BOWDON CHURCH NEWS   April 2006

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GOOD PROGRESS 

The past month has seen two more very successful fund-raising events.  An Art Exhibition raised over £2500 from the sale of paintings.  A Sunday Luncheon Party has raised more funds.  Our thanks go to the artists, Prue Wallis Myers, Val Lines and Alma Butterworth, and to Alec and Helen Bonson, hosts of the Luncheon.  At the same time, donations continue to arrive from generous individuals, following two Progress Suppers and the continuing Appeal.  I think a number of people have found the ‘Shopping List’ – the linking of a donation to a specific item an attractive idea, breaking down the amount we need into manageable pieces. (see below)  

MEETING THE CHALLENGE

We now have raised over £730,000.  That’s the equivalent of the shell of the building: foundations, walls, roof, floors, external windows and doors, and more.  Picture that!   Now we need to fit out that shell – it’s as if we have a ‘shopping list’ of things to buy.  In the next three months we are aiming to raise at least enough to take us to £900,000 so that we can go out to tender, let the contract and begin building.  With a project like this, it’s vital to raise the funds as soon as we can.  Building inflation is running at around 9%, and so each month we delay the cost increases: it’s like aiming at moving target. 

SO THE CHALLENGE IS TO RAISE AT LEAST £170,000 IN THE NEXT THREE MONTHS – TO REACH OUR ‘START BUILDING’ TARGET OF £900,000. 

AN INCENTIVE: The Easter Challenge

A member of the congregation has pledged to match any amount given between now and Easter with a further 10%.  I am sure this will encourage anyone who is still considering making a donation.  With this Challenge and with Gift-Aid your £100 could turn into £141, your £1,000 into £1,410 or your £10,000 into £14,100!  There are lots of good reasons not to delay and to make your contribution now.  Give now and avoid disappointment.  This incentive has certainly encouraged a number of people to give .. or to give again.

It is your donation which will make a real difference over the next few months.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Each fund-raising event gives us encouragement and a real sense of sharing in this important and exciting project.  The next event is a GIANT CAR BOOT SALE on Easter Monday, 17 April, at Altrincham Boys’Grammar School. 

On July 1 there is a SUMMER SOIRĒE in the Vicarage Garden.  On that evening we shall be drawing the winners for the GRAND PRIZE DRAW.  Prizes include an iPod, tickets to the RHS Tatton Show, garden hammock, and many more.  Draw tickets are now available.  If you can sell a few books of tickets, please contact Alexia Hine on 928 2468 or alexiahine@hotmail.com, or at least buy some tickets and support the Appeal.  Lots of good prizes … and it could be you!

THE SHOPPING LIST 

If you would like to know more about how you can be part of this next exciting phase of the Building for Bowdon project by linking your donation to a specific part of the Parish Centre, and would like more information this can be sent to you by post or email.  The items on the list here gives just some examples, but for the complete list simply contact the PCC Secretary on 928 2468 or at alexiahine@hotmail.com. or visit our website www.bowdon-parish-church.org.uk. 

Thank you to all who have contributed to the Parish Appeal

which stands at £730,000

FOR SALE   A John Broadwood and Sons cast iron framed boudoir Piano circa 1890.

Recently valued by Forsyths of Manchester.   In same ownership for 30 years.  Previously owned by a Music Teacher.  Offers in the region of £1750 are invited.  This instrument is being sold in aid of the Parish Centre Appeal.  For viewing or further details please ring Keith Hine on 928 2468.  

If you have ideas for a fund-raising event for the Parish Centre please contact me on 928 2468 or the Appeal Secretary, Sue Sinagola, on 928 3082.  We welcome ideas but of course we will need to coordinate the events.

CAR BOOT SALE

EASTER MONDAY

17 APRIL

in aid of the Parish Centre Appeal

ALTRINCHAM GRAMMAR SCHOOL FOR BOYS, MARLBOROUGH ROAD

FROM 8 am

Pitches £10 in advance

£15 unbooked on the day

for further details and to book

ring 941 3557

SOME HOPE

Most people live with hope of some kind.  Despair is, by definition, to be without hope – to feel that things cannot and will not be any better.  That, tragically, is where some people are.  But for most of us there is hope of some kind.  But what kind? “I hope I win the lottery”; “I hope the weather improves”; “I hope no-one finds out”.  This kind of hoping is hoping in the face of randomness and chance.  Just the luck of the draw, as we say.  Fate – capricious, kind and cruel.  But for Christians, hope is not an attitude in the face of fate or luck: it is one of the great virtues: “Faith, hope and love,” writes St Paul, “these three last for ever.”  The world is not simply random, and we are not simply the victims of fate.  Yes, in God’s creation there is openness, there are possibilities, and there is human freedom to choose.  But within all this God is present, working to bring good out of evil, to heal a hurting world.

