The Patron and Churchwardens request the pleasure of your company at the INSTITUTION by the Rt Revd Mark Tanner, Lord Bishop of Chester, & INDUCTION by the Revd Bee Boyd, acting Archdeacon of Macclesfield,of the Revd Heather Ruth Carter, as Rector of St Mary Astbury and Vicar of St John the Baptist SmallwoodRSVP Monday 10th March 2025For further details, please contactMrs Michelle Keene Chapman, PCC Secretary,Shaw Brook House, Mossley Vale, Congleton, Cheshire CW12 3QRTelephone 07446 194679 email pa@astburychurch.org.uk
<i>Christianity Explored is 2 hour interactive course held over 7 evenings through Lent where we openly engage with some of the key themes and teachings of Christianity.</i><i>We are an inclusive and safe place to ‘explore’ in a structured, interactive and fun environment. Who can come? Anybody. Everyone is welcome. </i><i>Click the QR link to sign-up or contact St. Mary’s for more information.</i>
This year, 2025 has been claimed the ‘Year of Venus’ by astronomers due to the extraordinary brightness the planet will display during the year. With this in mind, maybe 2025 should be declared ‘The Year of Love’. Through December and January, social media was teeming with posts calling for ‘self-love’, ‘new desires for 2025’, and ‘putting myself first’ often with life transforming products you can buy to make it happen! Fitness courses, lotions, potions, detox teas, planners, nutritional organic matcha powders are going to make sure you succeed this year. Of course, the consumerist world we live in is set on making us feel deflated, uncared for and self-serving. It promises us happiness, satisfaction and success. It seeks to make big profit at our expense. It creeps in and to a greater or lesser extent makes us think, ‘Yeah, I deserve to be happy, I should get what I want!’ Of course, we can get this with next day delivery. It is part of human instinct to feel broken and not good enough. This is the very reason we can be exploited. The sad thing is that this quest for more and more stuff will never make us feel happy or peaceful. We will still feel empty. We will still want more. What we really seek is peace. It is hard for companies to sell you peace. Peace is free. Peace comes from love and forgiveness for others. We can find it through acts of kindness, helping out others, and being mindful of our actions. It comes from knowing you are loved and cherished by God exactly as you are. So, in 2025 – The Year of Love – Show love to others through your kindness and generosity, show love to our planet and neighbours far away by making compassionate and ethical choices with how you spend money, and show love to yourself by knowing you are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Psalm 139:14). You have everything you need in your heart. Sophie Molyneux Trainee Pastoral Worker for St Mary’s, Astbury and St John the Baptist, Smallwood
