Mothering Sunday - Worship Resource

On the 7th day of creation God rested having seen all that he made and having declared it good.

Sunday historically has been a day to rest for work and to focus on the worship of God.

Here are some resources for you to use to Worship God at Home.

We will post something like this every week, and over the coming weeks, we will develop it further with more interactive resources.

Prayer Cube Template

Parish Update 3

Good Morning Everyone!!

(How  long into this before I can start writing a letter like Paul did?)

Just a few more updates for you – I will try to keep them coming over the next few weeks.

Worship

  • Tomorrow morning the Archbishop of Canterbury will lead Morning Worship from Lambeth Palace. This will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Worship at 0810 and all BBC local radio stations in England at 8am and will premier online at 9am on Sunday. You can also find it tomorrow morning on the Church of England website and facebook page.

  • I will offer a short reflection from church which will be filmed and uploaded to the following:

    In the coming week I will start producing more resources to enable you to study scripture and worship God at home. These will go onto our website. If you struggle to access these, please let me know and I will send you some through the post.

Mothering Sunday

  • The free poses of daffodils that we normally give out are available outside church today and tomorrow. I have put some out today and kept some back to put out tomorrow. Government advice remains people need to socially distance themselves but going for a cautious walk or a drive is acceptable.

Light a Candle for Hope and Solidarity

  • The Archbishops are calling on all Christians and the wider public to light a candle and place it in their window at 7pm on Sunday 22nd March (tomorrow). Will you join me in lighting a candle in hope and solidarity? If you have facebook share your pictures with us!

Pastoral Care

  • Last night I began launching our Pastoral Care Network. What I have done is started with the Electoral Roll and split it into groups of 12. If you are on the electoral roll you should start to receive a phone call on a weekly basis from either a PCC member or someone else in church who has volunteered to support this network. We may not be gathering together but we are still a community – we are still the church. If you want to speak to me please do give me a call – and I will work my way through the electoral roll but I wont be able to do that every week, hence a wider group supporting the effort.

  • If you don’t get a phone call in the next 7 days or become aware that someone hasn’t been getting contact, please let me know. There are people in our church who aren’t on the electoral roll who may have been missed. I apologise for this in advance.

Foodbank

  • The church building is now open everyday between 9am and 12pm and 3pm to 6pm. Should you wish to donate anything to the foodbank – leave it in the usual place and we will get it there for you!

Thank you to everyone that has sent kind messages of encouragement.  They certainly have been an encouragement.

Jess, Samuel and I continue to pray for you all – stay safe – see you soon!

Grace, Mercy and Peace,

Calum

,

Message from the Vicar - Coronavirus Update

,

Dear Friends,

Following on from the Prime Ministers statement I write with a  further update on how this affects us as a church. First, I apologise for not being in touch sooner – I have been waiting for some official guidance from the Church of England which was released moments ago. The Bishops led by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have suspended all acts of public worship. In their words:

‘Churches should be open where possible but with no public worship services taking place. Prayers can be said by clergy and ministers on behalf of everyone and churches should consider ways of sharing this with the wider community.’

You can read the full letter from the archbishops here: https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2020-03/17%2003%2020%20Joint%20letter%20from%20the%20Archbishops%20of%20Canterbury%20and%20York%20re%20coronavirus.pdf

What this means for us directly is

  • All Sunday services and midweek services are suspended for the foreseeable future

  • Mothering Sunday will not be happening – Jess and I have postponed Samuel’s baptism.

  • Lent groups and any other church groups will not meet

  • The APCM is postponed until further notice.

  • All Easter activities are suspended.

The Archbishops are using language such as ‘the church is not closed but will look radically different’. I am not sure personally whether this is helpful language, I feel a sense of loss, maybe even grief, at not being able to meet with you my church family. I am sure we will all look for the positives and for the hope but these next few months will be different and will be a challenge.

The PCC met last night and agreed a number of actions they were happy for me to take, so I want to share them with you.

  • I will say Morning Prayer every day at 9am and Evening Prayer every day at 5.30pm. I invite you to join me in saying this at the same time. Attached you will find copies of the Order of Service I will use.

  • The Churchwardens and I are in contact to work out how we can open the building for people to come and sit in it quietly and offer private prayer. When we have a plan we will make people aware of this.

  • Today I have been working on setting up a Communication Network for the church. The PCC have agreed that maintaining communication amongst our dispersed community is a priority. Every member of the church is to be assigned a responsible person, who will make contact with a group of people at least once a week. We have a duty to care for one another at this difficult time and talking is a key way. I hope to role this system into action within the next 24 hours.

  • Over the coming few days I will produce further worship resources which I will print copies of to be made available in the Parish Centre but these will also be uploaded to the church website for you to download.

  • Mothering Sunday will not be happening as usual, but the Archbishops are calling the church to pray for the nation. I invite you on their behalf to join in and in particular to place a lit candle in your window at 7pm this Sunday evening as as a sign of solidarity and hope in the light of Christ that can never be extinguished

As guidance changes, I will let you know, and I will endeavour to continue to communicate with you all as often as possible. Jess, Samuel and I are already missing you, please be assured you are very much in our prayers at this time.

Last night at PCC I shared words from Romans 8:31-39

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We have a God of Love, we have a God of power who raised Jesus from the dead. All is not lost, God will overcome. These words may sound trite right this moment – but trust in God, allow your faith to carry you, and when you are struggling, remember your brothers and sisters in Christ, let our faith carry you!

Please don’t hesitate to contact me at the vicarage – we are working of diverting the parish office phone to the vicarage but that may take some time.

With my prayers and the assurance we will gather again to worship our Lord Jesus Christ!

Calum

Weekly News Sheet - Sunday 15th March 2020

#  Following “Thanksgiving” :  Please look in the letter-rack for a thank you letter to you following your Thanksgiving Pledge returned in the last two weeks.  Also, if you use the weekly envelope system, you’ll find a box of envelopes for the coming twelve months on a table at the back of church.              Roy Phillips

#  Easter Commemorations :  If you would like to give one or more Easter lilies in memory of family member(s) or friend(s), please fill in one of the form at the back of church.  Lilies cost £3 each, and the form and money (cash, or cheque made payable to “St Michael & All Angels PCC”) should be placed in the box alongside the forms.  All forms / money must be handed in by the end of the morning on Palm Sunday (5th April), please.                                   Val Huxley                       

#  Lent Lectures 2020 :  This year’s series is titled “Managing Change & Conflict”, and looks at some of the challenges of living in an uncertain world.  In Centrepoint, Wednesdays 2:30 to 4:00pm.  No charge, all welcome.  This week:

18th March          Mindfulness and Christian Spirituality – Revd Katy Thomas

#  Quiz Night :  Sunday 15th March, Church Hall, 6:00pm.  Fund-raising to support the members of St M’s going on next year’s trip to Newala.  £10 per person, including food and one drink.  Up to eight people per team.  For tickets e-mail newala.fundraising@gmail.com or contact the Office; also advise of any dietary requirements.

# Women’s World Day of Prayer Anniversary Coffee Morning in the United Reformed Ch, Robins Ln on Friday 20th March, 10:30am ‘til noon.  Celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the WWDP in Bramhall.  All welcome, not just ladies!

#  Mothering Sunday posies will be made in the Lounge on Saturday 21st March from 10:00am to noon.  Your help would be much appreciated - please bring scissors and/or secateurs.  We’d be grateful for ‘greenery’ – evergreens or well-budding twigs – to go in the posies; please leave any such in the buckets in the hall entrance lobby from Wednesday 18th.                               Diane Whitehead

#  The Barnby Choir’s Spring Concert is in St M’s on Saturday 21st March, 7:30pm.  CANCELLED

#  Bramhall Christian Viewpoint: Supper Evening Thursday 26th March, 7:30pm at the Deanwater Hotel, SK7 1RJ.  Speaker Dr Alex Walter (formerly a Server at St M’s), a Christian GP working with disadvantaged people in Manchester, who last year went with his family to Guinea to work on the Africa Mercy hospital ship.  Tickets £14 inc supper – Sheila Salden 0161 440 9794.  All welcome to this inspiring evening, do book early. 

