Our Churches.

St Stephen’s Parish, Warrington covers an area running from Winwick to Birchwood on the East side of the Winwick Rd, the A49. Within it’s boundaries mass is celebrated in three different locations or mass centres:

·        At St Stephen’s church in Orford;

·        At the Church of the Resurrection and of St Bridget in Cinnamon Brow;

·        At St Oliver Plunkett in Birchwood Church of England school in Oakwood, Birchwood.

Historically the Parish was, until 2006 three separate Parishes. St Stephen’s was established in the 1950’s under the care of Fr Dillon. St Bridget’s and St Oliver Plunkett were established in the early 1980’s under the care of the Vincentian Religious Community who ran all three Parishes between 1977-99. From 1999 the care of the Parishes reverted back to the Diocese. The number of priests serving these Parishes reduced from five to two until Sept. 2005, when a single priest has served them, until December 2008 when the number of clergy rose to two. The other significant factor in the merging of the Parishes was the reduction in numbers attending Mass. How we redress this latter issue is something that the Parish Council has been looking at since the end of 2007.

The Parish, including the Mass centres of St Bridget and St Oliver Plunkett is run from St Stephen’s presbytery. The office is staffed by volunteer’s, led by Alan Potter and can be contacted through the telephone number and addresses on the home page.

If you wish to know the location of any of the mass centres, or require directions to the churches, please refer to the map contained within this chapter. Mass times can be found under the Section ‘Services.’