APRIL £1 £ 2021 £1 suggested donation amount FF or £10 annual cost for guaranteed delivery to your door – ST. MARY’S Joyful Easter reading! MAGAZINE WHAT IS IN THIS ISSUE RIC’S letter, weekly readings! MEET members of the PRETTY Ugly Poem! Magazine Distributor’s team – Our Featured Article JAQI AND BILL YATES! HANDBRIDGE in the Round! COMPETITION! JULIAN GROUP! NEWS & Notices! LILY Appeal thanks! OVERLEIGH ST MARY’S APCM 25th April! SCHOOL News! BOOK of Remembrance April WHAT’S ON at St Mary’s! Pages! PUZZLES – for all ages! LETTERS & Thoughts! TESTING TIMES poem! Marathon runners with bad footwear suffer the agony of defeat. ERNEST W. EDGE & SON GREEN LANE VETERINARY CENTRE 54-56 Handbridge – Tel: 675156 5 Green Lane, Off Lache Lane, High Class Butchers. Local beef, lamb, pork, venison and chicken. Chester CH4 8LS Also fine cheeses, pates, cooked meats and Tel: 01244 683858 now home cooked pies. Consultation by Appointment RCVS Accredited Practice HANDBRIDGE PHARMACY www.greenlanevets. 7/9 Handbridge – Tel: 683454 Gordon & Staff welcome you to your local community Pharmacy. All prescriptions dispensed - prescription COMPUTER SUPPORT collection & delivery service available for the elderly & All your computer problems can be solved here the housebound. Full range of medicines, vitamins, homeopathic and with a fast & expert service by our friendly staff. aromatherapy treatments + medical & surgical goods, Visit our Service Centre toiletries and baby goods at 100 Boughton, Chester, CH3 5BP Tel: 01244 566280 for free estimates, SAMANTHA WILD HAIRDRESSING home visits and advice 58 Handbridge – Tel: 677557 www.computersupportchester.co.uk Our team is dedicated in keeping up with the latest styles and trends to provide you with a first class service. Call in for a free consultation and to ask about our latest offers. BROWN SUGAR Handbridge Coffee Shop with Internet Terminals & Free Wi-Fi Come in and enjoy our fabulous coffee, home-made cakes and freshly made food! Tel: 01244 683386 DOORSTEPS of HANDBRIDGE www.brownsugarinternetcafe.co.uk Tel: 675656 or 07889 021033 QUALITY SANDWICHES, HOME MADE SOUP, JACKET POTATOES Business UNIFORMITY CLOTHING LIMITED Lunches, Sandwich Platters, 22-26 Handbridge Party Catering and Hot Buffets. Tel: 01244 680187 www.acateredaffair.co.uk (Contact Mike) Call in for *Clothing Alterations *Schoolwear *Embroidery *Transfers *Leisurewear HOST FAMILIES REQUIRED We are looking for caring host families in this area HANDBRIDGE LAUNDRETTE for students from Italy and Spain aged 13-18 35 Handbridge, Chester throughout the year for 1 – 2 week stays *Service washes *Duvets £21 per student per night inc. bed & breakfast, packed lunch and evening meal. *Dry Cleaning *Ironing Up to three students per family. For more Tel: 01244 681009 information ring Susan Jones 07830 096900. Safeguarding Policy R. FODEN LTD St Mary’s, Handbridge takes its duty and obligation to 4 High St. Saltney protect all extremely seriously. We have adopted the Tel. 680224 – Mob 07973 661095 national Church of England’s robust procedures and High class custom made joinery inc. doors guidelines. Read about the policies and procedures & windows in hard/softwood. at www.churchofengland.org/safeguarding If you or Frames, Staircases & Conservatories. anyone you are in contact with would like to talk with (Guild of Master Craftsmen & FENSA reg.) someone independently, please call e-mail:[email protected] the Safe Spaces helpline on 0300 303 1056 or website:www.fodenjoinery.co.uk email [email protected]. COMPUTER TUTOR Alternatively, you may contact our Parish Safeguarding Tel: 01244 539507 Mobile: 07539 422 673 Officer Peter Dove or the Diocesan Safeguarding Complete beginners welcome Adviser in the Diocese of Chester, via email or No request is too small. We come to you. phone: 07703 800031. Lessons tailored specifically to your needs Business training also available Do not delay - get online and train today! www.pctrainline.co.uk Email: [email protected] What is a smile? It’s when you laugh in a whisper LETTER from Rector Ric Letting the Light in at Easter As this month's magazine lands in letterboxes the feast of Easter is upon us. It is, thankfully, an Easter we can share a part of in person, as well as from our homes. It is an Easter we can mark by looking backwards towards Easter 2020, and forwards towards possibilities of renewal. What we mark at the feast of resurrection at Easter isn't renewal as a blank slate, but something far more interesting, and intimate. The newness that Christ's resurrection offers does not wipe out all that has been. It seeks to set all things in a new configuration: it does not deny or pretend wounds do not exist, including the difficulties