June Newsletter
As I write, this the long and hot May weather makes it feel like the days of high summer are here and holiday time has arrived. It's easy to assume Church life will, in like manner, slow to a leisurely meander, but in June it doesn't. Similarly, after all the excitement of the wonderful Wedding Fayre, followed by a Work Party to sort the Hearse House and Norman Chapel (see photos dotted through this newsletter) a siesta may indeed feel due!
As you read this - if it's now shivering cold or pouring down with rain, the Church Year may not feel so wonderfully out-of-step.
June is an active and exciting month: on June 8th there is the Feast of Pentecost, when we celebrate God pouring out his Holy Spirit on the believers. Pentecost is often seen as the birthday of the Church and the day the Church mission to the world started. This time running up to Pentecost is when the world-wide Church, across the denominations, joins together praying 'Thy Kingdom Come' (see resources in the prayer section).Also in June, we will see the return of Wild Church - where we gather outside to worship and also look out below for news of our four-week short course 'Tenants of King' exploring God's love for creation.
The month of June ends with our Patronal Festival, St Peter's Day, a day when we reflect on St Peter's life and ministry, and celebrate all the many good things we have and do as the Church that carries his name.
In this month's newsletter
Church News
Pastoral Care
There are times in all our lives when we need pastoral care, so it’s important to know what Church pastoral care is – and how we may access it.
During Covid there were significant changes to how our pastoral care was done at St Peter's. Now, five years later, things have changed again and it is appropriate to lay out the what, how and who of Church pastoral care. The first vital aspect is please let us know when you would appreciate it. There are many occasions when we simply do not know when someone is ill, in hospital or coping with something it may help to share.
What follows is a guide that applies across the whole parish and all the congregations. Pastoral care covers a wide range of activity including:
a) Prayer - this happens in a variety of ways.
For the Prayer list: For a name to go on the Church prayer list: to be included in the Newsletter and in our Church Service intercessions, the person needs to have been consulted and consented to this inclusion.
For Ministry Team prayers: The Ministry Team have a WhatsApp group for sharing prayer requests that the whole team pray for, in their daily prayer patterns.
For a Minister's prayer list: You can ask for a particular minister to pray for you and for that to be kept confidential.
b) Visits.
Depending on the pastoral situation:
For Final hours: We will always come out to hospital, care home or home to give last rites or to pray with those at the end of life, at any time of day or night. Call Patrick.
For Hospital visits: call whichever member of the Ministry Team you would like to visit you.
To receive Home Communion: call Anne and one of her Home Communion team will bring you Communion.
For Home visits: please call the Parish Office to arrange.
For appointments: Most meetings with Ministry Team members for pastoral matters are held in St Peter's Rooms. Please call the office to book, or speak to a minister after a service and arrange with them a time to meet.
c) Important
Most of a Church's pastoral care isn't done by the Ministry Team, it's done by the congregation praying, visiting and informally caring - connecting people to the ministering love of God and God to them. This happens in many wonderful and often unnoticed ways. One hang over from Covid is that we may be doing less informal pastoral care as a church community than than we used to.
Action: Let's revisit this and prayerfully consider how we can, through social activity, prayer and informal pastoral action, build stronger bonds of care and connection in the congregation. In the light of the Quiet Revival insights, we may also want to do more! to find new ways of building friendships and connections in church life.
Christian Aid Week
Thank you to all the people who contributed to Christian Aid Week in May, whether by delivering envelopes, reading at the service, singing and praying, taking part in the quiz night, or of course giving in response to what we learned about the needs of farmers in Guatemala. We don’t yet have a figure for the total collected - it’s not too late to return your envelope to the Parish Office! However we did raise £404 at the quiz night, net of costs. That is a wonderful total and a great start to our fundraising. And I think everyone who was there will agree that it was a fun way to raise a lot of money for Christian Aid!
Social Justice and Environment Hub
Old coins
This is the last month of our collecting unwanted foreign notes & coins or British coins and notes that are no longer legal tender, so get yours in soon! Across May and June we have been collecting them to donate to Mary's Meals. This is a charity that serves nutritious school meals to children living in some of the world's poorest countries. More information is available about the charity on posters and leaflets in St Peter's Rooms. Your currency donations need to be dropped off to the office by the end of June. Please note, we are no longer collecting ink cartridges or stamps.
