February 2021 Vol.128 No.1562 Price 50p The Parish Magazine of All Saints’ Parish Church, Cheadle Hulme INFORMATION PAGE SUNDAY SERVICES FRIDAY CLUB 8.00am Holy Communion (2nd in month) Fortnightly meetings on Friday evening 10.00am Parish Eucharist usually in the Meeting Room at 7.30pm. 6.30pm Evensong Open to women of all age groups. Chairman is Lily Mitchelhill (485 5187) Secretary is Julia Ball (440 8647) WEEKDAY SERVICES Holy Communion JAMES GROUP Thursday 10.00am. The James Group exists to encourage the Holy Days to be announced. Church’s ministry of healing, and the practice of regular intercession for the sick. Matins The branch meets monthly to say an Office Daily at 9.00am. of Intercession: there is also a monthly Corporate Communion. For further information CONFESSION AND SPIRITUAL please contact: The Secretary: Pat Yates COUNSELLING (485 4546). By arrangement with the Clergy. BIBLE READING FELLOWSHIP ARRANGEMENTS Secretary: Mrs Julia Ball (440 8647). FOR BAPTISMS, BANNS AND WEDDINGS UNIFORMED ORGANISATIONS Cubs: (7th Cheadle Hulme) Meet on a Friday All enquiries to Rev’d Janet Bacon 6.30pm - 8.00pm at Thorn Grove. (485 3455). Andrew Thompson MOTHERS’ UNION email:[email protected] Corporate Communion 10.00am on the Beavers: (7th Cheadle Hulme) 2nd Thursday in Church. D etails of all Meet on a Friday 6.00pm - 7.15pm in the meetings are in Saints Alive and weekly Parish Rooms. Mrs J. Metcalfe notices. See Notice Board. [email protected] MENS’ SOCIETY Brownies: (11th Cheadle Hulme) Monthly meetings on the 1st Thursday, Meet on a Monday 6.00pm - 7.15pm at September to May, at 7.30pm in the Thorn Grove. Meeting Room. Jo Taylor Chairman: Mr Bradley Torbitt (486 9387). [email protected] Secretary : Mr Mike Parry (485 7886). Rainbows: (2nd Cheadle Hulme) Meet on a Monday 6.00pm - 7.00pm New BeginningVs: icar’s Letter We are one month into the new year and it has already proved to be eventful. We are in a nother Lockdown, America has seen a riot against the Capitol building and a new Vicar has arrived at All Saints! To introduce myself, I am Sarah Hancock. I originate from a little village called Hoylake on the Wirral. All my life I have attended church but it was aged 11 that I made the d ecision to follow Jesus for myself. I have had the kind of walk with God which has been amazing and also difficult but it has always been an adventure. An adventure to see where life would take me, such as moving from Hoylake to Watford to do a gap year at a church. To staying in said church for 11 years despite saying I would only stay for a year! It was at this church, Soul Survivor Watford, that I felt called by God to explore being ordained. The next adventure was to move to Cambridge to study at Ridley Hall and then to serve my curacy at St Francis Church, Luton. Then from there the adventure brought me to All Saints! Through these adventures there has been the need for many new beginnings. To begin in a new church, a new village or town, to make new friends, to find a new coffee shop or how to figure out the heating system in your now, new house. I draw comfort from our reading this week from the Gospel of Mark where Jesus is baptised. Jesus had to have a new beginning. A beginning like all of us on our journey with God, a baptism. A beginning, a marking of a new start. So this week I mark the beginning of the next chapter in the life of All Saints. I look forward to seeing what adventures God takes us on as a church. Perhaps our new beginning will be to find out more about this God, or perhaps our new beginning will be to talk to God, or to read some of the Bible we haven’t read recently or before. As well as that adventure on the journey I have been on to get to you here, here are some other things about your new vicar. I have a lovely Cockapoo doggy called Maggie. She is named after Dame Maggie Smith the actress which gives a nod to my love of a period drama, especially Downton Abbey. I love coffee and so do let me know which are the good coffee shops in Cheadle Hulme and I will explore them once Lockdown has ended. I look forward to meeting you as and when we can once Lockdown has lifted but for now I will wave from a distance and say hello on Zoom! Sarah COPY DEADLINE FOR MARCH - FEBRUARY 6TH ALL COPY TO THE EDITOR PLEASE 1 Some Photos From Sarah's Induction 2 Open Doors welcomes Fiona Bruce as Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion Fiona Bruce, MP for Congleton, has recently been appointed as the new Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB). Bruce has long been a supporter of the work of Open Doors, including attending the World Watch List parliamentary launch, visiting an Open Doors exhibition highlighting t he plight of Yzidi women in Iraq, and regularly raising the issue of persecuted believers to the House of Commons. She said: “My post will be placed at the service of some of the most vulnerable people across the world.” She listed just some of the “continuing large scale horrors taking place “such as those against Uighur Muslims in China, Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and Yazidis in Iraq. She agreed with “the late and m uch respected former Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks” when he had stated: ‘the persecution of Christians throughout much of the Middle East, sub-Saharan A frica and Asia, and elsewhere, is one of the crimes against humanity of our time. These are some of the most deeply concerning issues of our generation, on which it will be a privilege to engage as Special Envoy, both nationally and internationally.” Fiona Bruce has been a friend of Open Doors for many years, and is “a real champion for freedom of religion and belief,” says Henrietta Blyth, CEO of Open Doors UK and Ireland. Celebrating 75 years of the RSV Version The Revised Standard Version of the New Testament was published 75 years ago, on 11th February 1946. It was the first major English-language update of the Bible since the King James version published in 1611. The RSV Old Testament followed in 1952 and the Apocrypha in 1957. The translation was a revision of the American Standard Version of 1901 and was intended to be a readable and accurate modern English translation. A ceremony to commemorate the publication of the New Testament was held in Columbus, Ohio, with the translation team saying they wanted it to supplement the ASV and not supplant it. The RSV New Testament was mostly well received, but the Old Testament, which made use of Dead Sea Scrolls material, less so. One objection centred on the translation of a Hebrew word in Isaiah as ‘young woman’ instead of ‘virgin’, which was said to distort a basic Christian truth and encouraged many to go back to the King James Bible. Some opponents went further, calling it a “master stroke of Satan”. One Southern pastor burned a copy with a blowtorch in his pulpit. The controversy may have paved the way for the now widely used and virginal New International Version, introduced in 1978. 3 How Firm a Foundation St Mary Woolnoth is a parish church in the City of London, it stands just a stone’s throw from the Bank of England. Built in 1727, St Mary’s occupies the site of previous churches going back to Anglo-Saxon times. Among the long list of incumbents one name stands out - John Newton, former slave trader turned preacher and author of “Amazing Grace”, was Rector from 1779 until his death in 1807. He was a powerful preacher, people came from far and wide to hear him; a gallery had to be installed in the church to accommodate the numbers. Newton was devoted to his wife, Polly; when she died in 1790 she was buried in the crypt of St Mary’s. When he too died in 1807 he was buried beside her and there they rested in peace. But not for long, in 1893 the City and South London Electric Railway Company wanted to gain access to the site, to build stairs and lifts for its Bank station below the church. St Mary’s was scheduled for demolition but there was a public outcry and the church was saved. Instead, the railway company bought the crypt; their engineers excavated the ground beneath the church, supporting the structure on steel girders. The work was completed successfully, the stairs and lifts for the station were installed, while the church stood undisturbed above; it is said there wasn’t even a crack in the plaster. St Mary’s Woolnoth is still in use for worship today, in the heart of the Square Mile, a witness to faith amongst the steel and stone of commerce. But what about those who had lain at rest in the crypt? Most were taken and reburied with dignity at Ilford in Essex, outside the city. The remains of John Newton and Polly were exhumed, transported with care to Olney in Buckinghamshire, and reburied, with a lasting memorial stone, next to the church where John had begun his ministry in 1764. It remains eternally true that “the Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord”, but St Mary Woolnoth’s earthly foundations are a few steel beams and an Underground station.