Looking back at April it has been a rollercoaster of a month with profound moments of grief and others of great joy. We were thrilled to see so many people back in church on 4th April, Easter Sunday and it was such an apt day to return. On 8th April, we also celebrated Nick Hopkinson’s year of being High Sheriff in Cheshire. Not an easy year at all, but what Nick and his teams achieved has been phenomenal including the preparation of 1000 food hampers for families in need, and part of a team raising a couple of million of pounds for different projects. There will be more elsewhere in the magazine on this! It was particularly pleasing to see so many being recognised in our community for their services and there were several very surprised people, including me, at being on the list! Little did we know that the following day, we would receive the sad news of the death of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. That day was also the anniversary of the death of my own father one year ago in lockdown circumstances. The verses of Ecclesiastes 3 were never more pertinent “ For everything there is a season, A time for every activity under heaven….a time to cry and a time to laugh.” And isn’t that reflected in the Resurrection Story? The grief of Good Friday is superceded by the joy of Easter Sunday! In life, there is indeed joy in the midst of sorrow. Over the 50 days now between Easter Sunday and Pentecost Sunday all of us have the opportunity to reflect on the resurrection. The message of the resurrection has never been more needed or more powerful at this time when people have suffered so much yet look for hope and meaning in their lives as we return to some sort of “normality.” I preached on the 3rd Sunday of Easter about the proof of the resurrection, the eyewitness accounts of the Christian story written only 50 years after the events themselves, the resilience and determination of the disciples to risk death to spread the news of the resurrection and, of course, the individual “faith” stories we all <span style="font-size: 1rem;">have where we have experienced inexplicable coincidences or seen God at work in particular crossroads in our own lives.</span> The Queen, herself, and the rest of the Royal Family also participated in the grief many have felt. Despite the role of the monarch, she was on Saturday 17th April, a lonely widow, stooped with grief and sitting in alone with few of her family around her. One would have had to have a heart of stone not be moved by her sadness and to empathise with the way COVID had also impacted her own life. The music chosen was particularly meaningful and of course chosen by the Duke. The words from Psalm 104 arranged for choir and organ by James Vivian presents a poem about the creation of the world, emphasising the order of the world and the sovereignty of the God who created it and maintains it. The Jubilate by Benjamin Britten is a song of joy and thankfulness to God and belief in a world without end. A woman of great faith, I have no doubt that Queen Elizabeth will have tremendous support from her family and God in the weeks and months ahead and will know that death does not have the final say. The Easter event marks a powerful transformation, in which Jesus takes our pain and despair and transforms them with the love that resurrects us from the death of suffering. I pray that would allow this truth to permeate our hearts in the weeks leading to Pentecost, lifting us out of despair and enabling refreshment of our souls. May God’s blessings be with us all throughout the coming month. The Red Dr Jenny McKay
Happy Easter everyone! And, following the decision to resume services in Church, I look forward greatly to seeing at least some of you back in Church over the coming month – even though we’re still not able to sing! I sincerely hope though that everyone has felt “in touch” with the Church over these last few months and that you have been enjoying and appreciating the online services, including Compline, and the wonderful Sunday Sheets put together by Margaret Cross and other members of the Ministry Team. Along with most other Churches we will be continuing with monthly online services – two per month in our case – and this is one very positive, and creative, aspect of the overall lockdown situation which we must not forget or diminish in importance. It has been a very difficult period for all of us, in lots of different ways, but in some respects I think that we’ve probably all emerged stronger and more committed and resilient in our faith. And those wonderfully encouraging words from St Paul have been ringing in my ears throughout this whole time: “Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.” We haven’t been able to meet together, to share hospitality with one another, to properly comfort one another, to rejoice with one another...........but we are still bound together so tightly with one another in and through the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. This understanding of our Christian faith has certainly helped me during these last few months, and over this whole year, and was very much in my heart and mind last month as we remembered and reflected on the last year on the National Day of Reflection. And now we enter the season of Easter – a time of such profound joy and hope for Christians across the world, some of whom are suffering greatly not only from the Pandemic but also from persecution and violence. So, to paraphrase St Paul, let us continue to run the race in fortitude and with courage, filled with faith, hope and love – and the greatest of these is love. Thank you for all your commitment, patience and love during these very trying months. May God’s richest blessing be upon us all throughout this coming month. Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed – Alleluia! The Revd Alec Brown.
