1. religion and spirituality
2. christianity
3. catholicism

PARISH MAGAZIE
St. Mary’s Church
Hale with Halebank
30P
PARISH DIRECTORY
•
Revd. Janice Collier - Team Rector
425 3195
•
Revd. Dr. Jeremy Duff - Team Vicar
424 2221
•
Revd. Greg Sharples—Team Curate
07730512603
•
Joyce Reilly ( P.C.C. Secretary )
425 3982
•
Steve Collins( Warden )
425 2490
•
Peter Naylor (Warden)
01925 629110
•
Jeff Holt (Deputy Warden)
425 4230
•
Steve Farrell (Reader and Treasurer)
420 1464
•
Ros Barlow (Verger)
425 4163
•
David Ford (Organist)
425 2233
•
Kath Williams (Sunday School & Alpha Course) 425 5171
•
Di Evans (Alpha Course)
01925 752416
•
Naomi Hadden (Flowers)
425 2265
•
Ruth Hilton (Bell Ringers)
425 2123
•
Mark France (Magazine Editorial)
07950 897564
•
Gilly Thompson (Magazine Editorial)
425 2012
•
Anna Banks (Ladies Group)
•
Val Borlase (Magazine Advertising
425 3519
•
Hale C of E School
425 3023
•
Halebank C of E School
424 4878
•
Evelyn Hudson ( Cathedral Parish Representative ) 425 2635
•
Janice Farrell (Reader and Wedding Co-ordinator) 420 1464
•
All enquiries for Baptisms, Funerals, Weddings etc.
call the Team Administrator, Felicity Price, on 0151 345 0558, or email
at southwidnesteam@hotmail.co.uk.
Church Website: http://www.saintmaryshale.com
Church Email address:
vicar@saintmaryshale.com
Halebank News!
In September, I moved to Halebank working for the church.
So, I thought I would start writing a short article for the newsletter each month with news from Halebank!
Every Wednesday at the Halebank Youth Club there is Pensioners lunch and bingo. It is great fun! Starting at 12.30 there
is bingo, a raffle, and always a wonderful dinner cooked by the
hard working committee members at the Youth Club. I started
going along, even though I am not a pensioner, when I was
new to Halebank and it was a great way to get to know people.
It is lots of fun, with laugh after laugh, and a brilliant community
spirit. I have never yet won at the bingo... But I enjoy playing
none the less! Wednesday afternoons 12.30-14.30 (price is
dependent on how many lines of bingo you play and if you go
in for the raffle...)
Rachel Gaunt
ALPHA
is starting in Halebank
12th March
It will be every Thursday at 8pm
From the Editorial Team
Contributions to the magazine are most welcome.
Articles for the April magazine must be submitted by the
20th March 2015. The preferred way is to e-mail it as an
attachment to : parishmag@fsmail.net
It can also be handed on a disc to Mark or Gilly , printed out (use
Arial font 12pts) or handwritten. Contact Val on 425 3519 for
advertisements to be placed onto the magazine
Any opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the
editorial team or the Church.
Coffee and Cake
A chance to find out more about Christianity
For more Information contact
Rachel Gaunt on 07891378299
LENT LUNCHES
AT
HALE VILLAGE HALL
Every Thursday in Lent: 12.30—1.30pm
5th March, 12th March, 19th March, 26thMarch.
We will be serving a simple meal of
Homemade soup, Fresh bread and Cheese
Tea and Coffee
All proceeds will be given to WATERAID
Just come along.
You will be most welcome
£3.50
We are in the Church season of Lent.
This is the time from Pancake Tuesday to Easter
Day, about 6 weeks long.
The church originally invented Lent as a time to
prepare for the great Celebration of Easter.
During Lent a variety of traditions have come
down to us over the centuries.
Eating Pancakes at the very beginning, giving something up, the
colour purple in the church building, no flowers or singing of the
Gloria in services. You may be able to think of others!
But what is the real purpose of Lent?
I want to suggest it is a time to get closer to God.
But how do we do that?
I suggest that we stop being so busy. That we DO nothing for
Lent and maybe just spend a bit of time BEING still. I have three
suggestions for this time:
Firstly, maybe do a bit of chewing the cud...pondering, ruminating, using the Lord's Prayer. Have a real think about each line,
each phrase, each word. Try and get to the bottom of what it
really means.
