St Mary’s Wistaston & St Luke’s Willaston

Christian Life Online Magazine
October 2020

This month in the Christian Calendar we celebrate:
18 October – St Luke
28 October – Simon and Jude

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Rev Paul Reflects upon his Ordination as a Priest
A Very Different Ordination

Dear friends,

When I think back to my ordination as a Deacon 15 months ago, I could not have imagined how different things would have been for my priesting ordination. I did not imagine that it would need to be delayed because of a global pandemic, that I would be ordained in a face covering, and that the hundreds of guests cramming the cathedral in Chester would be reduced to just a few each. How different things were. A different Bishop of Chester, A different set of protocols for the service, even the wet weather was different from the glorious sunshine of before. And yet with all the changes, all the challenges, all the seeming chaos of Covid, God remained constant.

In the disrupted pre-ordination retreat, God was there in the silence, reminding me of his love for me, of his call on my life, of his pleasure at seeing my colleagues and I ordained priest. God was there in the love and support of all those people watching online and sending encouraging comments. God was there in the peaceful intimacy of the gentle and beautiful service. It is hard to explain how it was so different and yet so perfect for the times, how God’s grace and love were so evident, but in the quietness of the service, God was there.

As He was in the different Sunday service the following day. Different because having streamed services from my sofa for the previous six months we were streaming from the Church building for the first time. Different because we had real people in the church and multiple cameras to think about. Different because I was now presiding at communion for the first time. Different but God was there. The sense of joy at celebrating the Eucharist for the first time was wonderful. To be sharing that holy meal with the family of St Mary’s and St Luke’s, with my friends and my family, with those who have supported me through the long and sometimes challenging process of ordination was wonderful (I cannot thank everyone enough.) Yes, the first communion with me as priest was different from the packed church followed by a huge party that I had imagined, but God was there too.

This weekend was certainly not something I could have envisaged, but it will certainly be something that I never forget. I will never forget the love and support of my family, the guidance and encouragement from Mike and all the St Mary’s and St Luke’s and how different the weekend was from what I thought and planned. But above all I will never forget how God was present in the whole weekend, reminding me of his unchanging love, mercy and grace.

With my best wishes and prayers,

Rev Paul

Photos of the weekend

Worship in Church and Online for October

In Church

Sundays
St Luke's 9am Holy Communion each Sunday
(Booking Required)
St Mary's 10:40am
1st & 2nd Sundays Holy Communion
3rd & 4th Sundays All Age Worship
(Booking Required - fully booked)

Wednesdays
10am Holy Communion at St Mary's

Monday, Tuesday & Thursdays
9:30am Morning Prayer

On Line

Sundays
10.40 am Streamed Worship
(stream begins at 10:30am)

Holy Days in October

Articles are taken from Exciting Holiness which is available online for most saints days at: almanac.oremus.org

St Luke

18 October

Luke was a dear friend of the apostle Paul, and is mentioned by him three times in his Letters. Paul describes him as ‘the beloved physician’ and, in his second Letter to Timothy, as his only companion in prison. He is believed to be the author of two books of the New Testament, firstly the gospel which stands in his name and also the Acts of the Apostles. Luke’s narrative of the life of Christ has a pictorial quality and shows the sequential pattern from the nativity through to the death and resurrection. The developed sense of theology that comes over in Paul’s writings is virtually unknown in those of Luke but, as a Gentile, Luke makes clear that the good news of salvation is for all, regardless of gender, social position or nationality. Traditionally, Luke wrote his gospel in Greece and died in B˙otia at the age of eighty-four.

Simon & Jude

28 October

Simon and Jude were named among the twelve apostles in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Simon is called ‘the Zealot’, probably because he belonged to a nationalist resistance movement opposing the Roman occupation forces. There is no indication in the gospels whether Simon moved from the Zealot party to be a follower of Christ or, on the other hand, if he became a supporter of that group after the resurrection, seeing it as a response to God’s call to proclaim the kingdom.