of the last 12 months, but proposes to us that scars and memories of difficulty and grief are also places of hope and grace and renewal. Easter promises to make more of who we are than we otherwise could have done ourselves. And it does this by reminding us that the love we witnessed go towards death remains powerfully with all, especially with those who don't feel particularly powerful. When I look back over the year since Easter 2020 I want to be able to hold the difficult realities of what has been, and acknowledge the times when (to borrow from some famous lyrics attributed to Leonard Cohen) "the cracks...let the light in". For some in our community, that light has come in the faces and gifts of those volunteering in one of our area’s mutual aid schemes, for others prayer ribbons and finding space to pray, and still others being able to participate in services with St Mary's from their homes (whether those homes are nearby or in other time zones altogether). The moniker "Together Apart", used across our services tries to sum up our commitment to broaden the ways St Mary's is with people in our parish and locality. The love we receive, that showed us the light in the cracks, whilst we remain "Together Apart" can, I hope, move us "without the walls" again in the 50 days of Easter and beyond. Let's mark Easter by not ignoring the cracks, but testifying joyfully to the light we've encountered and the new life it brings on Easter Day. Ric Weekly Bible Readings First Reading Psalm Second Reading Gospel 4th April 2021 Either Acts 10:34-43 Either Psalm 118: Either 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 Either John 20:1-18 EASTER DAY Or Isaiah 25:6-9 1-2. 14-24 Or Acts 10:34-43 Or Mark 16:1-8 Or Psalm 118:14-24 11th April 2021 Either Acts 4:32-35 Psalm 133 Either 1 John 1:1 – 2:2 John 20:19 - end Second Sunday of Easter Or Exodus 14:10-end; Or Acts 4:32-35 15:20-21 18th April 2021 Either Acts 3:12-19 Psalm 4 Either 1 John 3:1-7 Luke 24:36b-48 Third Sunday of Easter Or Zephaniah 3:14-end Or Acts 3:12-19 25th April 2021 Either Acts 4:5-12 Psalm 23 John 10:11-18 Either 1 John 3:16-end Fourth Sunday of Easter Or Genesis 7:1-5. Or Acts 4:5-12 11-18; 8:6-18; 9:8-13 FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK Dear Readers, Considering we feel that ‘little has been happening’, the days do seem to fly by (WHAT? 2pm already?) By the time you are reading this we will have ‘sprung forward’ with the hour change, evenings will be increasingly longer and Spring is, well, springing! We are so lucky to have our Featured Article being a walk and treasure hunt around Handbridge sent in by Derek Jones, who lives in the area. He has teamed up with Sarah Corfe, a local artist. READ ALL ABOUT IT! Stuart Bull has send me this picture of his magnificent camellia. I was handed one down from my mother’s old home – a tree which was over 100 years old. Sadly it died on my watch in some terrible winter frosts. I still feel sad about it so particularly love this pic of a thriving Camellia. Stuart also sent this sponge throwing picture to remind us of those Old Days when St Mary’s Garden Party was in full throttle. Here we see the Shaplands (I may be wrong, is it? Or not?!) having a go – sponge in mid-air! And talking of Gardens… 3rd April, Easter Saturday, is the next ‘Come-Along-to-Help-Do- The-Church-Grounds’ session ensuring everywhere will be looking ticketty boo for Easter Day. Details in the News and Notices page. Thanks to Linda Shuttleworth for sending in this intriguing newspaper headline from The Guardian (I am guessing!) So please to feel free to send in articles, jokes, recipes, memories, photos for the magazine. I am delighted to have a variety and will squeeze contributions in whenever I can! Keep Safe, Keep Healthy and Keep SMILING! Catherine Pretty Ugly by Abdullah Shoaib There are 2 ways to read this incredible poem, both are so powerful Sent in by Wendy Gorman I'm very ugly So don't try to convince me that I am a very beautiful person Because at the end of the day I hate myself in every single way and I am not going to lie to myself by saying There is beauty inside of me that matters So rest assured I will remind myself that I am a worthless, terrible person and nothing you say will make me believe I still deserve love, Because no matter what I am not good enough to be loved and I am in no position to believe that beauty does exist within me, because whenever I look in the mirror, I always think Am I as ugly as people say? (now read from the bottom up) Our Featured Article by Derek Jones Handbridge in the Round Handbridge, the historic village community nestled ‘outwith’ the City Walls See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone.