Our History

St Clement’s began life in 1880 as a church plant from the neighbouring parish of St Barnabas. Manchester was expanding rapidly as a city and Thomas Dickinson, the curate at St Barnabas at the time, along with the minister John Noyes decided to plant a church in Higher Openshaw before new housing was built there so people would have somewhere to worship God. Thomas Dickinson became the first minister of St Clement’s and served the church until 1919. His love for Jesus Christ and his desire for others to know God’s love and grace in their lives has set the tone of the church ever since. Below are a list of the ministers of St Clement’s. One current member of the church Hilda Beebe still remembers Joseph Edmondson who appointed her as a Sunday School teacher in the 1930s.

• Thomas Dickinson            1878-1919
• Arthur Fuller                      1919-1928
• Joseph Edmondson          1929-1937
• John Maddock                   1938-1944
• Desmond Dean                 1945-1951
• Cecil Butlin                         1952-1963
• Peter Dawson                    1963-1968
• Douglas Smith                   1969-1980
• Brian Flux                           1981-1988
• William Nelson                  1989-2003
• Christopher Howitz          2005-2012
• Paul Jump                           2012-present