Luke describes Jude as the son of James, while the Letter of Jude has him as the brother of James, neither of which negates the other. It seems he is the same person as Thaddæus, which may have been a last name. Owing to the similarity of his name to that of Judas Iscariot, Jude was rarely invoked in prayer and it is likely that because of this, interceding through him was seen as a final resort when all else failed. He became known, therefore, as the patron saint of lost causes.

The two apostles are joined together on 28 October because a church which had recently acquired their relics was dedicated to their memory in Rome on this day in the seventh century.

Annual Parochial Church Meeting

To book for the APCM on 25 October

In Church
(you must be on the Electoral Roll to attend in church)
email: booking@stmaryswistaston.org.uk
Phone: Revd Mike 01270 665742

On Zoom
preregistration required
Click here to register

You can view this month’s, and previous month’s, Chester Diocesan News using the Magazine Menu above or click the image.

Food Bank News

August: 151 people were fed providing 1,359 meals. Donations of food received in was 2,336.59 kgs.

If you are able to donate, we are totally out of long-life cakes, sweet treats, sugar, toothpaste, shower gels and shampoo and low on tinned potatoes, custard, and crisps. We are open Mon- Fri 10-2.30. for you to drop of donations at our rear gates.

We have had some repairs done on our biggest leak and are waiting for a downpour to see if the problem has been fixed. Thank you to those who have donated towards this.

On a personal note I will be leaving St Paul’s at the end of this month and Alexia Stockton will be taking over most of my work. Thank you for your support over the years and particularly during this unprecedented time in the world’s history.

Take care, Cheryl https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/StPauls

Special Events this Autumn

Things may be different this Autumn, but we have some exciting things to celebrate within God’s Love!

October:
Harvest Sunday 11 October: this has moved a week due to Paul’s Priesting and it will very different this year, As we won’t all be able to meet in church we will be having a virtual Harvest Celebration! The 10:40am service at St Mary’s will be available to book to attend and it will be live-streamed so we can all join in! We will be encouraging people to make a financial, rather than a food donation (as we can’t redistribute them this year), to the charities we usually support as we give thanks to God for his goodness to us each and every day and even in the midst of a global pandemic – click on the links to go to their donations pages:

Nantwich Food Bank
Crewe Food Bank
St Luke’s Hospice
Cheshire Agricultural Chaplaincy – no online giving but there’s an address to send a cheque to
Christian Aid

November:
We will wait and see if the guidance changes, but it’s looking unlikely that we will be able to hold our Annual Commemoration Service which is normally on the 1st Sunday of November. If we can’t we will do something online.
We also await guidance on celebrating Remembrance Sunday (08/11). We will have a service in church, but it will be limited numbers and we will live-stream it. We will also officially open the new work around the War Memorial on that day. We have a shortfall of a couple of thousand pounds on this project, if you can help to cut this please click here or speak to Revd Mike, it would be good to get it in balance before the opening.

Ways to Give to church whilst you shop at no cost to you

Take out a new home insurance policy with Ecclesiastical (our church’s insurers) and they will give our church £130. https://www.ecclesiastical.com/individuals/home-insurance/trust130/

We’re are registered with easyfundraising, which means you can help us for FREE. Over 4,000 shops and sites will donate to us when you use easyfundraising to shop with them – at no extra cost to yourself! All you need to do is sign up and remember to use easyfundraising whenever you shop online. It’s easy and completely FREE! These donations really mount up, so please sign up to support us at https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/stmaryswistastonpcc/?invite=2QY49G&referral-campaign=s2s

Giving to our church Online or by Phone Banking

It's simpler than you may think

Online 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 your bank

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.
In total we've raised over £1600 through Easyfundraising. For more information on this please click the button below.

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From the Church Registers - September 2020

Funerals

1 September 2020 Gillian Margaret BOOTH 71
18 September 2020 Jane ROBERTS 82

Weddings

None this month

Baptisms