January & February Newsletter 

What an amazing celebration of Christmas we had at St Peter's and St John's! The total church attendance across the season was dramatically larger and a number of services at both churches were not just full, but overflowing. Our hope and prayer is that those who came to worship will have encountered the God whose incarnation we gathered to celebrate, and that they will return to discover much more about the one whose life, death and resurrection opens the door to eternal life.
The Christmas attendance does raise the question of what were all those who gathered looking for and did they find it? As we have seen suggested by the Quiet Revival statistics (if you don't know what this is, ask) the increase of Bibles being purchased and other indicators, it seems we may be seeing a cultural shift. This shift includes a return to worship by young adults, a desire to learn more about Christianity and a 'testing of the water' of Church worship. 
Those who 'test the water' by joining our congregations find Church very friendly and welcoming which is a really good thing. I wonder how we might move this experience of the welcome of church to an experience of the welcome of the God who loves them?
 

In this month's newsletter

• New Year Reflection

• Church news

• This month's worship

• Community news

• Prayer resources

• Closing thoughts

Look out for photos of Christmas highlights
dotted through the Newsletter and the accompanying 5 quiz questions. Send your answer to the Parish Office. There is a prize.

New Year Reflection

In a change to our usual newsletter shape, and in response to expressed anxiety and concern over world events to me, here are some thoughts on how as Christians we might navigate this time.
The Tectonic plates of global politics and power seem to be moving in uncertain and undesirable ways. When physical geological plates move there can be earthquakes, mountains built, volcanoes erupting or just gentle separation. The movements of geopolitics and power can be equally variable and uncertain.
So, how as Christians might we pray in times of uncertainty? What are the resources that we can draw on, from our Christian forebears and their experiences of journeying through their own times of change and uncertainty? Below are some possible prayerful responses given in the context from which they arose.

St Augustine
Writing as the Roman Empire crumbled and Rome was sacked, St Augustine wrestled with the existence of evil and suffering that he saw in the world. The Christian response he determined was of worship - that our focus should be on our citizenship of the eternal city of heaven.  "There we shall be still and see, we shall see and we shall love, we shall love and we shall praise. Behold what will be in the end without end. For what is our end but to reach that kingdom which has no end"
As we prayerfully focus our prayer on the goodness of God, on his love and his purposes, fear fades away. 

Celtic Saints
In 793, Viking raiders came in their longships raiding and destroyed the great monastery at Lindisfarne, creating shock and fear.  The simple prayer "Be thou between me and all things coming darkly towards me" dating from this time is indicative of a prayer of protection. This is a prayer that we can pray for ourselves but also for others, as we pray for God's protection.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Sometimes the challenges we experience are not from the outside of a nation or outside a Church, but from within. In the 1930's Dietrich Bonhoeffer and other German Evangelical Pastors signed the Barman Declaration opposing the Nazification of the church. They looked to Scripture and the pattern of Jesus to shape not only their prayers but any social action that challenged the government. 
"The Church does not live for itself, it is the Church of Jesus Christ for others" Bonhoeffer lived what he wrote and was hanged in 1945 in Flossenburg concentration camp.
Looking to Jesus and his actions helps us to shape our prayers and also guide us in our action.

But it is not just from history that we can learn. In 1987 I was sent by the Church of England to the "Evangelishe Kirchentag" in Frankfurt. Between sessions with Nicaraguan revolutionaries  and Anti-Apartheid South Africans talking about how their faith influenced their politics, I listened to East German Christians sharing how they were responding to a changing world under an unchanging government. They spoke of the importance of Praying for peace, of non violence, of Church as a place for conversations. Those three things are a model for us too.
So: 
Pray for peace- at every opportunity wherever and whenever  the darkness comes pray for peace and light in that place.
Whatever happens, prayerfully respond with non violence: in our language, in our behaviour and most importantly in our social media engagement.
Prayerfully listen: keeping conversation channels across the divides, praying for those with whom we disagree.
Prayerfully persist: Rome became the centre for the Christian Church; Vikings were converted; the raids ended and Lindisfarne was rebuilt; the Confessing Church did not stop the evils of Nazism at once but evil men were brought to justice.

We persevere in prayer, the kingdom will come.

Church News

Signing up for Rota duties

We have a relatively new system for filling rotas for reading, praying, welcoming or assisting with the chalice in our Services. Duties are allocated according to availability but the number of volunteers across different services does vary and so if you are in a pool of readers at 10.30am you may be called upon to read less often that at a different service.
If you would like to read, pray, welcome or assist at any service please let Judith in the parish know your availability. Training is offered for both leading the prayers and also for assisting with the Chalice and an invitation for this will follow.

To contact Judith in the Parish Office either email  parishoffice@stpetersprestbury.org.uk, call 01625 827625 or pop in on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday morning before 12.30pm.
 

Save the date!

Foxhill Quiet Day

Tuesday 2 June 2026

Here’s a date for your diary – and let’s hope for some warm sunshine!
Our Quiet Day will be an opportunity to reflect and relax away from our usual environment – at the Diocesan Retreat House near Frodsham (Foxhill | Retreat House | Foxhill House and Woodlands, Frodsham, UK).
There will be no pressure to do anything, but there will be worship, workshops and activities to choose from, conversations to have with old friends or with new ones, or you could bring some reading or even just be quiet.
More information will be available in due course, but ask Anne Stirling if you have any immediate queries.

