St Mary's, Cheadle (C of E), 6:30pm

When visited:

lots of times. I'm writing about the 6:30pm service, which has a different feel to the various morning services.

Location:

Right in the middle of Cheadle village, at the junction of Wilmslow Rd and the High St.

Type of Service:

Usually modern liturgical but fairly informal Evening Prayer, though this does vary. We have less liturgical services every so often, along with youth-led services, more liturgical communions, Festival services four times a year with a big choir, ...

Welcome:

People on the door welcoming. New people sometimes get spoken to beforehand, always afterwards if they hang round. We also do free pizza beforehand in the Upper Room (above Somerfield on Wilmslow Rd) to which anyone is welcome. People do find it a friendly church.

First Impressions:

In a really quiet week, there might be under 100 people there; a busy week we can get over 200. Good age range - the 20 or so younger teens leave part way through the service for their groups, the older teens stay around until the end, then leave. There are also a good number of OAPs, and most of the age groups in between too, including young adults. There's also an opportunity to pray with people at the end of each service. My least favourite thing is the lighting (old suspended bulbs with no shades) - I find it really difficult to look forwards during a service if sitting at the back.

Music:

Varies between one person on a keyboard doing golden oldies-type stuff and full youth band doing mostly loud modern stuff with a few golden oldies thrown in. Singing is ok, but not amazing. Sounds a lot better at the front than the back...

Sermon:

Usually 30 mins or so expository, with reasonable application. Tendancy to be waffly at times, but sometimes very good. Once a month or so there's an "Open to Question" service, where it's attempting to deal with a relevant contemporary issue with the opportunity for questions at the end.

Website:

yes, and it's ok

Overall:

I'm fairly happy here, though it's definitely not perfect (not least because I'm involved).