St Mary’s & St Luke’s Services, Readings, News & Church at Home Resources for 16 January 2022 – Epiphany 2
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The Weekly Sheet
The Weekly Sheet has news and information and the
Readings, Collect and Post Communion Prayer in it for this Sunday.
I have assessed our church’s response to Covid, and the same measures will stay in place for January and will be assessed again ahead of February. Revd Mike.
Every Church of England parish is being asked to engage with Living in Love and Faith (LLF) and to send feedback to the Archbishops by the end of April this year.
The Purpose
The purpose of LLF is to inspire people to think more deeply about what it means to be human and to live in love and faith with one another and offers a variety of ways to learn, reflect and pray together. The five-session course provides a structured and accessible way for groups to learn about and reflect on questions of identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage.
The Book
The book takes readers on a journey that begins with reflections on God’s gifts of life, relationships, marriage and learning. A survey of what is happening in the world with regard to identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage is followed by an exploration of how Christians are to understand and respond to these trends in the light of the good news of Jesus Christ. The book then examines the ways in which Christians seek to hear God and how it is that they draw different conclusions.
The book closes with an appeal from the Bishops to join them in discerning a way forward for the church that is open to new vistas on our disagreements and new perspectives on our differences. Commended by the Bishops of the Church of England, it is available to download as a free PDF (bit.ly/LLFfreepdf) and in hardcopy at bit.ly/LLFBuyBook(£19.99)
The Course
Revd Mike & Paul are planning to run the 5 week course on Zoom, Monday evenings, 28 February, 7, 14 & 28 March & 4 April, at 8pm. You can register for the course here: bit.ly/LLF2022.
If you’d like to know more, please speak to Mike or Paul or see the Diocesan pages on the their website: https://www.chester.anglican.org/outreach/living-in-love-and-faith/
Mothers’ Union
A message from Jenny Hall – Wishing everyone all the best for 2022, hoping it will be a better year than the previous two! Many thanks to all the members for the lovely MU Scarf and the orchid, it is full of flowers, which was given to me as I finished as Branch Leader, it was such a wonderful surprise. The theme for 2022 is “TRANSFORMATION – NOW!” As we will no longer at this present time, be holding our Monthly meeting, the Branch will be transformed in other ways. So that we can still support the valuable work of the Mothers Union. We can still be members and pay our subscriptions, there are several ways we can do this. Please join us for a meeting in the Howe Room on Wednesday 19th January, where we discuss further ideas for ongoing support for Mother`s Union and celebrate the time we have spent supporting MU over the years. Best wishes, Jenny.
Ladies Afternoon Group
We are hoping that by the end of January, things will have improved and we shall be able to meet on Thursday 27th January at 2pm for our A.G.M and a Bring and Share Tea. We send our best wishes to you all, Audrey and Marion.
Thank you to both Mike and Chris Horne and also Joan Cadman for all the produce of jams, pickles, Christmas puddings and cakes etc, made last year. Total raised was £897.30. A fantastic amount!
Children’s Society Boxes: if you have a box at home we will be receiving them in church on Sunday 30 January & 6 February. We will be counting on Sunday 6 February at 5pm in the Church Hall. Help needed, please see Revd Mike. We will not be able to give individual totals this year, if you’d like to know how much you’ve collected then please count it before returning the box.
After church refreshments
We need people who can make drinks and those who can set up the hall for January onwards, please sign up on the rota in the hall or call the office.
Church at Home Resources for all ages
Together @ Home Resources
Faith at Home from the Church of England
Faith at Home is a national campaign that builds on the work of Growing Faith and Everyday Faith to support the faith development and pastoral care of children and young people. Click Here to go to the Faith at Home website.
A bitesize Bible experience from the Ollerton Family
Through 15 minute sessions explore famous characters and events that form The Greatest Story Ever and discover how we can be part of it today. Simple to run. Fun. Free. No prior knowledge required. This family devotional course mixes online content (videos, readings, discussion) and printed cards to form a colourful learning experience in your own home. https://thegreateststoryever.org
The Bible Society Bible Book Club
Giving to St Mary’s & St Luke
The church’s finances are under extreme pressure at the moment. I would ask you to review your personal giving to the church. If you already give regularly then perhaps consider increasing your giving, if you don’t give regularly then perhaps consider doing this. I really do appreciate the giving that happens already and the extra giving that has taken place during the pandemic. However, due to the lack of income from not being in church and from not being able to let the church hall, plus our outgoings being fairly fixed, we have lost around £30,000 in the past 12 months. This obviously places us in a difficult and vulnerable financial position. To find out more about giving to church, the ways you can do it, and how you can do it in a tax-efficient way, please take a look below. Please keep our finances in your prayers.
One Off Giving
You can give via our very simple online giving partnership with Give a Little and Sum Up. Simply click the button below. Sum Up take a small transaction fee from what you give.
Giving via you Bank – online or phone
You can give via your bank via online banking or telephone banking. If you do it this way we receive 100% of the money you give, there is no transaction fee. Here are the details you need to make a payment directly into the church bank account. For phone banking you may need to take a look at a statement from your bank and it normally has the details of how to do this on the back. You can give once or set up a monthly payment. Please remember to never give passwords over the phone and only call the official number on your statement.
Account Name: St Mary’s Wistaston PCC
Sort Code: 08 92 99
Account No: 65067004
Ref: your initial & surname
Easyfundraising
A very simple way to give, if you shop online or do click and collect, is through Easyfundraising – it doesn’t cost you a penny as by using Easyfundraising a percentage of what you but gets given to the church.
We’ve raised over £1600 through Easyfundraising. For more information on this please click here.
Giving Leaflet with
Click on the image to view/download the leaflet.