Or
Fast from Facebook, Twitter, internet browsing, online shopping,
channel hopping etc., These things can steal our time!
Or
Practise the presence of God, This is really just remembering
that God is with you always and everywhere. Take a moment
when you are working, or in the kitchen or doing a routine task
that requires no thinking. Remember God is with you, always.
Or try and use an established form of prayer called the Examen... ask yourself 2 questions “For what am I most grateful
today?” Bring the memory to mind and thank God or the event or
person involved.
Then ask “For what am I least grateful today?” Bring this to mind,
remember how it felt, and recognise that God is in there with
you, beside you even in the really difficult things.
Give it a go, even just once.
Have a good Lent.
Love from Janice
REGISTERS
Funerals
Doris Sankey
We pray for her family and all who mourn.
coming soon...
Tuesday 10th March 7.30 Hale Church. A service to commission the new Shared Ministry team. Please come and
support the team members as they make this commitment.
Halebank School Easter Communion Wednesday 1st April
9.30am in Hale Church All welcome.
Hale School Easter Communion on Maundy Thursday 2nd
April 9.30am in Hale Church. All welcome.
ADVANCE NOTICE
THIS YEAR’S AGM WILL TAKE PLACE ON
MONDAY 20th APRIL 2015 at 7.30pm in CHURCH.
ALL CHURCH GROUPS ARE INVITED TO SUBMIT AN
ANNUAL REPORT FOR INCLUSION AT THE AGM
AS IN PREVIOUS YEARS CAN WE REQUEST THAT ALL REPORTS ARE SUBMITTED TO THE MAGAZINE TEAM BY
7TH MARCH TO ENSURE THEY ARE INCLUDED IN THE
APRIL MAGAZINE – THIS WILL ALLOW FOR THE INFORMATION TO BE READ IN ADVANCE OF THE MEETING.
Reports can be emailed to the magazine team on
parishmag@fsmail.net or handed directly to Gilly Thompson.
First Service Fears
Approaching the huge wooden doors of the church entrance, I felt
terrified.
It was the first time I had voluntarily attended a church service and
the first time I had ever attended a service at St Mary’s. As a
teacher I can only compare the feeling to entering an unfamiliar
staff room at a new school. Where will I sit? What if I sit in somebody else’s seat or end up in the middle of an exclusive group
who obviously don’t want me there? What if nobody speaks to me
or worse, if they can see through my lack of knowledge and reject
me entirely?
This anxiety only increased as I walked through the wooden doors
to a surprisingly large number of people chatting throughout the
church. On entering I was handed some flyers but at the time I
was too blinded by my own fear to acknowledge what they were
or who had given them to me. I located an empty seat towards the
back of the church and took a deep breath: I had made it in at
least. Looking around me I was again surprised to see people socialising, laughing and entirely relaxed. There was an immediate
sense of community in the church that which made it far less formal and intimidating than I had expected.
With this sense of reassurance I began to read the documents in
my hand, understanding some, but not all of what was about to
happen. Fortunately somebody nearby noticed my uncertainty
and offered to talk me through the service. An hour later I had
made it through without embarrassing myself too much: although I
didn’t recognise the hymns it was easy to pick up on the tune with
so many people singing around me; the vicar analysed the reading in a way that appealed to my creative nature and I had even
signed up to help at the Christmas Fair!
It took several months for me to familiarise myself with the routines of the different services but I am proud to say that I am now
one of those relaxed people who can laugh and socialise at
church on a Sunday morning. Trying something new and unknown is always scary but I’m glad I had the courage to do it and I
would like to thank everyone at St Mary’s for making me feel so
welcome.
Hayley.
Our Services
Prayer Changes Things!
Have you ever felt you had an emergency situation which you
would love to share with someone and ask them to pray for or
with you?
Well you can! We have set up some emergency prayer circles,
so that anyone who has an urgent need can make one phone
call and know that very soon many people will be praying with
them about it.
If you would like to be part of a prayer circle, do let
Val Borlase (0151 425 3519) or Gilly Thompson (0151 425
2012) know.
Your name will be included in a circle of about 10 people;
when there is an urgent need you will receive a phone call or a
text with a few details about the need, you phone one other
person and then pray in your own time wherever you are. You
will be given all the information you need about how the prayer
circles work.
