CHALLENGE

The Parish Magazine of St Mary’s Sandbach May 2018 Volume 54 No 636

May 2018

Sunday 6th May 8.00 am Holy Communion 6 Easter 10.00 am Morning Worship 6.30 pm Holy Eucharist

Thursday 10th May 7.30 pm Holy Communion at Accession Day St john's Sandbach Heath

Sunday 13th May 8.00 am Holy Communion 7 Easter 10.00 am Parish Eucharist 6.30 pm Evensong

Sunday 20th May 8.00 am Holy Communion Pentecost 10.00 am Parish Eucharist 6.30 pm Churches Together in Sandbach Service

Sunday 27th May 8.00 am Holy Communion Trinity Sunday 10.00 am Parish Eucharist 6.30 pm Choral Evensong

Sunday 3rd June 8.00 am Holy Communion 1 Trinity 10.00 am Morning Worship 6.30 pm Holy Eucharist

Every Wednesday 11.00 am Holy Communion

Holy Eucharist, Parish Eucharist = Order 2 Common Worship Holy Communion = Order 1 Book of Common Prayer 1

erhaps we don't need there only because of the P reminding that St Mary's has generosity of those who support it. been in Sandbach for over 1000 As we know there are no years. Its foundation date is not government grants, no money known so the anniversary of the from central church funds to keep laying of the foundation stone will it going and only a very small pass us by with no ceremony. proportion of these costs come One of the great features of from fees charged for, weddings English life is the presence of the and funerals. The church is here parish church at the heart of any today because of the generosity of community. It's one of the things its regular congregation and well- we take for granted as everyone wishers in the local community. assumes that it always will be Archbishop William Temple once there. said that "the Church is the only One of the great privileges of organization which exists being a town parish church is that principally for the benefit of non- of being available to the whole members", and the financial community - for baptisms, support of the parish church is an weddings and funerals, as the excellent demonstration of this. focus of local commemorations Many people who are glad to use and celebrations. Yet it should the church forget what they owe to also be there for those who want those who have ensured its space to be quiet, to think or to preservation down the years and pray. We try to open the church those who valiantly maintain it in during the daylight hours during their own time. the summer on an ad hoc basis. It In the ten years of my is certainly left open for visitors all incumbency we have spent several afternoon on Sundays. For our thousand pounds on various parish church stands firmly in the schemes associated with the tradition - that it is the church for buildings. As we know too well everyone in the community the most pressing issue facing us whenever they need it. remains the chapel and vestry re- What people often forget is that roofing - the fourth and last phase the parish church continues to be of the entire church which has

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been the major project over the Our thanks are due to all those past 15 years. Once completed, whose regular generous giving the roof will need no more keeps the church running week by attention for several generations, week, and to the wider fellowship perhaps the next century. Some of supporters who give to preserve of this money has been awarded, the fabric of St Mary's. We generously, through grants, some appreciate all the support we through legacies and some though receive, and hope for your reserves and special collections. continued and increased general However there are other pressing giving to the maintenance of the projects in the offing which will ministry of this parish. continue to need special funding for many of these. Thomas Shepherd - Vicar

Coffee Rota May 6th Joyce Griffiths and Lynne Winfield 13th Stella Craven and Christine Hirst 20th Aileen Higgs and Margaret Parry 27th Jim Thompson June 3rd Jean Richardson and Iris Kenilworth

Church Flowers May 6th In Memory of Mrs Halden 20th Mrs Marjorie Holdcroft 28th Mrs Joice Nixon Anyone wishing to provide the church flowers for other Sundays then please contact Sheenagh Ashworth on 01270 529187

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From the Registers Baptisms March 18th Miah Jane Oakes daughter of Timothy and Sarah

April 1st Hugh Joseph Ellis son of Ian and Joanne

Funerals March 26th James Bates (82) Jeffrey Forster (70)

April 6th Gillian Niblett (78) 10th Frankline Edward Anthony Taylor (66) 11th Roydon Thompson (80) 17th Frederick Dennis Hall (81) 20th Lucy May Singer (99)

Spring is here! There are plenty of events advertised this month both at Church and in the Town. Please support them when you can. I have included the Annual Report from the Churchwardens for your information. I will be including a more regular report from them throughout the year. There are plenty of photographs in this edition and the reproduction is not always as I would like it. However, you view them on the website in full colour. www.sandbachchurch.co.uk