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday is one of the few Principal Holy Days in the church calendar year which falls on a weekday: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Ascension being the others.
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent and as we gather to worship we are invited to be marked with the sign of the Cross on our foreheads  (we are ashed) as a symbol of our mortality and of our need for penitence and forgiveness. There are two services on Ash Wednesday at 10.30am and 7.30pm. These are not just part of our rich Christian tradition but ways in which we are formed and grow in living faith today and so we are encouraged to hold a Holy Lent and to mark its start in worship on Ash Wednesday.

Picture quiz question 1 what is missing?

Diary Dates for January  & February      

January

Friday 16th               Choir Practice 7.30pm
Saturday 17th          Cheshire Gardens Trust 10.00am

Sunday 18th 
Monday 19th            'Your shape for God's Service' 7.30pm all welcome
Tuesday 20th            Waterhouse Trust 10.30am, Replay 7.00pm, PCC 7.30pm
Wednesday 21st      Funeral 1.30pm, Baptism Prep 7.30pm, Bell ringers 8.00pm
Thursday 22nd         Pram Service 10.15am, Holy Dusters 11.15am,  
Friday 23rd               Choir Practice 7.30pm 
Saturday 24th          Wedding Surgery 10.30am

Sunday 25th
Monday 26th          'Your shape for God's Service' 3. 7.30pm. All Welcome
Tuesday 27th          Replay 7.30pm
Wednesday 28th     Bell ringers 8.00pm
Thursday 29th         Holy Dusters 9.30am 
Friday 30th              Choir Practice 7.30pm 
Saturday 31st 

Picture quiz question 2 what is the service?

February

Sunday 1st
Monday 2nd         'Your Shape for God's Service' 4. All Welcome
Tuesday 3rd            Replay 7.00pm
Wednesday 4th    
Thursday 5th         Holy Dusters 9.30am
Friday 6th              Choir Practice 7.30pm 
Saturday 7th          Litter pickers 10.30am

Sunday 8th
Monday 9th              'Your Shape for God's Service' 5
Tuesday 10th          Replay 7.00pm
Wednesday 11th    Bell ringers 8.00pm
Thursday 12th        Pram Service 10.15, Holy Dusters 11.15am Wedd rehearsal 6.00pm
Friday 13th              Choir Practice 7.30pm 
Saturday 14th         Wedding 12noon

Sunday 15th 
Monday 16th             
Tuesday 17th             
Wednesday 18th      Ash Wednesday
Thursday 19th            Holy Dusters 11.15am, 
Friday 20th                 Choir Practice 7.30pm 
Saturday 21st             Wedding Surgery 10.30am

Sunday 22nd
Monday 23rd            Lent Course 7.30pm
Tuesday 24th          Replay 7.00pm
Wednesday 25th     Baptism Preparation 7.30pm, Bell ringers 8.00pm
Thursday 26th         Pram Service 10.15am Holy Dusters 11.15am 
Friday 27th               Choir Practice 7.30pm 
Saturday 28th 

Picture quiz question 3 are the candles being lit or extinguished?

PARISH Sunday Worship

We are one Church, with six congregations and four venues. To help see which service is where, they are colour-coded by venue:

St Peter's Church, St John's Church, Norman Chapel, St Peter's Rooms 

Every Wednesday 10.30am Holy Communion St Peter's
Followed by coffee and biscuits

 Ash Wednesday
18 February
Holy Communion and Imposition of Ashes

10.30am & 7.30pm 

 Weekday Worship 

Picture quiz question 4 Where in the parish are the carol singers

Community News 

Weekly Prayer topics

Please use the weekly prayer topics below for your own prayers, alongside the monthly Prayer Diary, which is available at the back of Church. 

Those who are unwell

John Syner
Steve Murphy

Those who have died

Bernard Gibbons
Wayne Connelly
Alan Storey

Closing Thoughts

In this month's poem, Keith reminds us it is of the nature of God to call us and the nature of human kind to try to ignore that call.

 God Keeps Tugging at Me

God keeps tugging at me.
I find it inconvenient
rather impolite in fact.
 
Just when I’m thinking about something else.
Or enjoying a brief respite from the pain
of being in the world.
 
There he is tugging again.
Saying, Me, Me. Here, here.
Now.
 
How about later? I protest
You don’t have a later he says.
 
And so I turn reluctantly,
somewhat desperately
to confront the Source of my Being.
 
Can’t you see I’m busy Lord already?
It's OK for you.
You have eternity to play with.
 
The few moments left to me 
are leaking away
 
My point precisely says God.
It’s time to listen up.
 
And so I do because I have to.
Although I’m scared to.
 
Forced to hear what I’m desperate
not to hear
 
But if it’s me versus
the Ruler of the Universe
Guess who’s going to win our tug of war?  

Newsletter Information

Church or community news to be included in the newsletter needs to be sent to the office or vicarage by the last Tuesday of the month.