Bowdon Church News No 730 March 2021

Lent is a special time of year for me: it’s when I took the first steps on my spiritual journey. I remember how vivid the spring colours were that year, as God opened my eyes to the glory of his creation, and to new hope for my life. Every year, as the days lengthen and get warmer, and spring flowers optimistically poke their heads out, my thoughts turn towards the anniversary of my second chance, and what it means: repentance, seeking God’s will, and submission to it. I take stock of my actions and emotions. As I find myself – inevitably – falling short of God’s standard, I get into action and make sure that I put things right. I try to keep the focus on my own shortcomings, rather than those of others – I don’t want to start “apologies” with, “I’m sorry you have made me…”! Instead, I take Jesus as my model – nowhere does he blame his tormentors for his crucifixion; he’s doing what he’s doing to bring them salvation. God’s will is to bring me into a happy relationship with himself and the Church. In the end, I came to see it was the right path for me. Even Jesus can’t escape God’s will. He prays in the Garden of Gethsemane to have the cup taken away from him, but ends by humbly submitting to God’s will. Now I eagerly seek God’s will for me, where once I stubbornly turned my back on it. The end of Lent for Jesus is his crucifixion and resurrection on Easter Sunday, bringing hope and salvation to us all. Easter brings me renewed hope, wonder, and peace of mind – invaluable gifts from a gracious and forgiving God. So, let’s keep close to Jesus and watch with him, as he asks, while he prepares himself and us for the end of Lent, and Easter Sunday. It seems the least we can do for Christ, who gives us so much.

Mike Duncombe

Lent 2021

Since Hilary kindly asked me last month to write this article about my time since leaving Bowdon in July 2018, I’ve been gratefully reflecting on how much I learnt from you all about following Christ, even when the path ahead seemed unclear or unusual, or just terrifying.

My curacy in Crewe began when I was ordained deacon at the end of that sweltering July. I was so

grateful for all the lovely people who came to Chester to support Anne-Marie (Naylor) and me, and for the wonderful party afterwards - with a stunning Auntie Sue (Redford) cake. With three parishes to serve and two training incumbents to support, I had lots of opportunities to develop things that will be familiar to you, such as pet services and a youth group. I love conducting weddings and baptisms and also find funeral ministry extremely rewarding - an area in which I am so grateful for the pastoral skills that I learnt at Bowdon.

I was ordained priest in June 2019; two weeks later my training incumbents left and I had to run between their final services in order to bless them as – coincidentally – these services took place at exactly the same time. An vacancy that lasted 13 months radically transformed my experience of curacy, but also gave me many opportunities to develop as a priest and leader, especially when the pandemic began and everything

changed.

I also had the tremendous opportunity to spend a month in Chester Cathedral. It was fantastic to be surrounded by familiar music and patterns of worship, and I had the privilege of taking mid-week communion services, shadowing a huge range of people and going to the pub with the choir!

Throughout my second year as curate, I prayed for the next step to become really clear. Having in time felt strongly called to apply to be Vicar of Leighton and Warmingham – beautiful rural parishes that include growing parts of Crewe, and Leighton Hospital, I was inducted as vicar by Bishop Mark on 26 January.

Thank you so much to everyone who got in touch and who watched the service online. Starting out during lockdown, I feel like I am doing a huge jigsaw in the dark, but I know that God is with me, as he is with you all.

Revd Catherine Cleghorn

Catching up with Catherine

Just an update for Parish friends who’ve been wondering what the Preeces have been up to since Roger left his post as Archdeacon of Warrington & St Helens in the summer of 2019. Ashok and I were delighted to attend Roger’s installation as Master of St Katharine’s in October of that year at a wonderful ceremony conducted by the Bishop of London.

Roger explains the rest:

Catherine and I have had quite an adventure since moving back to London after 17 years away – mostly in the North West.

The Royal Foundation of St Katharine is a charity founded in the 12th century.

It is now a retreat and conference centre that offers an “urban sanctuary” - a place of worship, service and hospitality, with seven conference rooms, a beautiful chapel and 45 bedrooms. The Yurt Cafe is the base for our local community activities. There is a large building

development project to oversee that makes the role especially challenging.

We would love to host Bowdon Parish if you fancy a London house party! Or if anyone would like a London break. This summer will be a great time to visit, with no foreign tourists.

Alice lives with us and is completing her degree apprenticeship. Sophie and Christina are living in London with their respective husbands, so it is nice to see them more.

