen Jesus doing right here in Newcastle! At the same time, as a church, we must continue to desire Jesus above everything else, including the incredible things that He can do. As John Wimber famously said, "We don't seek God's power, we seek his presence. His power and everything that we need is found in his presence." Above all else, we should want him. My prayer for us all is that we will always want Jesus above everything else.

​Welcoming New Staff Members

​One of the great joys of this year has been welcoming new members of staff to the team:

​Mia, our Children and Families Minister, has done a fantastic job of growing and strengthening the ministry both on Sundays and throughout the week. ​Barney, our WAVE outreach worker, has brought fresh vision and enthusiasm through monthly outreach cafés and by equipping our young people in evangelism.

​Chloe, our Safeguarding Administrator and Lee's PA, who has joined the team bringing vital admin support, organisation, and a dedication to keeping our church community safe and Lee well supported. We also said thank you to Brandon and welcomed Anthony into the role of Verger.

​Tommy’s Coffee

​Launched in May, Tommy’s Coffee has been a major catalyst for our community connection this year. As well as being the best spot for a flat white in the city, it has significantly grown our engagement with passersby, with more and more people visiting the church building during the week. We are really pleased with how well it has been doing since opening, and we are absolutely delighted that people have come to faith through St Thomas' as a direct result of stepping in. We are incredibly thankful for Caleb and the team, who work so hard to make it such a warm, missional, and welcoming space.

​Young Adults, Baptisms, and Future Vision (18–25s)

​Our 18–25s ministry has continued to flourish, particularly with the launch of Girls’ Night, led by Flora, Christy and Annie. This has become a wonderful space for younger and older women to build meaningful relationships, with mentoring and discipleship naturally growing from it.

​We have also celebrated a number of baptisms among previously unchurched students and young adults who have come to faith this year, which has been a huge encouragement to us all.

​Looking ahead to 2026, Josh feels a strong prompting for us as a church to “prepare our nets for a bigger catch”, particularly by preparing and equipping older men and women in the church to invest in and mentor those whom God may bring to faith in the coming year.

​Discipleship Year

​The Discipleship Year continues to be a hugely important part of the life of St Thomas’. Our 2024/25 cohort are now thriving in new roles and responsibilities, with three of them continuing into Christian ministry.

​We have also loved welcoming our new 2025/26 intake of DY students, who have already become a huge blessing to the church. Please continue to pray for them as they seek to follow Jesus wholeheartedly and discern where God is calling them next.

​Creativity and Worship

​One of the highlights of the year was the recording and release of the Do It Again EP. It was an incredible evening of worship that carried on until late in the night, and the songs have continued to bless many of us since their release in September. It has been said that one of the signs of the Spirit moving is that songs are birthed in the local church; we have seen that happen in 2025.

​Another creative highlight was the Carol Service, where our worship and production teams worked so hard to create an exciting and powerful evening reflecting on the Advent story. We are so grateful for the creativity and dedication of everyone involved.

​Looking ahead, please continue to pray for our online ministry, both our livestream and social media content, that it would continue to reach people with the gospel and draw people to ask questions about Jesus and encounter him. 

​Eden Team

​Our Eden Team in Byker has also had a wonderful year, with several people across the estate coming to faith.On Easter Sunday, we celebrated the baptisms of two of the Eden Community, both of whom continue to regularly attend Eden Gather Night every Monday at St Silas along with many others. 

​It has been particularly encouraging to see Michael and Dean journey from attending Alpha in 2024 to now helping co-host our central Alpha at St Thomas's together, at which a number of people from Byker came to faith in Jesus.

Another major highlight was the Eden communities first-ever weekend away together at the Jonas Centre together. It was a deeply powerful time of encounter with the Holy Spirit for everyone involved.

​Nathan asks us to continue praying for new places and opportunities to begin projects across the estate, helping us meet more people and share the love of Jesus. In this season, he also senses God calling the team into becoming a “church without walls," so please pray for wisdom, creativity, and clear direction in what that could look like.

​Youth Ministry

​Youth Night has grown significantly over the past year, and by the end of 2025, we were regularly welcoming around fifty young people each Tuesday evening. It has become a thriving, joyful, and faith-filled community.

​One of Joel’s particular highlights this year was journeying with a young person from attending Youth Alpha with no faith background, through to giving her life to Jesus, being baptised, learning to share the gospel, and then stepping out into street evangelism herself. Stories like this are very regular and should be an encouragement to us all! 

​The work done at our WAVE outreach cafés and Youth Alpha has been a massive part of this growth. Through these events, the youth team have built trusted relationships with local young people. Youth Alpha happened not just at St Thomas’ but in Hexham and on the Coast! 

​Please continue to pray for our young people at St Thomas’, particularly that they would grow in confidence in the spiritual gifts and boldly use them to serve others and share Jesus.