What we celebrate at Easter is God at work in the world.  God’s love overcomes the cruelty, the waste and the tragedy of the death of Jesus.  It is God who rolls away the stone from the tomb and raises Jesus to a new life.  The gospel accounts tell of surprise encounters, of sightings, of appearances.  At the heart of these strange events is the conviction of the disciples that what seemed hopeless has been turned into something new.  The Resurrection becomes not only an event in history but the sign of resurrections to be found in our own lives.  The Resurrection gives us hope for our own resurrections: new beginnings, forgiveness, broken relationships restored, a future when all seemed hopeless.  And the Resurrection remains the great ‘No’ to death and nothingness.  That nothingness can cast it shadow over human lives and make life itself seems pointless, hope-less.  At Easter we celebrate meaning and purpose: to live as God’s children and to know that nothing can separate us from him.  For me some of the finest verses in the New Testament letters are those with which St Paul closes the eighth chapter of his letter to the Romans:

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”   [Romans 8: 38 – 39]

Now that is some hope.

With every blessing this Easter

[signature of KH]

EASTER

You are warmly invited to share in the worship in this important week in the Church’s year.  There are activities for younger ones, services of quiet and meditation as well as the joyful celebration of Resurrection as we come together as a Church family on Easter Day

Sun 9 April Palm Sunday

8.00 am  Holy Communion

9.30 am  Holy Communion at St Luke’s

10.45 am  Holy Communion Service

12.30 pm Bring and Share Lunch at the Vicarage

6.30 pm   Choral Evensong: Mozart’s Requiem

Daily from Mon 10 April – Wed 12 April  

10.00 – 11.30 am   Activities for children in the Johnson Hall

9.00 pm   Compline

Thu 13 April  Maundy Thursday

8.00 pm  Holy Communion,

followed by Vigil until midnight

Fri 14 April Good Friday

9.30 am  Service at St Luke’s

2.00 – 3.00 pm  ‘At the foot of the Cross’

The Church will be open from midday for quiet and prayer

Sun 16 April Easter

6.00 am Welcome the dawn of Easter from the Church tower, followed by breakfast 

8.00 am Holy Communion

9.30 am  Holy Communion at St Luke’s

10.45 am  Family Communion Service

6.30 pm   Evening Prayer

Vivienne Plummer, who has been an active member of the parish for many years, and has served as a Reader in more recent years, will be moving to Yorkshire shortly, and her last day with us will be Palm Sunday.  We will be making a presentation at the 10.45 service.   This will be followed by a shared lunch at the Vicarage, to which all are welcome. 

THE EVENING SERVICE AT ST MARY'S BOWDON, 6.30 pm on 9 APRIL, PALM SUNDAY, WILL INCLUDE MOZART'S REQUIEM.  Mozart's wonderful music is not often enjoyed in the context of worship in a parish church, but here is an opportunity
to hear St Mary's choir and share in the service. All are welcome.

WATER CHANGE

“If you want to walk far, you walk together with others, if you want to walk fast, you walk alone.”  This is a Burkinabe proverb that Sarah Hindle (26) from Bowdon heard in Burkina Faso, West Africa.  Sarah, 26, a former member of St Mary’s, was there on a fact-finding trip to visit projects implemented by the charity WaterAid to help people gain access to safe water and sanitation.   

“I saw how the lives of people in the communities had changed because of having clean water” says Sarah, “and that these communities had contributed to solving their own problems.  WaterAid had given them a helping hand with some finance and training and the communities had put in time and money to make the changes happen.” 

“In Burkina Faso 49% of people do not have access to clean water and 88% of people have to go to the toilet in the open country or in the street.  We visited a village which had received no external support and I met a girl my age – Youko Setou – who spent 9 hours a day walking 20km carrying 20kg of water on her head – the luggage allowance on a plane. airoplane.  This water she collected was so dirty that we would put it straight into a sewer.  Each person in her family uses 20 litres of water a day, which is the equivalent of two flushes of the toilet. She had lost her 18 month old baby 5 months before our visit because of the poor water quality and was worried about the health of her second baby which was drinking the same water.”

“On leaving that village I was disturbed by the negative impact our visit might have had there, in raising expectations at a time when there was no funding to intervene there and in demonstrating a level of affluence that the people there had not previously seen.  Ultimately I will never know how our visit affected them, but I want to raise awareness about the lives of people like Yokou Setou so that people in the UK can act to reduce the numbers of people who have to live like her.” 

