Rector - Rev Claire McArthur
Coventry-born Claire was previously Assistant Curate at St Mary's Church, Walsgrave. She is married to Gavin and has three children. At St Mary's, she loved serving in the busy parish and is excited by what St Michael's has to offer. Her highlights from St Mary's were setting up a new luncheon club alongside the Langley Trust and developing their children's ministry including becoming a Governor at two local schools.
Claire is passionate about anything digital and worked for the BBC for over 20 years where she led the development of the 45 BBC local websites across England. Other highlights from her career include working on A History of the World in 100 objects for Radio 4 and as a researcher for Radio3. In 2011 she moved to the third sector to lead digital at the Motor Neurone Disease Association and is proud of the �7 million raised on social media channels during the Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014. Her final job before ordination was in academia and she led digital at De Montfort University.
Claire studied theology at Queen's Theological College in Birmingham after being called to ministry during an interregnum at St Thomas' in Keresley.
Curate - Rev'd Dr Daniel Bennett
Daniel Bennett is our curate here at Stoke. Before training for ministry he lived in London and was primarily an academic, working in the area of social media, journalism and conflict. Having long been involved in lay Christian leadership, he felt called by God to pursue full-time ministry and began training for ordination at Ripon College, Cuddesdon in 2017. Daniel is married to Victoria and they have two young children, Felicity and Theo.
Lay Ministers
Janet Pocklington
Janet is a Licensed Reader and lay funeral minister in the Caludon team, as a member of the church council she is actively involved in many aspects of the life and organisation of this lively church. She leads services and preaches, visits local care homes and takes Communion to the housebound. She is branch leader of St Michael's Mothers' Union and enjoys being involved in that organisation both locally and within the Deanery.
Janet has worshiped at St. Michael's from early childhood and thinks of the church community as her extended family who have stood by her, prayed and supported her through the ups and downs of life.
Suzanne Sappiano
Suzanne is a Lay Reader serving in the church of Stoke St Michael and the Caludon team. As a Reader she enjoys preaching and leading worship across all the three Sunday services, as well as sharing in fellowship, coffee and toast!(8:00am). Suzanne particularly values the opportunity to use her imagination in the all-age talks, at our 9:30am all-age service, numerous card board boxes from her weekday employment within the NHS have found a second life in this!
Suzanne very much enjoys her work with baptism families, is a contact person for anyone enquiring, and will be there at the baptism with our team to help. Suzanne says 'it is such a privilege to be along- side families and newcomers taking their first steps into faith, and it is a real boost to see them have so much fun!'
Ann Brown
My family and I have worshipped at St Michael's Church together for many years. I am a Licensed Funeral Minister and a Licensed Reader. I work with the ministry team to bring Gods love into our everyday situations.
I have been a licensed funeral minister for over 18 years and I believe it is one of the most privileged services anyone can be involved in, being alongside family on their journey of grief. It is a time of many mixed emotions and as Christians we are there to help, support and guide you through this period of grief and confusion. It is so important that we help a family prepare a service with hymns and readings that are personal and fitting to their loved one. Jesus died and rose again preparing the journey that leads to new life.
Being a licensed reader can mean many things of which can involve planning services, preaching the message of the Gospel and leading worship and prayers. I am regularly involved in our active All Age Service together with Suzanne. Visiting the sick and taking Holy Communion to those unable to get to church is part of my ministry which enables me to reach out into the community and serve God In a very different way. Sharing the love of Jesus in many simple everyday situations is such an important and valuable ministry which I have been privileged to be just a small part of his plan.
Churchwardens
Malcolm Vanston-Rumney
Malcolm has been Churchwarden at St Michael's since Easter 2006. Malcolm has worked with two Rectors and has previous experience leading the church during an interregnum. The role has very varied responsibilities, but the main responsibility is to support the Rector and to be generally responsible for the day to day functioning of the parish. Malcolm finds himself dealing with anything from churchyard maintenance, welcoming people to church, changing light bulbs to dealing with Child Protection issues.
Malcolm has attended St Michael's since the late 1980s and particularly enjoys being a member of the choir.
A great many activities take place at St Michael's. Malcolm currently helps at Mike's Tikes, a parent and toddler group held on Thursday mornings, which is great fun. Malcolm says "When they were young, our three sons attended Junior Church and Chris Cross, the youth group, as well as being confirmed.
We are a vibrant community and I hope that more and more local people will come along to discover more about us".
Chris Dronfield
Chris was baptised at St Michael's in 1983. He has been involved in church life at St Michael's for most of his life.
Despite leaving Coventry to study at Exeter University back in 2002 Chris always returned to St Michael's and reflected upon the sense of family that has always been felt at St Michael's - 'it feels like home'.
Much like Malcolm, Chris has many jobs at St Michael's, from leading the youth group, to cooking on for the Sunday Lunch Club, to being part of the website team, it's fair to say that a Churchwarden's work is never done!
Chris become Churchwarden in May 2018, standing in place of his father, Peter, who passed away in December 2017. Peter was a huge part of life at St Michael's and still today we hear the words 'Peter would know that!'. Chris is keen to support the family of St Michael's like his father before him, like Malcolm and all those who've played that part making and keeping this church as the loving, friendly place that it is today.
Verger
Sue Morris
Sue has been coming to St Michael's since 1964, all of her life in fact, and is well and truly part of the furniture.
She has held most jobs here over the years including Musical Director, Parish Secretary and now Verger.
In case you didn't know that Verger helps out at all the occasional Offices (Baptisms, Weddings, Funerals) in a practical way , making sure the church is set up correctly, candles and booklets are provided where needed, and that people are welcomed and provided for while they are with us.