Dog Mess Warning
There is an increasing problem with dog mess in the churchyard. If the problem persists then we will be exploring the different options to restrict access for dogs to the churchyard. This would be an unfortunate route to take as it would be much better to change the behaviour of the owners who don't clear up after their dogs, than have to make other interventions.
Mothers’ Union
Last month's meeting discussed the future of Mothers' Union. The session explored the purpose and priorities of the group and in this exploration Worship, Christian Teaching and Ecumenical relationships came out as most important in the conversations had. There was an overwhelming desire to keep the group going but a recognition that, though many could help out, organisation and leadership beyond what the group could provide was needed. It was also recognised that the link to the National Mothers' Union organisation was no longer operational, so a name change would be necessary.
June's meeting will be the last before the summer and will be a Strawberry Tea on 9 June.
If you sense that Mothers' Union is something that God might want you to be involved in then do talk in the first instance to Patrick or Anne.
Tenants of the King
What is our relationship as Christians the the world that God made and does this give us special responsibility for its transformation and care?
'Tenants of the King' is a four session short-course which helps us think about the brokenness of the world and our role as tenants of all that God declared 'good' in Genesis. The four themes of: My Property, Creation Groans, Do not Fear and Speak up! will give us more than enough to keep us busy as we journey each week through scripture, reflection, video and action.
We write lots of our own courses at St Peter's - this one is from Operation Noah which is the UK's first faith-based climate charity - and this will be given our own usual St Peter's flavour as we explore together. 'Tenants' will begin on Monday 16 June at 7.30pm in St Peter's Rooms and run for four sessions. All are welcome - there will be a sign-up sheet at the back of church so pop your name down soon!
More about Operation Noah: Their strap line is 'faith motivated. Science informed and Hope inspired' through asking difficult but important questions such as, What should our relationship with God be, as both the origin and the end of all things? How do we balance our consumption against the needs of the world's poorest communities? How do we sustain and bring hope in a broken world? Operation Noah summons the church to a call to action in the face of climate change - in our unique position as tenants of all that God made. You can find out more about them here: https://www.operationnoah.org/about-us/our-story/
If you would like to know more talk to Patrick or Bev.
Worship for families
Family Worship Patterns
With Sunday birthday parties, sports activities, family visits... regular worship can be a challenge for families. Children are welcome at all services; at present we have a mix of more family focused services, Young Church and Wild Church are at 10.30am and Breakfast Church at 9.15am. We are wondering if the addition of either another 9.15/9.30am informal service in St Peter's Rooms or an early evening service at 6.30pm might help parents and families in shaping their worship patterns.
Our next Breakfast Church 
will be on Sunday 15 June at 9.15am.
Breakfast Church is an informal space for parents and their children to worship together.
PLEASE NOTE: we now start serving breakfast at the slightly earlier time of 9.15am. Our worship will begin at 9.30am and we will draw to a close at 10.15am.
With Bank Holidays and the two week half term the next Young Church sessions are after the half term, on 22 June and 6 July. When it's not Breakfast Church or Young Church there will be activity sheets available for the children at the back of church. Grab one and a pen on the way in.
St Peter's Sunday Worship
|
|
8.30am
|
9.15am
|
10.30 am
|
4.30pm
|
June
1st
|
Holy
Communion
|
|
Holy Communion
Behold the Lamb
|
Cathedral
Evensong
|
June
8th
|
Holy
Communion
|
|
Pentecost
Wild Church
|
Cathedral
Evensong
|
June
15th
|
Holy
Communion
|
Breakfast
Church
for families
with children
|
Holy
Communion
|
Cathedral
Evensong
|
June
22nd
|
Holy
Communion
|
|
Holy
Communion
young church
|
No
Service
|
June
29th
|
Holy
Communion |
|
St Peters Day
family service |
St Peter' Day
Festal
Evensong
|
St John's Sunday Worship
|
|
11.00am
|
June 8th
|
Holy Communion
|
June 22nd
|
Morning Worship
|
Church of the Resurrection Worship
|
|
10.00am
|
June 1st
|
Holy Communion
|
June 15th
|
Holy Communion
|
Weekday Worship
Day and Time
|
Activity
|
Place
|
|
Monday 9.00am
|
Morning Prayer
|
St Peter's Rooms
|
|
Wednesday 10.30am
|
Holy Communion
|
St Peter's
|
|
Thursday 9.30am
|
Morning Prayer
|
St John's
|
|
2nd & 4th Thursday, in term time 10.15am
|
Pram Service
|
St Peter's
|
Community News
Wilmslow Wells for Africa Gardens Day
Saturday 28 June 10.30am to 4.30pm
As summer arrives why not have a day exploring 18 beautiful gardens across Wilmslow, Alderley Edge, Mobberley and Mottram St Andrew. Some will serve refreshments, whilst others will have plant sales. At the same time, help to raise money that makes an enormous difference to the lives of many people who can’t do something we simply take for granted - the luxury of being able to turn on a tap whenever we want some water.