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Sandbach Food Bank he Food Bank has been running since 2013 and we are T grateful for the continuing support of the churches and local people. Donations are made regularly of food items to allow us to make up parcels. We do however find ourselves running short of certain items from time to time. We are currently short of: coffee, sugar, UHT milk, long life Fruit juice, tinned meat, and tinned potatoes. We have seen an increase in demand recently. We also like to buy some fresh items to go with the packets and tins to provide a more balanced diet. These include bread, milk, cheese and eggs and for families with children some fruit. We have been lucky to be given some money via donations and a grant from Cheshire East. Our funds are however, getting low so we would ask if churches could consider making a donation towards this or if individuals want to make a donation or set up a standing order this would be appreciated. For more details on how to donate please email [email protected]

Deborah Darnes and Karen Foster Christian Aid Week 13-19 May olunteers from churches have collected house to house during V Christian Aid Week since it began more than 60 years ago. Together, our supporters delivered over six million envelopes last year. Each envelope delivered sends a message about Jesus’ love and justice. Every envelope delivered is act of witness, proclaiming Jesus’ good news to the poor.

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Churchwardens consider for the internal re- Yearly Report ordering of the church . Immediate Matters. We Every parish in the Architect: asked Adrian to immediately diocese is required to arrange a address the need to complete the Quinquennial Inspection of the work on the church roof. The church. This is to be carried out nave roof was dealt with in 2014- by an architect appointed from an 2015. We now need to carry out approved list of architects thorough repairs to the roofs of knowledgeable about the the two chapels and both vestries. particular characteristics of church Adrian is assisting myself, Anne buildings, especially Listed Birch, John Bottomley and Brian Buildings - St. Mary’s is listed in Day to put together a grant the highest grade. application to Our Heritage. The In 2017 John Carter resigned as estimated cost of all four roofs is our architect after many years of between £150,000 to £200,000. valuable service. I would like to Careful consideration of record here our thanks to him. priorities will be needed. From the approved list we Remembrance Garden. interviewed five applicants and Remembrance Garden. after discussion we appointed This year the path which winds its Adrian Pearson of Lloyd Pritchard way through the churchyard to Architects Ltd. a practice based in the Remembrance Garden was upgraded as it had become Manchester. dangerously narrow and slippery. Adrian has carried out an We are grateful to Brian Day and inspection of the building using his team for carrying this out. the last Quinquennial as a guide and is already working on a list of New Caretaker for the items needing attention. He is Hall. During the year we also considering the response to appointed Tim Muston to be the Questionnaire which many of caretaker of the hall. Nat and you completed recently and will Angela continue as church eventually present ideas for us to cleaners.

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Organist & Organ . Our their trailers. thanks again to Kevin for his Thursday Teas. We would patient work in building up the like to thank Thursday Teas for all choir and leading our music. their hard work. They provide a Even a sticking key on the organ much needed further source of is something he manages to income but we are aware there are disguise by clever finger work. several new outlets for The organ is old and increasingly refreshment in the town which prone to require expensive repair affects their income. work at frequent intervals. We The Vicar . On behalf of the must plan to replace it with a new whole parish I would like to thank and reliable instrument. This will our Vicar, Thomas, for his be another expensive matter. continued hard work, leadership Sidesmen and Women . and service not only to Anne and I would like to express churchgoers but also to the many our thanks to the Sidesmen and who come here looking for the Sideswomen who assist us in church’s ministry: in times of welcoming the congregation and sorrow and anxiety; when illness all the other duties they willingly or death occur in a family; and in undertake. times of joy such as Baptisms, Social Group. We would like Confirmations and Weddings. In Social Group. st to thank this group for the this 21 century when many fundraising they do for the church, people have little or no contact but we are aware that they are with the Church it is good to see finding it difficult to do as much as young people in particular being they have done in the past. made welcome. I think we all appreciate the way Thomas invites . Every year Garden Rubbish . couples to stand and "give us a a huge pile of grass clippings, twirl" and surely this helps them to leaves and other green matter feel welcome at St Mary’s. Let’s accumulates on the ground remember that we all have a part adjoining the hall. We are to play in making them feel at grateful to the Holdcroft family for home in God’s House. clearing this away with one of 7

Tickets: Adults: £9.50 Snr Citizens/Concessions: £8.00 School Children: £3.00 Family Ticket : £20.00 Doors Open 6.30 pm

Wednesday 30th May Soprano Anna-Clare Monk with Harpist Lauren Scott songs by Ivor Novello as well as opera favourites bbyy Puccini & Dvorak. and spotlight concert with local young musicians www.sandbach-concert-series.co.uk All concerts at 7pm in St Mary's Church Hall Tickets available from: on-line, Demeters Wholefoods (12 Welles St), Bramwells Opticians (4 Hightown) or on the door.

