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St Mary’s & St Luke’s Services, Readings & News for 27 March 2022 – Mothering Sunday

St Mary’s & St Luke’s Services, Readings & News for 27 March 2022 – Mothering Sunday

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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.


Please can we ask if you have any Church queries, correspondence or requests, they can be directed to the Church office on 567119 or email us at the office at office@stmaryswistaston.org.uk  and we will endeavour to respond to you as soon as we possibly can. Thank you.


Now that all Covid restrictions have been lifted in England it’s your own personal choice as to whether you wear a face covering in church or not. We have now resumed standing to sing the hymns and at other parts in the service. We are keeping the Communion in one kind for the time-being and are hoping to return to the Common Cup soon. As always, please respect other people’s points of view which may differ from your own. The Wardens and the Clergy would like to thank you for your cooperation over the past two years.


Morning Prayer on Zoom

Morning Prayer on Zoom, 9:30am (usually) Mon & Thurs bit.ly/930mp or by phone: 0203 051 2874 Meeting ID: 850 2058 1307 Passcode: 914961

Church of England Daily Prayer can be found here:
https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/join-us-service-daily-prayer

There is also Daily Hope: a free phone line of hymns, reflections and prayers you can call at any time on O800 804 8044.


The Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM) for 2022 is on Sunday 08 May 2022 at 12 noon at St Mary’s followed by a Bring and Share in the Church Hall. The meeting is open to anyone on the church’s Electoral Roll. At the APCM we will be electing 2 Church Wardens and 5 Members to the PCC. Ahead of the APCM, there will be a Revision of the Electoral Roll from 3rd to 17th April, as this is only a revision, if you are already on the church’s Electoral Roll, there is no need to reapply. All the details and the relevant forms for the Electoral Roll, Church Warden or PCC nomination are available at both churches and can be found bit.ly/apcminfo


UPDATE: The final total for the Christian Aid sponsored swim, from our church, was £724.00, thank you to all who took part and gave. We will let you know the total from the whole event when it is available.


The Lent Encounter 2022

The Lent Encounter is back for 2022!

Encounter Jesus afresh this Lent, as we journey through his life and ministry. We’ll start with his baptism and explore themes such as restoration, teaching the beatitudes and the power of God’s word. 

It’s free to sign up and you’ll receive a daily email packed with content. 

Click here for more information

  • Andrew Ollerton takes us on a tour of the Holy Land with videos of places from some of the most significant points of Jesus’ life
  • Bible Society staff share personal reflections on themes such as love, rejection, hope and peace
  • Prayers and conversation starters for you to reflect on and share with others
  • Weekly ‘Wonder Walks’ with a guide to explore God’s word and meditate as you walk
  • Go deeper in to God’s word and consider some big life questions along the way

Lent Lunch – Wednesday, 6th April at 12 noon (please note the earlier start) in the Church Hall. £3 pp. This week’s offering is Ploughman`s Lunch – Helpers needed please for tables, serving, washing-up, please see Sue or Chris. Thank you.


Queen`s Platinum Jubilee – Please keep Sunday 5th June free to join with the Church Family in celebrating the Queen`s Platinum Jubilee!

Look out for our posters soon, with more information and tickets will available.


Jayne Manfredi will be ordained Deacon on 3rd July 2022 and will be serving her curacy at St Mary’s Sandbach. Please pray for Jayne as she finishes up her training and prepares for ordination and the new journey ahead.

If you are interested in attending Jayne’s ordination at Chester Cathedral, please add your name to the sheet in St Mary’s Porch or call the office.  It is not yet known if there will be a limitation on numbers allowed.


Food Bank update:  A HUGE THANK YOU to all of you who have collected and donated food. An amazing 2149.63 kg of food was donated in January! providing 267 people with crisis food parcels which represents 105 households. Long life food items are still really the main priority, and continuously short of items such as UHT milk, jam and long-life cakes/puddings. 


Watch the introduction video
LFF Course Content

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; 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 Paul or see the Diocesan pages on their website: https://www.chester.anglican.org/outreach/living-in-love-and-faith/


Sunday refreshments – Please if anyone can help with Sunday refreshments, help is always needed. Please if you can add your name to the rota in the Hall if you can help. Thanks, Sue.



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.

Click here to give online

Giving via your 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.