St. Michael's Fellowship

The Flock News edition Year 5 was titled "Just Like a Tree...". On Sunday 7th January 2007 we celebrated the inauguration of our 'sister' Church, The St. Michael's Fellowship in Paignton by planting a Cherry Tree just outside the Chapel. The St Michael's Court sheltered housing is built around the old St. Michael and All Angels Church on Derrell Road, which looks down over Torbay and the English Riviera.

At one of our social gatherings between Good Shepherd Drive and St Michael's Court, the then Warden, Jenny, showed me the Lady Chapel which had been preserved in the conversion to sheltered housing accommodation. She suggested (because she knew of our Fellowship in Exeter) that we might restore the Chapel to it's original purpose. I looked around the small Chapel - the pews, the alter-table, an old organ, the arch-windows, and the large cross on the front wall. Unfortunately, it was packed with jumble, Christmas decorations, toilet rolls, and boxes of old books!

But we saw beyond the mess, and within a couple of months, The St Michael's Fellowship was born. We decided to hold an evening service on the first Sunday of every month at 5pm. It was advertised around the complex, and numbered around 10 residents including some folk from the neighbourhood.

When Jenny, the Warden, retired in 2010, the Fellowship went into hibernation for a while until our dear friend, Dave Hughes, himself a resident at St Michael's Court, captured the vision, and within months, The St Michael's Fellowship was revived. Along with procuring a lovely organ from a local Organ Club, the folk at Good Shepherd Fellowship made great efforts to support the work and have kept the SMF going ever since. It is an integral part of the overall ministry to reach out to the more senior members of society. It is a joy to hold Christian services in this old Chapel - the use for which it was originally constructed.

However, the SMF had not been immune to the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-21. Sadly, our services have had to be postponed for 18 months, just like the GSF in Exeter. But, thanks to the efforts of Dave and his perseverance with the ILA (Independent Living Assessor), a new chapter can begin in the Lady Chapel. 

The St Michael's Fellowship will not only reconvene, but will become the 'host' of the 'mother-Church', The Good Shepherd Fellowship. God willing, we will start with a Harvest Festival service followed by Supper on the first Sunday of October 2021. For more detail of this and other services, click on "Event and Meetings".