St Paul's

From the Vicarage

Dear Friends

Cold, wet, dreary, drizzly, dismal January – or so lots of people say. But yester-

day in the church yard at Rostherne I spotted snowdrops out, despite freezing

temperatures. What a magnificent sight, and these glimpses show us that

Spring is just around the corner, and that eventually, the sun will return.

I am sure that 2025 will see many changes here in our lovely group of church-

es. I have already had a large number of funerals in January, mostly all unex-

pectedly, and their loss to their friends and family, as well as to the local com-

munity will be felt for many years.

One of my parishioners in Cornwall shared the following poem when six people

in the Group there suddenly announced that they were moving away.

The Indispensable Man (or woman)… by Saxon White Kessinger

Sometime, when you're feeling important

Sometime, when your ego's in bloom

Sometime, when you take it for granted

That you're the best qualified in the room

Sometime, when you feel that you’re going

would leave an unfillable hole

Just follow these simple instructions

And see how it humbles your soul

Take a bucket and fill it with water

Put your hand in it up to the wrist

Pull it out and the hole that's remaining

Is the measure of how you'll be missed.

The moral in this quaint example

Is do just the best that you can

Be proud of yourself but remember

There's no INDISPENSABLE MAN.

The poem does make you think – we are all in this together and we cannot

build God’s Kingdom on our own. We need the support of everybody so that we

can truly work together to discover what God’s plans are for our group of

churches.

We prayer that God will show us the direction that he wishes us to take, that he

will guide and support us as we journey through 2025 together in faith and in

love, so that we can, together, discover God’s Kingdom and grow the Church in

this beautiful part of Cheshire.

Yours in Christ,

Robert