New ! Knit and Natter Group Starting on Wednesday 2nd May 2 till 4 pm Bring your knitting, sewing, crochet project along or some yarn and needles or hook and come along to the Choir Vestry to meet like minded people enjoying a knit, natter and refreshments. All Welcome. Any questions please contact Anne 01270 760778 or [email protected]

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Churchyard Maintenance he Community T Pay Back team do a splendid job throughout the year tidying up the churchyard. This involves cutting the grass during the summer, clearing all the leaves in autumn and cutting back the grass round every grave. The wide variation in the type of memorial grave, the leaning tombstones, and the healthy growth of the lime trees makes this a very complex task. This also produces large amounts of garden waste which far exceeds the capacity of the regular ‘brown bin’ resulting in the accumulation of a huge unsightly dump near the Northern approach path. Anyone recently using the path from the Crown Bank side will have noticed the vast improvement following the removal of this mound of garden waste. We are indebted to Marjorie Holdcroft who arranged for her son, David, to provide a farm trailer to remove the waste at no cost to the church. This took him three trips over three weeks bringing the trailer to the churchyard each week where parking is difficult at the best of times. Week one was well planned with all cones deployed defining the parking area, week

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two required Ann Birch to deter a car from parking at the end of the path and week three required exceptionally clever parking skills because a car had parked within the cones. Whilst it is easy to focus on the times when the grass looks uncut or when the leaves give rise to a slippery path, it is worth recognising the work undertaken throughout the year by the Community Pay Back Team together with the significant contribution made by Marjorie’s son to the upkeep of the churchyard. Our final thanks should also be recorded to Martin Colley who regularly sweeps the paths each week – only a fall of snow puts him off. Brian Day

Notes from the recent meeting of the PCC. The Architect will be visiting in late April Church Yard rubbish removal has been completed. Thanks to the Holdcroft's trailer and Andrew. The Bishop of Chester's visit was successful and three people were confirmed. Thanks for the £400+ for Petty Pool Charity. The new charity is the Railway Children Consideration is being given to recycling more items of waste from the Church Hall. The safeguarding policy is on the website as a statement of intent.

Be yourself ––– everyone else is taken

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AFTERNOON TEA St Mary's Church

To be held in St Mary's Church Hall Sandbach On Sunday 22nd July before Choral Evensong led by the Church Choir

4.30 – 6.00 pm

Tickets £6.00

Raffle

Proceeds to the Organ Fund

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Vending machines for homeless ending machines that can provide essentials such as water, V sandwiches, and warm socks to rough-sleepers 24 hours a day, are to be installed in several cities in the UK. The first machine was installed in Nottingham at the beginning of the year, and already Action Hunger, the charity behind it, has had requests from charities and shelters wanting to set ones up in Manchester, London and Brighton. The machines are accessible only by a key card, which is handed out to known homeless people in the community. There is a limit on each card of three items a day. The machines are regularly stocked by volunteers, and many of the items are given by organisations that seek to redistribute unwanted foods and reduce food waste. The vending machines dispense water, fruit, energy bars, crisps, chocolate, sandwiches, sanitary and hygiene products, socks and books. They are accessible 24 hours a day. Church bells will still ring out lanning policy is finally coming to the aid of church bells. No P longer will people who move into areas with ‘noisy’ church bells be able to complain and have them shut down. As the Secretary of State for Housing, Sajid Javid, recently said, ‘Churches have been part of British life in towns and villages for centuries. Their bells should not be silenced by new housing going up, which is why planning policy will be strengthened to ensure it will be up to developers building new properties nearby to identify and tackle noise problems.’ And so it is that under the new guidance, it will be up to developers to soundproof the homes they build near churches with bells, music venues, and community and sports clubs. The Church of England has welcomed the decision, pointing out that bell-ringing has been part of Christian worship for more than 1000 years. 12