For regular prayer requests please continue to use the weekly
sheet at church. The easiest way if you have email is
weeklysheet@saintmaryshale.com.
If you know of an urgent or emergency need, please phone Val
or Gilly and then trust God for the answer to that prayer. We
have seen some amazing answers!
Sunday 1st
11am Holy Communion
Sunday 8th
11am All age Worship
4.30pm Holy Communion BCP
Sunday 15th Mothering Sunday
11am Family Communion
Sunday 22nd
11am Holy Communion with prayer ministry.
Sunday 29th Palm Sunday
11am Songs of Praise and Worship
4.30pm Ecumenical Stations of the Cross.
Holy Week Services
Monday 30th March 7.30pm led by a Discovery Group
Tuesday 31st March 7.30pm led by a Discovery Group
Wednesday 1st April 7.30pm led by Rachel Gaunt
Maundy Thursday 2nd April
7.30pm Holy Communion with Stripping of the Altar.
Good Friday 3rd April
11am Morning Service suitable for all
followed by Ecumenical walk to the Cross
2pm The Last Hour suitable for adults only.
Easter Sunday 5th April
11am Family Communion
Start your day with:
Daily prayers at Hale Church
Monday-Friday at 9am just for 20 minutes.
LICC Word for the Week
Commit to Get Fit
29th March Palm Sunday:
Jesus at the gates of Jerusalem
Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, when the Church remembers how Je-
Anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing
according to the rules.
2 Timothy 2:5
sus arrived at the gates of Jerusalem just a few days before the Passover
Do you jog to work? Bench-press in front of your computer
screen? Lift weights at the coffee machine? Even do sit ups in
meetings? Perhaps not. But what would it mean to see our workplaces as a spiritual gym?
reputation as a healer, and welcomed him. But sadly the welcome was
Paul uses the example of an athlete when encouraging Timothy
to ‘be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus’ (2 Timothy 2:1).
In any physical training programme, fitness doesn’t happen by
accident. It requires the ongoing commitment to change unhelpful patterns and replace them with health-inducing habits. The
work of change requires effort and a sustainable fitness programme. With spiritual ‘fitness’ these same elements are important, especially if we desire to be fruitful on our frontlines.
It takes effort. The letters of both Paul and Peter contain many
exhortations to become spiritually mature, with God’s help,
through disciplined effort. See, for example, 2 Peter 1:5-9: ‘For
this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness;
and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and
to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;
and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.
For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they
will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.’
was due to be held. He was the Messiah come to his own people in their
capital city, and yet he came in humility, riding on a young donkey, not in
triumph, riding on a war-horse. As Jesus entered the city, the crowds gave
him a rapturous welcome, throwing palm fronds into his path. They knew his
short-lived and shallow, for Jerusalem would soon reject her Messiah, and
put him to death. On this day churches worldwide will distribute little crosses
made from palm fronds in memory of Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem.
Palm Sunday
(Jn 12:12-16, Zech9:9,Mt 2:11)
Palms and praises
pointing to victory
as the King rides on,
the promised King,
gentle and riding on a donkey.
Promised of old and given that gift of gold, early on.
Half-recognised in his kingdom- signs and words,
kindling hope, leading to hosannas,
to palms and praises.
And then the turning,
as this King shows a different sovereignty.
The cries of “Crucify”, the cruel crowning
as thorns pierce head and hearts.
Effort goes hand in hand with a sustainable programme. Inwardly
(our personalities and preferences) and outwardly (our commitments and responsibilities) we are all different. Any fitness programme we commit to needs to reflect this, as one size does not
fit all. Yet without reorganising our lives at some level we are
unlikely to create healthy lifelong spiritual habits to sustain us.
Athletes do not get fit by accident, but by design.
A misunderstanding.
A misreading of the signs, so clear.
A failure to trust the King,
who was and is and always will be Truth.
Father, forgive us,
We know not what we are doing,
Still.
17th March St Patrick –
beloved apostle to Ireland
St Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. If you’ve ever been in New York on
St Patrick’s Day, you’d think he was the patron saint of New York as well...
the flamboyant parade is full of American/Irish razzmatazz. It’s all a far cry
from the hard life of this 5th century humble Christian who became in time
both bishop and apostle of Ireland. Patrick was born the son of a town
councillor in the west of England, between the Severn and the Clyde. But
as a young man he was captured by Irish pirates, kidnapped to Ireland, and
St. Mary’s is part of the South Widnes
Team of churches: St. Mary’s Hale, St.