“I was very struck by how small external interventions can be critical to giving a community the means to work themselves out of poverty.  I was also very impressed by the way that WaterAid work with communities and the fact that they are trying to train partners and local governments so that WaterAid are no longer needed.  There are huge challenges for those living in poverty around the world, but there are simple things that can be done that make a difference and stop us feeling helpless in the face of such injustice.”

for more details log on to www.wateraid.org.uk

A THOUGHT:  "for a fraction of the $100 BILLION the world spends annually on bottled water, everyone on earth could have access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation."   

TIME FOR REPAIR?

Do you have a long-case clock in need of repair or servicing?  Brian Thomas is an experienced clock repairer and will be pleased to take on the work.  In return he invites a donation to the Building for Bowdon Parish Centre Appeal.  For further details please contact him on 941 4659.   

ANNUAL PARISH MEETING 30 APRIL

This year's Annual General Meeting of the Parish is at 7.30 p.m. on Thursday 27 April  in St Luke’s Church.  At the meeting the members of the Parochial Church Council and Churchwardens for the coming year will be elected.  Accounts are presented and there is the opportunity for questions on any aspect of the Church’s work.  The main focus of your meeting and the year ahead will be the Parish Centre and the current Appeal.  People have been generous in their support and we are now in the stage of the final push to raise the amount to be able to let the contract and begin building.  It promises to be an exciting year.  Please do your best to be at the Annual Meeting.  There we can be encouraged by all we have been able to achieve for God’s work in this community and we can ask his blessing on what lies before us. 

Anyone may attend the Annual Meeting, but in order to vote in elections, you need to be on the Church’s Electoral Roll.  Please see details of this in the article (overleaf/opposite/above/below)

With every blessing

[signature of Keith Hine]

ELECTORAL ROLL

Each year the register of Church Members, known as the Electoral Roll, is brought up to  date in time for the Annual General Meeting.  If you are not already on the Roll and if you regard yourself as a member of St. Mary’s or St. Luke’s then you have the opportunity to show it by completing an application form.   This enables you to stand for election or vote on issues concerning the Church.   The Roll is suspended from the 9 April until after the AGM on 27 April 2006, so applications should be handed in promptly.   The Roll and forms for Membership are at the West End of the Church.   For further information contact Peggie Nork, the Electoral Roll Officer on (0161) 928 4900.

ARCHDEACON’S VISITATION

The meeting at which new wardens and sidespersons are admitted to officially ‘admitted to office’ takes place at the Archdeacon’s Visitation on Monday 15 May at 7.30 pm, at St John’s Altrincham.  At this service we join with all the other local Anglican churches, where we are sure of encouraging words from the Archdeacon and thanks for the work done in the service of God’s Church.  All sidesmen and women are warmly invited to this service, along with the wardens.       

WORKING FOR THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD BEYOND THE PARISH

Bowdon Parish Church is committed to support the work of the wider Church and the wider community.  This is done partly through financial support, in two ways.  One is the Parish Project and the various fund-raising events throughout the year. This year we begin a new project, supporting a community in Azad Kashmir, in rebuilding their homes and community. (see the article on The May Fair below/opposite/overleaf).  The other way is the allocation of financial support to various charities and organisations, agreed by the Church Council.  Last year these included: A Rocha (Christians in Conservation), Children’s Chernobyl Lifeline, Tear Fund, Sight Savers International, Water Aid, and the Church Mission Society, working overseas, and, closer to home, The Church Urban Fund, The Wood Street Mission, The Chester Diocesan Adoption Society, The Scripture Union, Francis House Children’s Hospice, The Children’s Adventure Farm Trust and St Anne’s Hospice.  If you would like to know more on the charities and the amounts involved, these will be presented along with the parish accounts, or contact Keith Hine. 

PARISH PROJECT 2006 - Fundraising for Kashmir

Thanks go to John and Molly Barrat for their illustrated talk which raised over £400 for the Parish Project.  The recent Coffee Morning by the St Mary’s Guild raised a further £300 for the Kashmir Project – a good start for this important project of rebuilding homes and lives in Azad Kashmir. 

A Date for your Diary - Our next main event for Kashmir will be the May Fair - Saturday May 13th - to be held in the Church School.

May Fair

The Parish Project Fair

Saturday 13th May

10am - 12.30pm

The Church School Grange Road Bowdon

Food Stalls   Cards   Good quality Bric-a-Brac,  Books & Toys

As Good as New Hats & Handbags

Soaps & Toiletries      Plants       Raffle etc

Proceeds in support of the Parish Kashmir Project

Co-ordinator:  Evelyn Harwood 980 1761

The Annual General Meeting of the Bowdon Conservation Group will be held at 7.30 pm on Wednesday 19 April in the Jubilee Rooms, The Firs, Bowdon.   