The last year has been an amazing roller coaster. With all normal life suspended, we reached out to serve the NHS and for four months were releasing beds from Barts hospitals by providing a convalescent service. We also created a convenience store for supplies and hosted a 200-strong volunteer network to run errands for vulnerable people. We are also investing in the arts, with an outdoor stage and have become expert in running online retreats and events for ourselves and for others.

In December we had an amazing residential music festival inspired by the Bowdon Festival, with plenty of physical distancing and live music in the chapel every night.

This year we are looking forward to opening soon for retreats and bed and breakfast guests.

Come and visit, come and stay. We love to see old friends!

www.rfsk.org.uk roger.preece@rfsk.org.uk

Anna Kallumpram

What Roger did next …

For the BCN by email, click the link on the website.www.BowdonChurch.org

facebook.com/ BowdonParish

twitter.com/ BowdonParish

Parish and Lettings Administrator Kay Holt admin@bowdonchurch.org

Bell Ringers David White (Tower Captain) bellringers@bowdonchurch.org

BCN Editor Hilary Gartside hilary@bowdonchurch.org

St Mary’s, Stamford Road, Bowdon, WA14 2TR

St Luke’s, Vicarage Lane, Bowdon, WA14 3BN

Parish Office: 0161 929 1537

Parish Missioner (Youth) Sam Wilson youth@bowdonchurch.org

Churchwardens Patricia Arrowsmith patriciaarrowsmith@bowdonchurch.org Debi Green debigreen@bowdonchurch.org John Newton johnnewton@bowdonchurch.org Jo Howling johowling@bowdonchurch.org

Parish Recorder (Donations) Kate Stross parishrecorder@bowdonchurch.org

Director of Music Michael Dow music@bowdonchurch.org

Organist and Associate Music Director Roger Bryan organist@bowdonchurch.org

Parish Office admin@bowdonchurch.org 0161 929 1537

Vicar Revd Ian Rumsey ian@bowdonchurch.org

ReadersJohn Fenton john@bowdonchurch.orgKaren Wilsonkaren@bowdonchurch.org

Parish Missioner (Zone2) Julia Dow julia@bowdonchurch.org

Catherine at her induction in January (photo: Carl Cleghorn)

HRH The Duchess of Cornwall pays an official visit to welcome Roger as Master of St Katharine’s

Designed by Ben Dean

As the youngest employee of the church here in Bowdon, I’m often alone in talking about our presence as a church on social media. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube – it can seem like a lot of work to get to grips with a system that might be out of date in a few short years. The pandemic has changed this. Social media has become more important than ever, as we try to find new ways to connect – not just to our families and friends, but also to our community.

Since last March, our online worship has attracted literally thousands of viewers from across the world, yet I know that there are many people within the parish, right here in Bowdon, who are still to join any social media platform. Seen as a complicated place that

breeds arguments and fake news, it is easy to avoid, but social media is what we make of it, and it only improves if we improve it.

An article elsewhere in this month’s BCN describes how our Easter reflections this year will be found on our Facebook page: facebook.com/BowdonParish. Although you will not need a Facebook account to read the reflections (they are in place of Word for the Season), you will need one in order to join in the discussion we hope to spark with each day’s beautiful and thought-provoking Easter illustrations.

A year ago, before the first lockdown, I preached at Zone2 on how Sir Isaac Newton spent his time during a different pandemic laying the groundwork for theories on optics, calculus and gravity.

I wasn’t expecting anyone in our parish to do anything quite so ground-breaking during the current pandemic, but I did mention that St Paul in his letter to the Philippians calls us all to be learning, studying, and wrestling constantly with new things, no matter our current state or what we might be enduring. St Paul, a man eventually killed for his faith after experiencing persecution for decades, knew exactly what he was asking of us.

Joining Facebook might not quite be equal to martyrdom, but for some of you I am sure it will be a challenge. I do though promise that for those of you who have never before taken the plunge, you will see great kindness amongst our neighbours, and wonderful things being shared that can bring light into even the darkest of days. In the last year, local community groups set up and co-ordinated on Facebook have provided food, medicine, and company to hundreds of people in need in our area. Long may this community connection online continue!

Sam Wilson

Social media — a challenge worth taking

St Mary’s Sunday services at 10 am were suspended on account of the pandemic throughout January and February. Please check on the church website (bowdonchurch.org) or contact the Parish Office on 0161 929 1537 for information concerning the current situation.

Weekly online services, accessible each Sunday on the church website from 10 am onwards, continue, including a Mothering Sunday-themed service on 14 March.

Church opening for private prayerSt Mary’s will be open for private prayer (socially distanced) each Sunday between 10 am and 12 noon. On Mondays to Fridays the church will also be open from 9 am until dusk.

