St Mary’s & St Luke’s Services, Readings, News & Church at Home Resources for 04 April 2021 – Easter Sunday
New Monthly Magazine
When the pandemic struck in March 2020, as we couldn’t print or even distribute paper at the time, the Magazine moved online this Blog. The time seems right now to make it available in print form once again and so we have this ‘new style’ Magazine. It will be available monthly, on the first Sunday.
Lent Group
Thanks to all those who joined me on a Monday evening during March.
We thought about
‘God’s Story, Our Story‘
and you can still download the course here
You can do it just as well on your own or with a family member(s), I feel it is still valid after Lent.
Revd Mike
St Luke’s & St Mary’s have Reopened
Both St Luke’s and St Mary’s have reopened with a booking system is in place for Sunday Worship for the time being. Please click here for details of how to book. We are taking bookings now for 11 April until the end of April. Easter Sunday is fully booked at both churches but will be streamed from St Mary’s.
Face coverings and Social distancing will still be in place until the government say it’s safe not to. Please see the link above for further Covid-19 details re attending worship.
Funerals this past week
Ruby Baker
Peter Walker
Funerals still to take place
Josie Percival
Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM)
Our APCM for 2021 is on Sunday 16 May 2021 at 12 noon. Due to the Covid restrictions in place, and with permission from the Bishop of Chester, the meeting will be an online only meeting on Zoom. The meeting is open to anyone on the church’s Electoral Roll and you can register to attend the meeting here: bit.ly/stmarysapcm21
We will be electing 2 Church Wardens and 7 Members to the PCC. All the forms needed are below and are available at both churches.
There will also be access by phone, please contact Revd Mike for the details if you’d like to ‘attend’ that way.
The Church Electoral Roll
Ahead of the APCM, there will be a revision of the Electoral Roll, as this is just a revision, if you are already on the church’s Electoral Roll, there is no need to reapply. All the details and the relevant forms can be found here
Hearts to Remember
Perfect love drives out fear. 1 John 4:18
Thanks for all the hearts we’ve received from individuals and the local primary schools, it’s been an amazing and emotional response. All the hearts we’ve received so far are up, do take a look if you are passing by. We are planning to leave the hearts up to, and including, Sunday 11 April.
A year on since the 1st Covid-19 lockdown and St Mary’s & St Luke’s we think it is important to think about this difficult time. To remember the people who have died and the wonderful people who have helped us, people like doctors and nurses, our neighbours, and our families.
We believe that God’s perfect love drives out all fear, and that those people who have helped us have shown how love is stronger than fear.
We are inviting you to colour in a heart, make it as colourful and patterned as you like. As you do this you might like to think of someone you want to say thank you for, someone who has supported you. Or colour a heart for someone you love but have lost during the year. We would like to fill the windows of St Mary’s Church Hall with hearts as a sign of thanks and hope.
Easter Resources from the Bible Society
As usual, the Bible Society has produced some fantastic resources for Easter 2021.
Howard Barker writes…
Easter resources https://www.biblesociety.org.uk/get-involved/easter/
My colleague wrote a good piece reflecting on a year of Covid-19 https://www.biblesociety.org.uk/latest/news/one-year-on-5-things-weve-learned-from-covid-19/
Also, the Bible Society [via Christians in Politics] gathered together a group of Christian MPs and Peers from across the political parties to share a message of renewed hope this Easter, through a recording of the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
If you want a bit of Dai Woolridge (and why wouldn’t you?)-https://www.biblesociety.org.uk/explore-the-bible/spoken-truth/peter-a-twopart-easter-spoken-word/
Church at Home Resources for all ages
There are resources for Lent for all the family on our Lent Resources Page: Click here
Together @ Home Resources
Faith at Home from the Church of England
This is a great resource for families to keep their children’s faith alive at this time.
Faith at Home is a national campaign that builds on the work of Growing Faith and Everyday Faith to support the faith development and pastoral care of children and young people. Click Here to go to the Faith at Home website.
A bitesize Bible experience from the Ollerton Family
Through 15 minute sessions explore famous characters and events that form The Greatest Story Ever and discover how we can be part of it today. Simple to run. Fun. Free. No prior knowledge required. This family devotional course mixes online content (videos, readings, discussion) and printed cards to form a colourful learning experience in your own home. https://thegreateststoryever.org
The Bible Society Bible Book Club
This is a fantastic free resource that we’ve used for some of the Midweek Get Togethers and is great for personal use to discover more about the books of the bible. Please take a look at the video and click here to find out more.
Giving to St Mary’s & St Luke
The church’s finances are under extreme pressure at the moment. I would ask you to review your personal giving to the church. If you already give regularly then perhaps consider increasing your giving, if you don’t give regularly then perhaps consider doing this. I really do appreciate the giving that happens already and the extra giving that has taken place during the pandemic. However, due to the lack of income from not being in church and from not being able to let the church hall, plus our outgoings being fairly fixed, we have lost around £30,000 in the past 12 months. This obviously places us in a difficult and vulnerable financial position. To find out more about giving to church, the ways you can do it, and how you can do it in a tax-efficient way, please take a look below. Please keep our finances in your prayers.
One Off Giving
You can give via our very simple online giving partnership with Give a Little and Sum Up. Simply click the button below. Sum Up take a small transaction fee from what you give.
Giving via you Bank – online or phone
You can give via your bank via online banking or telephone banking. If you do it this way we receive 100% of the money you give, there is no transaction fee. Here are the details you need to make a payment directly into the church bank account. For phone banking you may need to take a look at a statement from your bank and it normally has the details of how to do this on the back. You can give once or set up a monthly payment. Please remember to never give passwords over the phone and only call the official number on your statement.
Account Name: St Mary’s Wistaston PCC
Sort Code: 08 92 99
Account No: 65067004
Ref: your initial & surname
Easyfundraising
A very simple way to give, if you shop online or do click and collect, is through Easyfundraising – it doesn’t cost you a penny as by using Easyfundraising a percentage of what you but gets given to the church.
We’ve raised over £1600 through Easyfundraising. For more information on this please click here.
Giving Leaflet with
Click on the image to view/download the leaflet.
