The Messenger Parish Magazine of St Michael and All Angels, Middlewich with St John the Evangelist, Byley Rocky’s club in full swing Photo by Ian Bishop September 2010 50p Service plan for September 2010 5th September - the fourteenth Sunday after Trinity 9.15am Middlewich Communion 11am Middlewich All Age Communion (no Kingdom Kids) 11am Byley Morning Prayer 6.30pm Middlewich Evening Praise 12th September - the fifteenth Sunday after Trinity 9.15am Middlewich Communion 11am Middlewich Morning Praise (Kingdom Kids restarts) 11am Byley Communion 2.30 pm Middlewich Baptism 6.30pm Middlewich Evensong Tuesday Morning Coffee There is coffee served in No28 every Tuesday morning from 10.30 am after the weekly healing service. Come and chat and if you need prayer just ask. Please note that there is always an 8.00 am Communion on a Sunday morning and a 9.30 am Communion on a Thursday at St Michael’s Please turn the lights off! Please note it costs more than £2000 per week to run St Michael’s !!! 2 19th September - the fourteenth Sunday after Trinity World War II Weekend 8.00am Middlewich Communion 9.15am Middlewich Communion-Cancelled 11am Middlewich All Age Civic Service 11am Byley Morning Praise 6.30pm Middlewich Evening Praise 26th September - the seventeenth Sunday after Trinity 9.15am Middlewich Communion 11am Middlewich Morning Praise (including kids) 11am Byley Communion 2.30pm Middlewich Baptism 6.30pm Middlewich No Service 7.30pm Middlewich Café Church Saturday prayer meeting 1st Saturday in each month Starting 4th September at 8am in Number 28 To meet together to pray for guidance for the Parish representatives in their quest to employ a new Rector. St Michael’s is a properly registered charity, number 1127335 3 A letter from Ian What are we doing to our kids? As the parent of three teenage sons I wonder how on earth it got so hard for young people. When I was going through school I worked hard (at least from time to time) but not like my kids have to. I had far more time for other things than academic study, indeed I think I spent most of my teenage years either on the rugby or cricket field. Then I went to university and my education was paid for by the government and they even gave me a grant despite both my parents being professionals. After university I entered the world of work where there seemed to be a good selection of jobs to start me off in employment and I had no debt! That meant within a few years I was able to put a deposit down on a flat. Now you can argue that perhaps the whole process was a bit too generous but I now feel that things have swung back against young people. Many are deeply stressed by the academic expectations placed upon them. 44% didn’t make the grades they needed this year at A level. Not surprising when vast numbers of them were required to get straight A’s even for average courses at average universities. How many brilliant kids now think of themselves as failures? There is an expectation that many will go to university but then the places aren’t there (what sort of a crazy government fines colleges £3700 per student where colleges admit too many). It looks like around 200,000 young people won’t get a place this year, in- cluding many A and A* students. If they go out into the world of work there aren’t the jobs there used to be because of cutbacks. Many young people in their twenties have never done anything other than intern jobs to gain experience and bolster the CV (lets be honest this is essentially free labour!). They are saddled with debt, the average debt of a university leaver is now £25K. House prices are still way too high. The average age for someone buying their first home is now 31 (if they have parental help) 36 (if they don’t). A generation is growing up who simply aren’t able to live like my generation did. It’s hard to see why: The Government is cutting expenditure dramatically so all sorts of projects are going. In Middlewich we’ve already seen the new health centre put on hold—what next? The jobs will in time evaporate and the fear is that recession might well be just around the corner again. What effect will that have on our young people? Will there be any jobs for young people to take on? The scrapping of the “Future Jobs Fund” is lunacy. It was a great scheme that gave kids meaningful employment and a real sense of direction without affecting their benefits. The logic that says it is better for kids to sit around doing nothing rather than putting them to useful work escapes me. 4 I’m all for giving people the challenge of really fighting to achieve in life because you al- ways appreciate more what you’ve had to fight to get, but as a father I worry about the way our society is making life so hard for young people. What time bomb is ticking in terms of stress related illness, marriage breakdown, debt, alcohol dependency, child neglect and abuse, social and community disintegration be- cause we aren’t supporting the future generations properly? Jesus always put the wel- fare of children first according to the pattern of Mark 10. It’s about priorities in the way you think, and I fear that our children are dropping down the priorities list of our society. I suspect many of the young people don’t even realise how hard things have become for their generation, they after all have grown up with the expectation that it is normal to pay fees for university and normal to run up big debts and normal that they can’t afford to buy, and normal that they may join the ranks of the “inbetweeners” who have moved home after uni because they can’t afford to live. Nobody has adequately explained to me what has gone so wrong with the public fi- nances that many of the things we could afford as a nation in the 70’s and 80’s are now beyond the public purse to pay for. I try and stay out of politics and nothing I’ve said already should suggest that I’m criticis- ing either of the major parties particularly. I’m actually criticising all. The last Labour Government did some good for young people but mostly the rot set in there. The cur- rent coalition just hides behind the smokescreen that they can’t afford to help young people. Christians need to say, “please help our kids!” Help the young people whose family life has been a mess, help the troubled ones, help the gifted ones, help the unemployed, help the ones trying to deal with their debt, help the ones wanting to buy their first home, help the ones trying to make a go of marriage, help the ones starting families them- selves. Jesus example was to train the next generation. He gave time to the preparation of his disciples, and beyond them to a much wider group. All of us have a responsibility to provide those who follow us with the values, principles and experience they need to build a strong community. I fear that Government is finding that mentoring role hard to understand. You can’t just talk about the cost of education without comparing it with the cost of breaking our society further down the line. Please pray for the young people, it is so hard for them. The truth is you and I need them, or at least one day soon we will. Reverend Ian Bishop, rector of Middlewich and Byleyyleyyleyyley 5 Charity Golf Day If you know of anyone who would like to play in the Churches Charity Golf Day at Antrobus on Friday 10th September will you get in touch. We want to raise money for local hospices. It costs £35 each for which you get 27 holes of golf, coffee on arrival, lunch, and supper. We also need scorers on the day. Could you be available to help? Please speak to Ian or Alastair Griffith. World War 2 Festival September 18th and 19th St Michael’s will be one of the main sites for the WW2 commemoration week- end on 18th and 19th September. At a recent meeting it was decided that the theme will be “Pathway of Peace” and this will be portrayed by a prayer laby- rinth taking visitors on a tour of the Church, stopping at prayer stations to re- flect and pray. The Mother’s Union and some of the Home Groups have been asked to provide these prayer stations. In the Lady Chapel there will be books and a prayer wall for visitors to record memories, hopes and prayers for the future. The Sanctuary will provide another area for quiet prayer, deco- rated by our Flower Guild. Throughout the day there will be entertainment in- cluding “Vera Lynn” singer, Fiona Harrison and “George Formby”, Paul Cas- per. We want a “chat” session and are asking for members of our congrega- tion to come and tell us their stories of the war. Whether it’s serious or funny the topic doesn’t matter, we want the session to be interactive with visitors joining in if they wish. For this we want to mimic a 1940’s Living Room, so if you have any items of furniture that might help with this that we can borrow please let us know.