Bowdon Parish Noticeboard – March 2021

Friends of Bowdon Churchyard – latest newsThe first Sunday in March should have been our fifth Open Sunday since its inauguration on All Souls Day, 1 November last year. Both lockdown and bad weather have conspired to put a temporary stop to our meetings, but in other ways much progress has been made in our planning.

As many of you know, we had our first AGM in December, when a committee was appointed and various proposals were made concerning the future of the churchyard. It has been quite amazing to see the difference in the churchyard already.

‘Adopt a Grave’ – to keep the graves tidy – has enjoyed an amazing response and we now have about 100 people maintaining graves. We ran out of ‘grave adoption’ signs at first, but they are now available from me. You can work on your adopted graves at any time, but beware as it can be slippery underfoot.

We want to create a tranquil space where nature and wildlife will flourish. Many bulbs were planted in December and since then we have had the offer of wild bluebells and snowdrops. As soon as the weather permits, we will be planting wildflower seeds around the adopted graves. Plants attract bees and other wildlife, so we would love many more donations of bulbs and seeds.

There are some practical considerations to bear in mind for our Open Sundays. As keeping graves tidy generates a lot of compost, we are looking for a suitable site on which to build a three-section rotational compost bin. It will be built using railway sleepers and we are awaiting a quote for the construction costs. It has also been recognised that we need a shed to work from. We have one at the design stage, an offer to help to build it and a generous donation to pay for the wood. Next, we must seek permission from Bowdon PCC.

It is sad that we have not been able to make Open Sundays a regular feature of 2021 so far, owing to lockdown restrictions, but let’s hope that soon we can meet together in the churchyard again - with an even larger army of volunteers.

Sue Redford, Secretary

Lockdown love and marriage have been somewhat battered but not destroyed. All of our 2020 wedding couples had to change their wedding plans completely, owing to Covid restrictions. They are now pencilled in for 2021 or 2022. However, there was one exception. A wedding at St Mary’s is very special and a considerable amount of work goes on behind the scenes by many people to ensure it’s a wonderful day. Those of us who are involved in our church weddings feel it is a huge privilege to be able to share such a special time with the many lovely couples who come through our church doors.

Our ‘exceptional’ couple who didn’t change their planned 5 December wedding day are the much loved Amy and Ashley Coles, who attend Zone2. They still went ahead even after the government had slashed guest lists even further. With everyone on tenterhooks as to whether we would even be allowed to proceed, there was huge relief when it was confirmed that we could - less than a week before the agreed date!

So we went into action for our only wedding in 2020. Paul Tomlinson promised our Christmas trees would be in place on 2 December (a week earlier than planned), and they were. Nigel had the outdoor tree lit in no time. Alec set up the Nativity at great speed with fresh hay. Ian was dangling from ladders, as pillars were decorated, and icicle lights and the stars were lit. Colleen and Christine dressed the tree with exacting symmetry and the lights worked first time! And then a dear, kind elderly gentleman said he would pay for our Christmas trees – anonymously of course. So much kindness, so much love for Amy and Ashley as they made their vows together in the presence of God, which was all they had ever wanted - God’s blessing on their love.

Sue Redford, Verger

The wedding of the year

Since April last year, Bowdon Parish has published a daily bible verse, reflection and prayer on our website and emailed this directly to those on our congregational lists and to anyone else, on request. These reflections, written by various members of the church community under Richard Abbott’s direction, have sought to bring solidarity and comfort during uncertain times. We believe shared faith to be the solid rock on which we can build our lives, regardless of the season.

For the two weeks this year that fall on each side of Easter, we will share these daily reflections in a new way – on Facebook, as well as through email, in place of Word for the Season. Facebook will create a forum in which others can comment and share their own helpful thoughts. We are delighted too that a professional artist has created some stunning Easter story visuals for us to accompany the reflections. We hope many will benefit from this and perhaps take a first plunge into social media!

Julia Dow

Easter reflections are coming to Facebook

Please note that at Bowdon Church we continue to do our best to help anyone in need, especially during the coronavirus crisis. Messages can be left on 0161 929 1537.

Lent 2021 is here!It is not too late to take part in the weekly Zoom sessions in which “At Home in Lent – An exploration of Lent through 46 objects” by Gordon Giles is being discussed.

Please see the February BCN for further details, and contact Mike Duncombe (mike@duncombe.org) or Colleen Rumsey (colleen.rumsey@bowdonchurch.org) if you would like to join or have any additional queries.

(photo: Shane Webber Photography)