​Children & Families

​Mia and the children’s team have done a great job overseeing and growing our Sunday children’s groups and Tiny Ts midweek group.

​One especially encouraging moment was the launch of kids’ prayer ministry in December, where children were encouraged and equipped to pray boldly for healing. It was wonderful to see them ministering to the congregation with such confidence and faith, and since then we have seen a real growth in their faith and expectancy.

​We are so thankful for the growing team of volunteers and young leaders who faithfully create welcoming, joyful, and faith-filled spaces where children can grow in their understanding of Jesus.

​Please continue to pray for wisdom for the team as they disciple the next generation, strengthen relationships with families in our community, and explore new ways to reach the children and families of Newcastle.

​New Wine and Effective Leadership

In 2025, we hosted a New Wine Leadership Day at St Thomas’, welcoming church and ministry leaders from across the region to be equipped in their leadership. We also attended the New Wine Summer Festival in large numbers, with many of our church family actively serving on teams. It is wonderful to be part of something bigger than ourselves and to join in with what God is doing across the nation.

​Alongside this, we hosted our annual Effective Leadership conference, which drew leaders from across the nation and even around the world! It was a superb time together, made even more impactful by the outstanding and challenging input from Malcolm Duncan. Watch this space for 2026!

Thank You!

​I am so thankful for all that God is doing among us as a church family. It continues to be a huge privilege to serve alongside one another and to see people growing in faith, stepping out and sharing the love of Jesus with our city and region. We are excited for all that lies ahead and look forward to another year of following Jesus, building community, and loving Newcastle together. I would ask you to pray for wisdom for us all as we continue to work out how to grow, make room for more people, focus on discipleship and developing leaders and above all prioritise the presence of God above everything else.

A huge thank you from me to the staff team, my clergy colleagues, in particular Lee whom it is a privilege to serve and lead with, and every single one of you that volunteers on a team.

A final thank you to all of you, the church family. You are a delight and a joy and it is a privilege to serve you. To quote to St Paul in Philippians 1: “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Ben Doolan
Church Leader

Church Warden’s Report

Over the last year, St Thomas’ has continued to grow and thrive as we live out our calling to live and worship, following Jesus, growing community and loving Newcastle.

The Church Council has continued to meet throughout the year (usually every 4 weeks) to discuss the governance of the church. Ensuring that we work in a way that is safe for all concerned. Safeguarding is discussed at every council meeting, and we thank our safeguarding team of Alicia Hook, John Talbot, and Rich Shaw for their willingness to serve in this vital area.

St Thomas’ is truly blessed by our Staff Team, and we are immensely grateful for their commitment and hard work. We were sad but joyous that our Curate, Brogan Hume, moved on in early 2026, leaving St Thomas’ to become Rector of Cramlington Parish - we will miss the Hume family but we look forward to working together with Brogan and the St Nicholas family.  We were also joyous when (at last) we were able to recruit a Children and Families Minister, and Mia Down joined the team - we are already seeing great results from her ministry in leading the kids team. We were also blessed through the Ministry of Jess Newlove – an ordinand on placement from St John’s College, Durham – and wish her all the best as she begins her curacy in Peterborough Diocese. We also welcomed Barney Podbury as our Wave Outreach worker.

2025 also saw our Associate Minister Lee Kirkby’s ordination as priest – enabling him to serve fully in that role at St Thomas’, and also to very ably lead the church during Ben Doolan’s sabbatical through the first 3 months of 2026.

September saw the release of the first EP of live worship by St Thomas’ Music – an amazing evening of worship captured and produced by our Worship Director Will Johnson and the team – we can’t wait to “Do It Again”.

Our Sunday congregations continue to grow and we continue to see many people being drawn to Jesus, with amazing testimonies as they come to be baptised and confirmed.

We are truly grateful for the work of all the volunteer teams (including our DY students) that make our Sunday worship possible – our tech team, worship team, welcome team, the youth and kids teams, the hospitality team, our Prayer Ministry team and of course our service leaders! Our volunteers are vital to the work of St Thomas’ and serving on a team is a great way to get more fully integrated into the life at St Thomas’ - if you don’t already serve on a team, please consider where your talents might be used and join a team!

This year has seen the introduction of several new initiatives – Tommy’s Coffee, and our Wave Outreach project, reaching out evangelically to young people in the city. 

St Thomas’ building continues to be used well during the week, with the presence of Tommy’s Coffee allowing the church to be open throughout the day Monday – Friday for people to drop in and leave the busyness of the city behind. We are particularly grateful to the “Open Church” team who serve faithfully through the week, providing a warm welcome, conversation and prayer. 

Our Tiny T’s Toddler group continues to meet on Wednesday mornings alongside the NHS baby clinic and is followed by our midweek Holy Communion. Evenings bring a whole range of uses of the building including 18-25’s nights, Boys Bible study, Youth night, Girls Nights and monthly Prayer nights.

