Hello all,
Well, time has flown by again as we reach October half-term and it will soon be the run-up to Christmas. Speaking of which, the CPA ‘Carols by Candlelight’ service will take place on Monday 11th December at 7pm at All Saints Church, Elizabeth Street, Preston, PR12RX. This year we welcome back St Andrew’s primary school choir from Oswaldtwistle who will be singing for us again. The choir sang last year and I received such positive feedback that it feels right to invite them again. We are privileged to welcome the national CPA executive director Brian McCarthy who will be opening the carol service this year. The carol service is a great time where we can meet with our Christian communities and our CPA partners. It will be great to welcome our friends from ‘Good News for Everyone’ who provide our Lancashire Constabulary crested New Testaments and Psalms, the Street Pastors who do amazing work in Lancashire communities and nationwide, and also to be supported by our Police Cadets who also do great voluntary work in the community. We are receiving immeasurable support from Chief Constable Chris Rowley and Chief Superintendent Stasia Osiowy who are joining us to read two of the Bible passages. There will also be an encouraging, challenging and also a positive message from Rev Nathan Buttery who we are so grateful to for opening All Saints church up to us and pointing us to the true message of Christmas and God’s love, shown in the birth of Jesus Christ. The poster is attached, designed by PS Tim Fryer.
Our next CPA meeting will be on Thursday 9th November at 7pm at Brave Church, Watson Street, Oswaldtwistle, BB5 3HH. We are delighted to invite former Detective Superintendent Claire McEnery to our meeting who will be speaking to us about her exceptional career in the Police and also her very real Christian conversion experience once retired, meaning she is now training to become a vicar. I have recently read her terrific memoirs entitled ‘From cuffs to collar’ and I’m sure you will all be encouraged and inspired. I will also be advertising this on Sherlock as this could be something that colleagues of Ma’am McEnery would be interested in attending, so this is an opportunity to share testimony of what Christ has done. Please come along and invite others too.
Also we have received the final edit of the Home Office CPA Recruitment Video which was filmed in February this year. I have shown this at staff network inputs to new recruits and at various Christian events where I have spoken, including the youth church at St Christophers High School, Accrington. It generally goes down well. The link is https://design102.wistia.com/medias/ll95sx6q1o Please let me know your thoughts on the video. It was filmed across Lancashire at Hutton HQ, Preston and Accrington. It is something we can hopefully utilise going forward to promote to Christian audiences that you can practice your faith as a Christian working for the Police.
We have recently held our first planning meeting for the CPA National Conference which will be taking place in June 2024 in Lancashire. We have put together a draft plan of the conference and this week myself and Angela Biden have filmed the promotional video for the conference. We are grateful to PS Dan Gunn for accessing some great drone footage of Lancashire for the promotional video and Angela is currently editing the video so that it can be shown at the CPA Leaders Conference in November to invite branch leaders and deputies for what should be an excellent conference. They can then disseminate the invite through to their branches so that when the bookings open early next year there should be a lot of interest. If you would like to join us on the next CPA Conference planning meeting, which is scheduled for 1300 hours on Monday 6th November please let myself or Rebecca know.
It has been a privilege to be on the steering group for the ‘Accrington Street Angels’ who will soon be patrolling the streets of Accrington from 10pm until 2am on selected Fridays and Saturdays. It was great to invite Paul Blakey and some of the members of the ‘Street Angels’ to a ‘People’s Voice’ session in September for Hyndburn (Accrington) Neighbourhood Policing Team. There is a an article on Sherlock which highlights what a blessing this amazing group of people will be to Accrington and how they will work closely with the emergency services. Street Angels (cjx.gov.uk) They will also be joining us at our Carol Service. Please remember them in your prayers as they go out onto the streets in uniform for the first time on Saturday 28th October.
Lancashire Christian Police Association will be featured in Edition 9 of ‘The Beat’, the Lancashire Constabulary magazine this month. This will be published on Sherlock. Please look out for it. If you want a copy of the article I can send it through to you if you cannot access Sherlock.
If you would like to become a member of the Christian Police Association you can follow this link – CPA Member Application
We have also all been invited by our friend Inspector Coralie Bailey (GMP CPA branch leader) to join in Monday ‘refs’ Prayers on Microsoft Teams every Monday at midday. What a great idea. This is open to Police Officers and staff. Link below.
Click here to join the meeting
Meeting ID: 337 914 861 868
Passcode: BD54mL
Download Teams | Join on the web
Finally, I would just like to put on record my thanks to PCSO Alan King who joined us earlier this year and became a very active member, assisting at the Royal Lancashire Show where he was interviewed on Radio Lancashire. He also shared his testimony with me at the Methodist Church in St Annes in June. Unfortunately Alan has had health issues and has had to resign but his few months with us have really been a blessing. We wish you the very best Alan and I’m sure God has something big planned for you and Bev.
God bless,
Paul Pountain, PC 3629, Hyndburn North Neighbourhood Constable,
Tel: 01254 353103/ Mob. 07931470873
Email: [email protected]