#  Cake Sale – Sunday 29th March, in church hall after both Services.  Fund-raising for projects in Newala.  Cake donations very welcome – please leave in Office or Kitchen, labelled for Newala Cake Sale, from Thursday 26th; bring before Service on Sunday 29th; or contact Jill Fairhurst 0161 439 3126.

#  Mark Hackney’s Licensing as Reader will be at a service in Chester Cathedral at 4:00pm (time tbc) on Saturday 10th October.  If you would like to attend, please sign up on the sheet on the hall lobby noticeboard, also indicating whether you’d like to go by coach – if there are sufficient, we’ll hire one.

#  Green Tips :   Around 150 million tonnes of pieces of plastic are drifting in the world’s oceans; they’re estimated to cause the deaths of one million birds and 100,000 sea mammals p.a.  

#  Voluntary Site Manager :  The Churchwardens and Vicar are looking to appoint a voluntary Site Manager to work with us to develop maintenance plans and a long-term development plan for the church site.  Copies of a rôle description for the post on the letter rack.  If you’d be interested contact Calum calum.piper@bramhall.church  0161 943 5535 or one of  Churchwardens.

#  Nomination forms for the PCC and the Deanery Synod are available from the Office office@bramhall.church   0161 439 3989 or from Tricia Munn 0161 439 3583 triciamunn@btinternet.com.  Please return completed forms to either.

#  Only at St Michael’s :  You never know what you’ll find – or why it’s there:  The Sacristan was inventorying the Vestries, and so rummaging in places rarely rummaged.  Why, in a drawer in the safe, is there a tablet of cello bow rosin?  Why locked away?  Answers, as they say, on a postcard …

Sunday 15th March 2020 - Service Resources

On Sunday 15th March we will be observing the 3rd Sunday of Lent. Our 8am service will be a Holy Communion service with the Book of Common Prayer. Our 10am service will be our monthly ALL IN service.

For those unable to join us because of illness or self-isolation below are our service resources you can download.

8am - Book of Common Prayer Holy Communion

BCP Service Sheet

Worship Sheet with readings and prayers

10am - ALL IN Communion

Service Sheet with readings and prayers

Sermon from the 8am Service

Parish Response to Coronavirus

For the past week St. Michael’s have been following the advice given by the National Church of England and adapted procedures where necessary on a daily basis.

Yesterday (10/3/2020) the Archbishops of Canterbury and York issued further advice relating particularly to services of Holy Communion. From today the following applies

  • Parishioners with coughs and sneezes should think about whether coming to church is sensible whilst ill.

  • At the advice of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York the following practise will now be implemented

    • Shaking hands during the peace should be avoid and sharing the peace should be done verbally instead.

    • The use of the ‘common cup’ is suspended and all parishioners will receive communion in one kind via a wafer.

    • Clergy will still greet people at the door but will refrain from shaking hands.

  • Priests and Servers should wash their hands using alcohol-based hand-sanitiser during the offertory before Holy Communion.

  • We encourage the washing of hands each hour or after each meeting.

  • Door handles will be cleaned daily.

  • Sunday service resources will be uploaded to the website on Saturday evenings to enable those at home to follow the service. Sermons will follow as soon as possible after the service.

  • The Vicar and Churchwardens will review our response daily and will take advice from local Public Health officials.

This guidance will be updated as further changes are required. Last updated Tuesday 11th March, 08:05am

General Election Hustings Event

Friday 29th November 2019, 7pm

A hustings event at which all three candidates for Cheadle will be present to answer questions.

All questions should be submitted to jonathan@flec.org.uk before the event. Questions will not be taken from the floor during the evening.

Car parking is available in both car parks and on street as well. Pleas be mindful of our neIghbours when parking.

St Michaels Avenue, Bramhall, SK7 2PG

IMG_0972.jpeg