Registers

Baptism    We welcome into God’s Church family

Jemima Buckley     Ruby Harney

Funerals    We commend to God

Anthony Martin     Betty Allen     Edith Dodds  

Calendar for April

Morning Prayer is said in St. Mary’s at 8.45 am

Monday to Friday. Entry through the vestry door.

2     Fifth Sunday of Lent

       (First Sunday in April)

       8 am Holy Communion.

       9.30 am St. Luke’s Holy Communion.

       10.40 am Trekkers.

       10.45 am Holy Communion, (Order One).

       Oblations: The Lunch Club.

followed by coffee at the back of the church.

       6.30 pm Evening Prayer. (BCP).

3     (Mon) 2.30 pm Bible Reading Fellowship meeting at 34 Bow Green Road.

5     (Wed) 11.30 am Holy Communion.

       12 noon Lunch Club.

6     (Thu) 10 am St. Luke’s, Holy Communion (BCP), with Mothers’ Union.

       10.30 Coffee drop-in at St. Luke’s.

FOR FULL DETAILS OF ACTIVITIES AND SERVICES DURING HOLY WEEK AND EASTER SEE THE FRONT PAGE

17 (Mon) 8.00 am at Altrincham Boys Grammar School GRAND CAR BOOT SALE in aid of Building For Bowdon.

19   (Wed) 11.30 am Holy Communion.

20   (Thu) 2 pm First Steps. ‘Easter’.

23   Second Sunday of Easter

       (Fourth Sunday in April)

       8 am Holy Communion.

       9.30 am St. Luke’s Morning Worship.

       10.45 am Holy Communion, (BCP).

followed by coffee at the back of the church.

       3 pm   St George’s Day Parade Service

       6.30 pm Evening Praise.

26   (Wed) 11.630 am Holy Communion.

       12 noon Lunch Club.

       2.15 pm St. Mary’s Mothers’ Union. Methodist Speaker at the Methodist Hall.

27   (Thu) 7.30 pm Annual Parish Meeting and Meeting of Parishioners at St Luke’s.

30   Third Sunday of Easter

       (Fifth Sunday in April)

       8 am Holy Communion.

       9.30 am St. Luke’s Holy Communion.

       10.40 am Trekkers.

       10.45 am Holy Communion, (Order One).

       Oblations: The Art Group.

followed by coffee at the back of the church.

       6.30 pm Evening Prayer (BCP).

May

3     (Wed) 11.30 am Holy Communion.

       12 noon Lunch Club.

4     (Thu) 10 am St. Luke’s, Holy Communion (BCP), with Mothers’ Union.

       10.30 Coffee drop-in at St. Luke’s.

7     Fourth Sunday of Easter

       (First Sunday in May)

       8 am Holy Communion.

       9.30 am St. Luke’s Holy Communion.

       10.40 am Trekkers.

       10.45 am Holy Communion, (Order One).

       Oblations: The Church School.

followed by coffee at the back of the church.

       6.30 pm Evening Prayer. (BCP).

10   (Wed) 11.30 am Holy Communion.

       12 noon Lunch Club.

       8 pm A Service of Healing.

14   Fifth Sunday of Easter

       (Second Sunday in May)

       8 am Holy Communion.

       9.30 am St. Luke’s Holy Communion.

       10.45 am Family Service.

followed by coffee at the back of the church.

       6.30 pm Choral Evensong.

Each week we pray for people living in the Parish.

Wk/begin	We pray for those living in
2 Apr	Green Walk, Holmwood and Bickham House.
9 Apr	Green Courts and Consort Place.
16 Apr	Dunham Road, Charcoal Road, Dunham Massey Hall and Oldfield Lane.
23 Apr	Members of the Congregation living outside the Parish.
30 Apr	The Firs, Elcho Road and Catherine Road.
7 May	Richmond Road, Richmond Green and Richmond Hill.
14 May	Richmond Court and Church Brow

BULLETIN BOARD ETC.

BOWDON CONSERVATION GROUP

Wednesday 19th April at 7.30 pm

At the Jubilee Community Centre

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

ST MARY’S CHURCHYARD

We have now just about completed the first year of maintenance on the cleared Churchyard and have managed to achieve a basic standard of presentation. With one or two more volunteers we could - no - WOULD do better. It’s a lovely place to work. Anyone who would like to have a go please contact Margarette Murdie on 928 0188.

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