Dear friends, I was looking back at my letter last April when we were at the start of the very first lockdown. At that time I described how I felt that my heart was breaking with the church being closed, my school being closed and being unable to hug and be with family and friends. Now, we are hopeful that we are moving forward. We will be, God willing, worshipping in church on Easter Day and on the road out of Lock down. We have been and continue to go through devastating times with the loss of life and the loss of things we have always taken for granted like being close to people, eating a meal with friends and giving a hug but there is hope. As Christians, we have moved from the devastation of Good Friday and become Easter People – People of Hope I love the Easter Story, the women in the garden first thing, Peter`s encounter with Jesus following his denial and the two men walking with Jesus on the road to Emmaus One of my favourite exchanges is between Jesus and Mary Magdalene on Easter morning. You all know how much I love Mary. She was with the last people at the cross and she is first there on Easter morning. Whilst the disciples had fled and hidden away, she had shown up. She does not know where the body has gone from the tomb and sees Jesus but thinks he is the gardener. He then says “Mary” and she immediately knows its Jesus. She reaches to him. What a heart stopping moment after the horror of Good Friday. Jesus calls Mary by name. It echoes the words in Isaiah, “ Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name and you are mine.” That applies to each of us. We are called by name and we are God`s. We are loved with an everlasting and unconditional love. God, in Jesus loves his church but he loves each of us as individuals. He calls us each by name. Mary wanted to hug and hold onto Jesus like she had done before but Jesus says she must not hold onto him. We can empathise with Mary`s desire and how she must have felt not to have been able to. Mary then ran to the disciples “ I have seen the Lord.” Mary Magdalene the apostle to the apostles” The early apostles turned the world upside down – I pray that we will have the desire to do likewise. Perhaps be more like Jesus and break the rules. I pray that you all continue to stay safe, that you will continue to reflect on how incredibly loved you are and to continue to live in the hope of the resurrection – remembering as Christians we are people of the resurrection in a Good Friday world.. Love Christina
Dear friends You know by now my fascination with “The Repair Shop.” You will be pleased to know, that for Christmas, I was bought a copy of the book based on the series. In it, you learn in more detail about the background to the various items that feature in the series. The first chapter related to a pump organ that was brought over from Jamaica by Vera Mackenzie who was emigrating to join her husband Mac. Over time the organ was a comfort as the family were homesick and faced unimaginable racism. The expert ensured that the organ was restored and could be treasured for generations to come. When Vera and Mac died, their daughter received a message “You will only die when every person you have ever known has died.” This particularly struck me as I read it on the 19th January, the day when 1610 people died after testing positive for Covid. I worked out that even if you just said out loud the 1st and last names of these people, it would take you just under 25 minutes to finish. Sometimes we see these figures as statistics but each person is loved and will have left family and friends who are heartbroken. In my article last February I mentioned Nadia Bolz Weber who is a Lutheran Pastor and over the summer I reread one of her books “Accidental Saints”. In it she writes about Ash Wednesday, which heralds the start of Lent and this year falls on 17th February. Usually at our Ash Wednesday Service there is the imposition of ashes to the forehead with the words “Remember that you are dust and to dust you will return, turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ.” Nadia writes, “Here`s my image of Ash Wednesday. If our lives were a long piece of fabric with our baptism on one end and our funeral on another and we don`t know the distance between the two, then Ash Wednesday is a time when that fabric is pinched in the middle and the ends are held up so that our baptism in the past and our funeral in the future meet. And in that meeting we are reminded of the promises of God. That we are God`s, that there is no sin, no darkness and yes no grave that God will not come to find us in and love us back to life.” Words I am holding onto at the moment. God is present at the moment we enter the world and the moment we leave it. With love, prayers and blessings Christina
