We have recruited a new post of a full-time Children, Youth and Families Worker who started work on 1st September 2025

We are really excited to welcome Sam Thompson.

Sam will be working with us and with our partner church, The Stocksbridge Christian Centre, which is a Methodist Anglican LEP and which now houses the Food Bank.

Sam previously worked as a teacher and Head Teacher in Primary School education. She is looking forward to starting her work here in the valley.

The idea is to have Sam devoted solely to the development of work with young families, some of which will be devoted to building up our families and young people at church, and some of which will be engaging with families and young people in secular activities that they are interested in.

It’s an innovative project, which we hope will have a significant impact on the future life of the church and community

And it is fully funded by the Yorkshire Synod of the United Reformed Church for five years. We are immensely grateful to them.

If you check out the Service from Sunday 3rd August you can see our Minister Ian Lucraft welcoming Sam to Christ Church

“Hello, my name is Sam Thompson and I’ve just taken up post as the new Children and Families worker at Christ Church and the Christian Centre. Before starting this role I was a primary school teacher and school leader for 34 years and loved every minute of it. I retired from education in the summer and am now looking forward to using my experiences to develop work with children and families across both churches. 

I’m originally from Birmingham but have lived in Yorkshire (South and West) for over 20 years; I love it here. I have two adult sons who both still live in Yorkshire too. I have been a Christian and, mainly, URC member since I attended Sunday School in Birmingham.

I love music and singing (though very enthusiastically rather than well), reading and crochet.

Watch this space for news of exciting new events and activities as well as developments to current activities.”