Mary’s West Bank and St. Paul’s Widnes.
Every month we will try to give some
information about what is happening in the
other churches. For this month, here is how
the leadership of the team is made up,
reduced to slavery. He was made to tend his master’s herds. Desolate and
despairing, Patrick turned to prayer. He found God was there for him, even
in such desperate circumstances. He spent much time in prayer, and his
faith grew and deepened, in contrast to his earlier years, when he “knew
not the true God”. Then, after six gruelling, lonely years he was told in a
dream he would soon go to his own country. He either escaped or was
freed, made his way to a port 200 miles away and eventually persuaded
Team Clergy
Rev. Janice Collier—Team Rector
Rev. Jeremy Duff—Team Vicar
Rev. Greg Sharples—Curate
some sailors to take him with them away from Ireland. After various adventures in other lands, including near-starvation, Patrick landed on English
soil at last, and returned to his family. But he was much changed. He had
enjoyed his life of plenty before; now he wanted to devote the rest of his life
to Christ. Patrick received some form of training for the priesthood, but not
the higher education he really wanted. But by 435, well educated or not,
Local Missional
Leader at St.
Mary’s West Bank
Chris Holleran
Readers
Janice Farrell—St. Mary’s Hale
Steve Farrell—St. Mary’s Hale
Linda Foster—St. Paul’s
Patrick was badly needed. Palladius’ mission to the Irish had failed, and so
the Pope sent Patrick back to the land of his slavery. He set up his see at
Armagh, and worked principally in the north. He urged the Irish to greater
spirituality, set up a school, and made several missionary journeys. Patrick’s writings are the first literature certainly identified from the British
Other staff
Retired Clergy
Rev. Walter Balmer
Rev. David Thompson
Church. They reveal sincere simplicity and a deep pastoral care. He
wanted to abolish paganism, idolatry, and was ready for imprisonment or
death in the following of Christ.
Patrick remains the most popular of the Irish saints. The principal cathedral
of New York is dedicated to him, as, of course, is the Anglican cathedral of
Dublin.
Administrator
Felicity Price
Bob Milton—Sports
Minister
Rachel Gaunt— ordinand,
working part-time in
Halebank
Children’s Society
Box Collection 2015
I would like to thank everyone who brought in their Chil-
dren’s Society collection boxes to the Christingle Service.
Evelyn and David Hudson and I have been busy counting
and counting and counting!
The final total amounted to £1918.60 including some donations to the Society. This is our highest total ever and we
are so pleased. I rang Mrs. Ailison Wilson who was our
speaker at the service and she was thrilled. Thank you all
so much. I would like to thank Evelyn and Dave; they help
me so much.
The Children’s Society has a ”collection for children”
throughout the country which takes place in the spring.
This year it runs between 11th April to 25th April. We are
very lucky in Hale and Halebank to have valued collectors
who go out in all weathers to every house in the village and
parts of Halebank. When your envelope comes through
your letterbox please try and support the society in any
small way you can.
The Children’s Society does such good work with vulnerable children and young people and families in need.
THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN.
God bless.
Love,
Jo Saville.
15th March Mothering Sunday –
4th Sunday in Lent
There is an old Jewish saying:
God could not be everywhere, and therefore He made mothers. Mother Church, Mother Earth, Mother of the Gods - our
human mothers - all of them have been part of the celebration
of ‘Mothering Sunday’ - as the fourth Sunday in Lent is affectionately known. It has been celebrated in the UK since at
least the 16th century. In Roman times, great festivals were
held every Spring to honour Cybele, Mother of all the Gods.
Other pagan festivals in honour of Mother Earth were also
celebrated. With the arrival of Christianity, the festival became
one honouring Mother Church. During the Middle Ages, young
people apprenticed to craftsmen or working as ‘live-in’ servants were allowed only one holiday a year on which to visit
their families - which is how ‘Mothering Sunday’ got its name.
This special day became a day of family rejoicing, and the
Lenten fast was broken. In some places the day was called
Simnel Day, because of the sweet cakes called simnel cakes
traditionally eaten on that day. In recent years the holiday has
changed and in many ways now resembles the American
Mothers’ Day, with families going out to Sunday lunch and
generally making a fuss of their mother on the day.