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Looking through different eyes When I look at a patch of dandelions, I see a bunch of weeds that are going to take over the garden. My children see flowers for mummy and blowing white fluff you can wish on. When I look at an old drunk and he smiles at me, I see a smelly, dirty person who probably wants money and I look away. My children see someone smiling at them and they smile back. When I hear music I love, I know I can't carry a tune and don't have much rhythm so I sit self-consciously and listen. My children feel the beat and move to it. They sing out the words. If they don't know them, they make up their own. When I feel wind on my face, I brace myself against it. I feel it messing up my hair and pulling me back when I walk. My children close their eyes, spread their arms and fly with it, until they fall to the ground laughing. When I pray, I say thee and thou and grant me this, give me that. My children say, "Hi God! Thanks for my toys and my friends. Please keep the bad dreams away tonight. Sorry, I don't want to go to Heaven yet. I would miss my Mummy and Daddy." When I see a muddy puddle, I step around it. I see muddy shoes and dirty carpets. My children play in it. They see dams to build, rivers to cross and worms to play with. I wonder if we are given children to teach or to learn from? No wonder God loves the little children! Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.

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CREAM TEA IN THE GARDEN

Saturday 9th June

2 Moreton Close Sandbach

2.00 – 5.00 pm Raffle

Tickets £6.00 Come along with your friends and look around the beauful garden and then sit and enjoy a cream tea with a cup of tea or coffee. Proceeds to Church Funds

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Christmas Angels

nce again, thank you to all who knitted O angels during last year. At 6 am the Saturday before Christmas, over 900 were put around the town but I think it surprised many of us how quickly they were taken up by shoppers (some found an angel sitting on top of their milk bottle when they opened their door that morning). This year we hope to get more knitters and hence more angels to put out, so if you can help, please start knitting now and hopefully we will double the number. Please let me know if you need a pattern.

Katie Cavanagh 01270-760270 Churches Together

he current Outreach charity T is Railway Children which is based in Sandbach. They provide protection and opportunity for children with nowhere else to go and nobody to turn to. Every year thousands of children across the UK, India and East Africa run away or are forced to leave homes that have become unbearable through poverty, abuse, violence and neglect. Reaching a child as soon as possible is crucial to getting to children on the streets before an abuser can, and before they become entrenched in street life. They race to get to children before the streets get to them. www.railwaychildren.org.uk 16

Passion Play hurches C Together in Sandbach performed the Passion Play on Saturday 31st April, which was told in five acts using the medium of Dramatic Tableaux. The members of our congregation that performed were: Joan Plowman, Suzanne Mitchell, Katie Cavannagh, Irene Garner and Janet Hides.

Thanks to the Chronicle Series for the photographs.

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New way of giving nglican churches in the UK have been given the green light A to use contactless card payments for their collections, signalling an end to the rush to get loose change out of pockets. More than 16,000 churches, cathedrals, and religious sites will be allowed to use contactless payment terminals, the Church of England has announced. Forty congregations were equipped with handheld terminals to process contactless card payments up to the value of £30, last June, for a test trial of the scheme, which will now be extended across all dioceses. They are designed to be handed round with the collection plate during services and made available for retiring collections so that people can donate more easily. The machines can take payments from contactless and chip and pin bank cards, and Apple Pay and Google Pay on smartphones. A volunteer will be required to be the “merchant”, processing the payments and printing receipts, and a small transaction fee will be charged whenever the terminal is used, which will range from 1.1 to 1.25 per cent of the donation. The only drawback is that the church will need WiFi for the machines to operate. The C of E’s National Stewardship and Resources Officer, John Preston, said "The move is needed in a world where many of the congregation no longer carry change. How we pay for things is changing fast, especially for younger churchgoers, who no longer carry cash, and we want all genera ­tions to be able to make the most of their place of worship."

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From the Archives

his month we are on High Street, Sandbach looking at; Handy T Household, WH Smiths, CIRRO the vape store and Sunflowers cards in a picture taken a couple of years ago. I n bottom picture we go back 47years! to 1971 when we had; the CO-OP, Ministry and Pensions and National Insurance (empty) F.W.Woolworths and Co., Craft Cleaners and Goodwin’s the bakers in this part of town. Stephen Minshull 19

St Mary’s Social Committee

Saturday 9th June Afternoon Tea Howard's Garden

Sunday 15th July Summer Lunch

Saturday 3rd September Pudding Evening

Saturday 3rd November Autumn Fair

Sunday 2nd December Christmas Lunch

Come along and bring your friends to these events.

Tickets will be advertised in the magazine and on the pew sheets.