Our outreach cafés continue to be one aspect of our mission, implementing our vision for loving Newcastle. 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 2026 progresses into 2027.

Ian Dobson and Dot Butler
Churchwardens

Deanery Synod Report

The Newcastle Central Deanery Synod represents the local parish churches in central Newcastle. We have had 3 Deanery Synod meeting during 2025/26, with the following focuses:

• Parish share targets, these are the funds each church gives the diocese to help fund its work

• Deanery Development Plan - the main focuses are (1) New Worshipping Communities (2) Buildings for Mission and (3) Growing Closer to God

Dom Llewellyn and Rich Shaw
Deanery Synod Representatives

Finance Report

Highlights

• 2025 was the first full year in which St Thomas’ was responsible for its finances. Whilst expense exceeded income by £85k in 2025, this was in line with our forecast and we continue to be on track to meet our target for financial sustainability by 2029.

• It was again encouraging to see that the generosity series of talks in February 2025 resulted in regular financial giving increasing by 40%. This is significantly ahead of budget and enabled further generosity:

  • Parish Share: increased to £60k

  • WAVE:  youth ministry in Byker was launched

  • EDEN: continued to flourish

  • Tommy's Coffee: launched as a missional initiative

  • Overseas Giving to charities: increased again to £16k

  • Safeguarding: increase in our safeguarding capacity. 

• We give thanks to the Diocesan Board of Finance for their continued (financial) support for the stipends of our vicar and curates, along with recognising the advice and support provided by the diocesan safeguarding and finance teams, along with all at Church House..

• We give thanks to all that God has provided, specifically

  • The generosity of all those connected with St Thomas’

  • A further instalment of £100k received as part of a one-off gift of £250k

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

  • As part of the closure of the legacy St Thomas account, £10k was received

  • Recognitions of the support that St Thomas staff and volunteers provide to New Wine.

Fabric Report

The Quinquennial (a legal requirement for an architect to inspect the church building every 5 years) was completed in 2025 and whilst we await the final report, the church building is in a good state of repair apart from the identification of some priority roof repairs which were addressed in December.

In February our builder resolved the residual snagging issues remaining from the internal reordering of our church building and the final payment was released.

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: 

• fix to the intruder alarm

• tile repairs to the baptistry

• biomass repairs for the heating

A building in constant use will suffer accidents and the following was addressed::

• an internal glass door was broken (replaced by insurance)

• ground floor ring light smashed (replaced by insurance)

The following changes were made to the building in 2025:

• additional electrics for the Tommy’s Coffee Cart which were provided with the Archdeacons approval

• regilding of the “Angel wings” near the altar, made possible through a grant, again with the Archdeacon’s approval

• create new storage on the north balcony for children’s equipment.

All required statutory checks were completed including the boiler, lightening protection, fire and intruder alarms, fire safety equipment.

With increasing congregational numbers, the Choir Stalls continue to take up significant space that could be better used. Despite our best efforts we are yet to reach an agreement with the DAC (advisory and regulatory body for church buildings) for their removal. We continue to look for a new home for the stalls.

Chris Elder
Strategy and Finance Director

Safeguarding Report

​Our commitment to creating a safe and nurturing environment for everyone who engages with St Thomas’ remains so important to us. Over the past year, we have continued to build on our robust procedures with the diocesean safeguarding team to ensure that St Thomas’ remains a place where the safeguarding of everyone is central.

​Over the last twelve months the safeguarding team has grown to include Rich Shaw as well as John Talbot and Alicia Hook. They all bring safeguarding expertise from their professional experience and workplaces, and we are so thankful for all they bring to the church! In 2025 Chloe came on board as our safeguarding administrator. The whole team's willingness to serve in this vital area is so appreciated and they each strengthen our ability to safeguard.

​We continue to proactively utilise and use the Church of England’s Safeguarding Hub and Dashboard. These national resources remain central to our safeguarding admin and operations, providing us with real time information on volunteers training and records, policies, and tools that enable us to manage safeguarding effectively and in line with national best practices.

We currently have 175 volunteers registered on the safeguarding hub, where we diligently monitor training, DBS checks, and safer recruitment. Overseeing this process is a massive, ongoing undertaking, and we are incredibly grateful to everyone in the church who serves to make sure we are doing so as safely as possible!

​At any given time, we remain 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. We have regular meetings with them, and they are so supportive of us as a church. We particularly want to thank God for Sharon Devlin (Diocesan Safeguarding Director) and Jill Thirlaway (Diocesan Caseworker) for their exceptional support and guidance. This strong partnership ensures that we are following the best advice and providing the most appropriate, sensitive and best support we can to all involved. ​Our desire remains to be an example of best practice in safeguarding within the diocese.

Revd Ben Doolan, Revd Lee Kirkby, Alicia Hook, John Talbot, Rich Shaw
Safeguarding Team