St Thomas Church, Crookes — now known as 'STC Sheffield' — is an

ecumenical Ecumenism ( ; alternatively spelled oecumenism)also called interdenominationalism, or ecumenicalismis the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

with united

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

and

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

traditions, in

Crookes Crookes is a suburb of the City of Sheffield, England, about west of the city centre. It borders Broomhill to the south, Walkley and Upperthorpe to the east and open countryside around the River Rivelin to the north. The population of the ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

, England. STC Sheffield is a large evangelical Anglican and Baptist Church, situated in the west of Sheffield.

The building

The building has undergone various building and ordering projects in the last 40 years. It still retains much of its original architecture, although a substantial expansion was made in the 1980s and a further extension was added in 2011 to join the building to the former Crookes Endowed School. The main church worship area is a classic Victorian church with a square tower and gothic arch stained glass windows.

History and previous vicars

Previous vicars/rectors of note include

Mike Breen Michael Breen (born May 22, 1961) is an American play-by-play sports commentator. He has been the lead announcer for National Basketball Association, NBA games on NBA on ABC, ABC and NBA on ESPN, ESPN since 2006, including the NBA Finals. He is ...

and Mick Woodhead. * 1840–1844 John Haigh * 1845–1854 Francis Owen * 1854–1855 Vacancy: services taken by Rev. Thomas Howarth * 1855–1882 Charles G. Coombe * 1882–1901 Constantine Clementson * 1902–1916 Henry Martin * 1916–1929 Norton Fleetwood Duncan * 1930–1934 Cameron P. Newell * 1934–1938 S. H. Maycock * 1938–1942 L. J. Todd * 1942–1950 J. S. Hepworth * 1950–1956 W. J. Sawle * 1957–1964 C. C. Jack Butlin * 1964–1971 Michael J. Cole * 1971–1992 Robert P. R. Warren * 1992–2003 Mike Breen * 2003–2021 Mick Woodhead * 2022–present Tom Finnemore St Thomas Crookes was founded in 1840 following an appeal to build a church for a growing rural population. The church and burial ground were consecrated on 1 October 1840 by the Archbishop of York. In 1982 St Thomas Crookes joined with Crookes Baptist Church under a Local Ecumenical Partnership (LEP) which continues to the present day. The former Baptist church building was demolished and its site is now occupied by twelve self-contained flats for the elderly. The Crookes Endowed School was built in 1790 and educated local children until 1981 when it closed due to falling rolls. The church purchased the building in 1981 and reopened it in 1982 after renovation. St Thomas's Church was the site of the Nine O'Clock Service controversy during the 1980s–1990s, which grew to national prominence before being stopped following allegations of sexual and emotional abuse. In 1995, a number of complaints began to surface of the sexual abuse of women in the group by Chris Brain. After an investigation by the

Diocese of Sheffield The Diocese of Sheffield is an administrative division of the Church of England, part of the Province of York. The Diocese of Sheffield was created under George V on 23 January 1914, by the division from the Diocese of York (along with that pa ...

, the group was shut down in August 1995. The Bishop of Sheffield demanded Brain's resignation after he confessed to having sexual relationships with young women in the congregation. The services were shut down by the Church of England in 1994 after Chris Brain admitted to 'having sexual contact with more than 20 young female members of Nine O'Clock Service.' Conservative Party MP,

Miriam Cates Miriam Joy Cates (born 23 August 1982) is a British politician who was the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Penistone and Stocksbridge (UK Parliament constituency), Penis ...

, and her family were members of St Thomas' Church and she was the operations director of Network Church Sheffield from 2016 to 2018. Cates' husband developed a mobile app for foodbanks. The first client of the app was the S6 Foodbank based at St. Thomas' Church and run by Network Church Sheffield.

References

External links

St. Thomas' Church, Crookes official site

Church for Students

Diocese of Sheffield website
{{Churches in Sheffield Churches in Sheffield