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6th May Rogation Sunday ogation means an asking of God - for blessing on the seed and R land for the year ahead. It is appropriate in any emergency, war, plague, drought or foul weather. The practice began with the Romans, who invoked the help of the gods Terminus and Ambarvalia. In those days a crowd moved in procession around the cornfields, singing and dancing, sacrificing animals, and driving away Winter with sticks. They wanted to rid the cornfields of evil. Rogation-tide arrived in England early in the eighth century, and became a fixed and perennial asking for help of the Christian God. On Rogation-tide, a little party would set out to trace the boundaries of the parish. At the head marched the bishop or the priest, with a minor official bearing a Cross, and after them the people of the parish, with schoolboys and their master trailing along. Most of them held slender wands of willow. At one point beer and cheese would be waiting. In the days when maps were neither common nor accurate, there was much to be said for ‘beating the bounds’ - still very common as late as the reign of Queen Victoria. Certainly parish boundaries rarely came into dispute, for everyone knew them.

(Do you know yours today?)

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Tuneful Places Austria - usually sung to one of the following, and the German National Anthem: Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion, city of our God. He whose Word cannot be broken formed thee for His own abode…. Praise the Lord! Ye heavens, adore him; praise him, angels, in the height; sun and moon, rejoice before him, praise him, all ye stars and light…...

omposed by Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809). He was C recruited at age 8 to the sing in the choir at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, where he went on to learn to play violin and keyboard. Haydn is remembered as the first great symphonist and the composer who essentially invented the string quartet. The principal engineer of the classical style, Haydn exerted influence on the likes of Mozart and his student Ludwig van Beethoven. In 1841, the German linguist August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote the lyrics of "Das Lied der Deutschen" as a new text for the tune, counter posing the national unification of Germany to the eulogy of a monarch, lyrics that were considered revolutionary at the time. Upon German reunification in 1990, only the third stanza was confirmed as the current national anthem: Germany, Germany above all, Above all in the world, When, for protection and defence, It always stands brotherly together. From the Meuse to the Neman, From the Adige to the Belt, Germany, Germany above all, Above all in the world! 22

mother and young daughter, who A lived in a rural village, were on a first outing to a big city together. On arriving at the hotel where they were staying, they stood in the foyer gazing at the ornate door of an impressive lift. “What do you reckon that door is for?” asked the daughter. Before her mother could reply, a rather scruffy old man walked up, pressed the button, got into the lift and the door closed. A minute later the door opened and a very handsome young man stepped out. With a disbelieving look, the mother said to her daughter, “We'll bring your father next time."

he church rambling group were hopelessly lost, in spite of T being led by a self-assured leader who regularly said he knew the area very well. Some of the people in the group became edgy and mumbled some criticism for being led astray. One of them said, with a touch of sarcasm, “I thought you said you were the best guide in Cheshire!" He replied, “I am quite sure I am, but I think we are in Staffordshire now.”

wo paramedics were asked to visit a Rev Thompson, a retired T elderly vicar, after being told he lived on his own and was becoming somewhat forgetful and disorientated. They decided to take him to the hospital for evaluation. On the way there, as they weaved through the traffic with the blue light flashing occasionally, they questioned the man to determine his level of awareness. One of them said, “Tell me Mr Thompson, do you know what we're doing right now?" The old man slowly looked up, gazed out of the ambulance window, and replied, “I’d say about sixty-five, possibly seventy.”

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CHURCH OFFICIALS Vicar The Revd. Thomas Shepherd 762379 [email protected] Churchwardens Sheenagh Ashworth 529187 Anne Birch 760778 Sacristan John Percival 765700 PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL (PCC) OFFICERS PCC Secretary Aileen Higgs 760149 Treasurer Roger Cooke 762118 Covenants/Gift Aid Aileen Higgs 760149 OTHER CONTACTS Organist Kevin Birch 760778 [email protected] Bells John Austin 764851 Mervyn Stubbs 762516 Church Flowers Sheenagh Ashworth 529187 Church Hall Sylvia Watkins 767386 [email protected] Baptisms and Weddings Please Contact The Vicar in Church on Sundays 5 pm to 6 pm to make the necessary arrangements.

Challenge is edited by John Bottomley. If you or your organisation have reports of events that have already happened, progress updates of continuing projects, or any other items to be published in the maga- zine, please contact me by: tel: 01270 768744 e-mail: [email protected] Articles must be received by Sunday 20th May More information is also available on the web-site: www.sandbachchurch.co.uk 24