Sue looks forward to welcoming you to St Michael's and is very proud of how beautiful and modern the church looks since it's recent renovation.
Sacristan
Sue Miller
Sue has been attending St Michael's for many years. She is both our Sacristan and Head Server.
Sue prepares the communion for Sunday Services beforehand with the assistance of , a member of the serving team. Sue prepares the rota that ensures we have servers at our Sunday 8:00am and 11:00am services. Sue's commitment to her role is evident and serves most weeks herself. Sue has a gentle nature and love for laughing.
Anyone who is interested in serving at St Michael's should let Sue know and she'll be happy to help you!
Jenny Jones
JJenny works as a legal secretary and grew up within a Baptist Church. She has been a member of Stoke St. Michael's C of E since 1988 and was baptised and confirmed in 1990. She is married to Martin and has 2 adult children. Jenny has worked with young people at St. Michael's since 1994 when she began leading the Sunday School. She has been a Chris Cross Youth Group leader since 1996; 2 years after Chris Cross was formed on 15 April 1994. She continued to work with both Sunday School and Chris Cross until 2007; when she decided to concentrate on her role with youth. Jenny says it has been a privilege to work with young people for so many years. She hopes that in some way she has helped them to form their own personal relationship with God whilst they have been having fun, in a Christian environment, spending quality time with their peers.
Jen Watkins
Jen came to Coventry in 1987 to undertake her nursing training at the old Walsgrave Hospital (now UHCW), met her husband Gary here and never left! Currently working as midwife sonographer, Jen still works at UHCW scanning pregnant women.
Jen started attending Stoke St Michael's church in May 2009; her daughter Bethany joined Chris Cross at this time and periodically Jen would offer to stay to help when needed - before long she had joined the team to become a regular Chris Cross leader.
Confirmed approximately 25 years ago, Jen more recently joined the team of street pastors who patrol the city streets at the weekends to care for those more vulnerable members of the public who are out at this time. With both of her children grown up, Jen is keen to help and support children and young adults through a fun and friendly environment.
Chris Dronfield
Chris has been a Chris Cross leader for over 15 years.
Chris was a member when Chris Cross was founded back in 1994 and fondly recalls the enjoyment he had as a member, "Chris Cross was a fundamental part of my church life growing up. It's sometimes difficult as a youngster in church to grasp what's going with hymns, prayers and readings, but as a member of the group we spent time together, with our church family, in the church environment, playing games and doing activities and generally just having fun".
Chris wants Chris Cross to welcome all children in and around the parish to come along and enjoy what Chris Cross has to offer.
Director of Music
Linda Green
Linda Green our director of music attended both Stoke Park school and Stoke St. Michael's church many years ago until departing to study for a BMus at London University. This included learning the organ so the instrument at Stoke St Michael's was duly enlisted for practice purposes during the vacations. After completing her studies and beginning a career in school music teaching, Friday nights saw her taking choir practice here as the current organist was not too keen on that side of the job!
She departed for pastures new however in the 1990's and has continued to pursue church directorships of music in Warwick, Oxfordshire, Worcestershire and Stow-on-the-Wold where she has lived for the last 20 years.
2015 brought her full circle as she returned to Stoke St Michael's as Director of Music, commuting from the Cotswolds several times a week.
When not engaged in musical pursuits she enjoys cycling and long walks with her rescue-greyhound.
Zoey Cardwell
Zoey has been part of a church family somewhere for whole life but came to St Michael's following a bereavement. The care and support received cemented the need to stay.
Her journey has gone from strength to strength. St Michael's is a special place as are the people who come here.
Zoey works as a specialist midwife during the day but en joys the different ways her skills are utilised at St Michael's, from making coffee, to being a Street Pastor to dabbling with websites amongst many other things.
Claire Thompson
Claire has been a regular worshipper at St Michael's for some time now.
A committed member of the congregation, Claire carries out many roles at St Michael's. Claire is the editor or the church magazine, The Messenger and gives a huge amount of her time to makes sure each month a new magazine goes to print and keeps the wider members of our community informed on life at St Michael's. She also plays a pivotal role in our social committee, helping organise the many social events we try to run throughout the year. Claire is also a committed member of our choir
Paul Fallows
Paul is a regular member of the post choir practice group who can often be found rehydrating their vocal chords at the Biggin Hall on a Friday evening.
An IT worker by trade, Paul brings knowledge and experience to the website team, helping tackle some of the bits of code that can be a little frustrating to deal with at times. He has worked particularly hard in making the functionality of the new website work, something for which the old webmaster was very grateful for.
Paul, like Claire, works at Coventry University
Paul recently raised over �500 when during Movember he took the courageous decision to shave off what was something of a significant beard!
Chris Dronfield
I've been the webmaster of St Michaels.co.uk since we first launched a website back in 2012 and I want to welcome you to our newly updated website.
In my normal day-to-day job I work as an IT Tester - which basically means I'm usually trying to break IT systems which in turn means actually building something is very unnatural to me! I'm not a website wizard by any stretch but will be happy to share what ever little titbits I know with anyone who is interested.
This is the third incarnation of a Stoke St Michael's website and, while I've done it alone in the past, it has made such a difference having such a great team working together on this project. Big thanks to Zoey and Claire for getting the content put together and equally big thanks to Paul who has done an incredible job finding out those bits of code that make the site so much nicer.
Before building our first website I had no knowledge of website building at all and would tell anyone who is preparing to build a website not to be afraid as there is so much help out there if you're stuck. So please, take a look around and if you need anything just contact me through our contact us page, selecting "Other".