Tickets, giving access to all 18 gardens, are available on the day for £15 from the first garden visited, or in advance for £12 from Chelsea Flowers (Chapel Lane, Wilmslow), The Potting Shed (Alderley Edge), Primrose Cottage Nursery (Styal Village), Jenny Morris Bridge (Mobberley) or from Shan (01625 520193).
Children welcome for free and no dogs please.
A mind of their own - Building our children's emotional wellbeing
Care for the Family's national tour comes to Macclesfield on 19 June 7.30pm.
One in five children report they struggle with their mental health. As mums and dads this can feel overwhelming... but there is good news! You have incredible power to help your kids grow into strong resilient young people.
A mind of their own is packed with simple and effective strategies for you to use at home, helping you to better understand what's going on in your child's head. Katharine Hill (author of A Mind of Their Own) and Mark Chester (founder of Who Let the Dad's Out?) will share practical tools for anyone wanting to strengthen their child's emotional resilience.
Booking and further details through Care of the Family cff.org.uk
Telephone 02920810800
Thy Kingdom Come
Monday
Almighty God,
who called your Church to witness
that you were in Christ reconciling the world to yourself:
help us to proclaim the good news of your love,
that all who hear it may be drawn to you;
through him who was lifted up on the cross,
and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Tuesday
Give to us, Lord Christ,
the fullness of grace,
your presence and your very self,
for you are our portion and our delight,
now and for ever.
Wednesday
God, our light and our salvation,
illuminate our lives,
that we may see your goodness in the land of the living,
and, looking on your beauty,
may be changed into the likeness of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Thursday
Open our ears, glorious Lord Christ,
to hear the music of your voice
above the chaos of this world;
open our eyes to see the vision of your glory,
for you are our King, now and for ever
Friday
O Christ, door of the sheepfold,
may we enter your gates with praise
and go from your courts to serve you
in the poor, the lost and the wandering,
this day and all our days.
Saturday
God of life and love,
whose Son was victorious over sin and death,
make us alive with his life,
that the whole world may resound with your praise;
through Jesus Christ our Lord
Sunday
look graciously upon us, O Holy Spirit,
and give us, for our hallowing,
thoughts that pass into prayer,
prayers that pass into love,
and love that passes into life with you for ever.
Those who are sick
Steve Murphy
John Syner
Les Manchester
Janice Walley
Closing Thoughts
Around the world Christians of every tribe and tongue and people and nation are participating in the prayer initiative Thy Kingdom Come.
Each week as we kneel in prayer and receive bread and wine at the communion rail God is present, his Kingdom comes.
When we are one
I creak down to my knees.
You slide easily to yours.
I may not like you
perhaps not even know you.
Certainly never ordinarily
invite you to be this close to me.
But for this moment we two
are briefly one
In this place
of our forgiveness.
Sharing our need
our overwhelming helplessness
before the great Forgiver.
The humbling Presence
who is all things everywhere
yet manifest here, two in one.
Body and blood.
Human and God.
Present to us, the two of us,
within the breaking of the bread
and the pouring of the wine.
Re-combining for us
in solemn sacrifice
what has been sundered
by our sinful separations.
So for that moment unequivocally
We three, you me and He
kneel humbly, breathe eternity
in unity.
Until we rise, disengaged
from unexpected intimacy.
Turned into two again.
And walk once more
our solitary forgiven paths.
Newsletter Information
Church or community news to be included in the newsletter, needs to be sent to the Parish Office or Vicarage by the last Tuesday of the month.