“Welcome to the Parish of St Gabriel and the Angels Castleton and St John the Baptist Rochdale.
The former parishes of St Gabriel and St John were amalgamated into one parish in the early 2000s. Our parish community is made up of many different nationalities and this is one of the constant features of our parish history, Rochdale being a place where immigrants would come looking for work and eventually where they would make their home.
Looking forward to our continuing service to the people of Rochdale, a small team of parishioners has successfully applied to the National Lottery Heritage Fund to help us with much-needed renovation work at St John’s. The church is a grade 2* listed building with a beautiful mosaic and unique dome. We, on reception of this funding, are committed to opening up St John’s to the wider community by offering various activities from mosaic classes to concerts.
Our website will keep you informed about our parish community and forthcoming activities. I do invite you do come and visit our beautiful restored church of St John the Baptist, Rochdale.”
Fr Michael Johonnett, Parish Priest
A short introduction to this website
Opening times at St Gabriel’s and St John’s for the week commencing Monday 12th May (please see the table)
Please see the Notices section under ‘Our Parish’, for a statement from the Bishop of Salford addressing the passing of His Holiness Pope Francis.
For details of heritage activities at St John’s view our heritage activities blog.
Mass
10.00am @ St. John’s
Mass
9.15am @ St Gabriel’s
No services
GUIDED TOURS OF ST JOHN’S
10.00am – 2.00pm
Mass
10.00am @ St John’s
Mass
9.15am @ St Gabriel’s
Mass
12.00 noon @ St John’s
Confessions: 11.00 – 11.45am
5th Sunday of Easter
9.15am @ St John’s
11.00am @ St Gabriel’s
Visitors to St John’s are welcome at many points throughout the week. St John’s is very easy to find however you travel. Please take a look below for details on your preferred mode of transport.
Various buses to the railway station stop directly opposite the church.
Bikes should be left in the church car park. They may not be taken into the church.
If you travel by tram, the tram stops outside St John’s.
If you travel by train to Rochdale Station, St John’s is directly in front of the station.
If you are travelling by car, be careful not to miss the narrow, one way turn from close to the entrance to the railway station that takes you to St John’s.
The free church car park is on the right immediately after the church.
If you have got this far using the new parish website, it would be great if you could spare a couple of minutes to complete our short survey. Your responses will help us to improve the way we present our parish and our heritage. The survey is completely anonymous and the results will only be used for statistical purposes.
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