Dear friends, I was looking back at my letter last April when we were at the start of the very first lockdown. At that time I described how I felt that my heart was breaking with the church being closed, my school being closed and being unable to hug and be with family and friends. Now, we are hopeful that we are moving forward. We will be, God willing, worshipping in church on Easter Day and on the road out of Lock down. We have been and continue to go through devastating times with the loss of life and the loss of things we have always taken for granted like being close to people, eating a meal with friends and giving a hug but there is hope. As Christians, we have moved from the devastation of Good Friday and become Easter People – People of Hope I love the Easter Story, the women in the garden first thing, Peter`s encounter with Jesus following his denial and the two men walking with Jesus on the road to Emmaus One of my favourite exchanges is between Jesus and Mary Magdalene on Easter morning. You all know how much I love Mary. She was with the last people at the cross and she is first there on Easter morning. Whilst the disciples had fled and hidden away, she had shown up. She does not know where the body has gone from the tomb and sees Jesus but thinks he is the gardener. He then says “Mary” and she immediately knows its Jesus. She reaches to him. What a heart stopping moment after the horror of Good Friday. Jesus calls Mary by name. It echoes the words in Isaiah, “ Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name and you are mine.” That applies to each of us. We are called by name and we are God`s. We are loved with an everlasting and unconditional love. God, in Jesus loves his church but he loves each of us as individuals. He calls us each by name. Mary wanted to hug and hold onto Jesus like she had done before but Jesus says she must not hold onto him. We can empathise with Mary`s desire and how she must have felt not to have been able to. Mary then ran to the disciples “ I have seen the Lord.” Mary Magdalene the apostle to the apostles” The early apostles turned the world upside down – I pray that we will have the desire to do likewise. Perhaps be more like Jesus and break the rules. I pray that you all continue to stay safe, that you will continue to reflect on how incredibly loved you are and to continue to live in the hope of the resurrection – remembering as Christians we are people of the resurrection in a Good Friday world.. Love Christina
Dear friends You know by now my fascination with “The Repair Shop.” You will be pleased to know, that for Christmas, I was bought a copy of the book based on the series. In it, you learn in more detail about the background to the various items that feature in the series. The first chapter related to a pump organ that was brought over from Jamaica by Vera Mackenzie who was emigrating to join her husband Mac. Over time the organ was a comfort as the family were homesick and faced unimaginable racism. The expert ensured that the organ was restored and could be treasured for generations to come. When Vera and Mac died, their daughter received a message “You will only die when every person you have ever known has died.” This particularly struck me as I read it on the 19th January, the day when 1610 people died after testing positive for Covid. I worked out that even if you just said out loud the 1st and last names of these people, it would take you just under 25 minutes to finish. Sometimes we see these figures as statistics but each person is loved and will have left family and friends who are heartbroken. In my article last February I mentioned Nadia Bolz Weber who is a Lutheran Pastor and over the summer I reread one of her books “Accidental Saints”. In it she writes about Ash Wednesday, which heralds the start of Lent and this year falls on 17th February. Usually at our Ash Wednesday Service there is the imposition of ashes to the forehead with the words “Remember that you are dust and to dust you will return, turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ.” Nadia writes, “Here`s my image of Ash Wednesday. If our lives were a long piece of fabric with our baptism on one end and our funeral on another and we don`t know the distance between the two, then Ash Wednesday is a time when that fabric is pinched in the middle and the ends are held up so that our baptism in the past and our funeral in the future meet. And in that meeting we are reminded of the promises of God. That we are God`s, that there is no sin, no darkness and yes no grave that God will not come to find us in and love us back to life.” Words I am holding onto at the moment. God is present at the moment we enter the world and the moment we leave it. With love, prayers and blessings Christina
National lockdown 3 and the closure of Great Budworth Church (and Arley Chapel)Unlike the first and second national lockdowns, during which churches and other places ofworship had to close for public worship, this third lockdown has allowed choice, with anexemption for communal worship, funerals and weddings (the last under exceptionalcircumstances only).After consultation however with all members of the Ministry Team and the StandingCommittee of the PCC, and following the Plough Service on Sunday 10 th , which was attendedby only a very few parishioners (and a couple of local visitors) we have decided to close thechurch for public worship for the time being, in line with many other churches locally andnationally. In making this very difficult decision, we have been very conscious of the anxietyand concern of many regular parishioners, and the worsening situation in the North Westwith regard to Covid-19 infections. We know this will be a disappointment to some but weare very conscious of our responsibilities in terms of public health and adherence to thegovernment’s guidelines and advice. Please however be assured that online services willcontinue, on a weekly basis from now on, as will the distribution electronically of theSunday Sheet. And we will of course be reviewing this situation after the next governmentannouncements in mid-February. The church will however remain open for private prayeron Sundays only, from 11am to 4pm, for local visitors.We have also made the decision to suspend communal worship at St Mary’s Chapel, ArleyHall for the time being. This will also be reviewed in February.Please be assured of our continuing thoughts and prayers for you all at this very worryingand stressful time. If you’d like to speak to any of us please do not hesitate to contact us.The Revd Alec Brown and the Ministry Team.12 th January, 2021.
On one of my pre-Christmas walks around the Parish I met and chatted with a parishioner, as often happens, and during the conversation she said that, although it wasn’t a good idea to wish time away, she would be very glad to see the back of 2020! I can only imagine that her sentiments will have been shared with countless others throughout our Parish, communities and country! I have resisted the impulse to go back to the Parish Magazines of December 2019 and January 2020 to see what I had written, suspecting rather harmless generalities and so on, before just about everything changed – but in my defence, could any of us have seen Coronavirus and lockdowns and everything else coming? What a year it has been, and it is true to say that Covid-19 has affected all of us and every aspect and area of life as we know it in a way that has simply not happened before, at least not in our lifetimes. In different ways we have all had to get to grips with and get our heads around what has been an unprecedented time in the life of the country, and of course the Church. I’m sure I don’t need to remind readers that the last time churches were closed for public worship (as far as I know) was at the beginning of the 13th Century, during the dispute between King John and the Pope! We have of course learnt to adapt, to change and to cope as best we can with the challenges and demands of the pandemic and, in spite of the suffering and loss and pain that we have all been through (and continue to go through) I think we have, as individuals, as communities and as members of the Church, emerged stronger and more resilient and adaptable than we perhaps ever thought we were capable of doing. We enter then this new year with all sorts of emotions and feelings and thoughts – of sadness for the past of course but also of thanksgiving for all the positives of the last year (an elderly veteran, a certain footballer and Thursday night claps come to mind straight away), as well as <span style="font-size: 1rem;">hope for the future in relation to the development of the Coronavirus vaccine. But also I think of a quiet confidence and trust in God’s providential care and love, and in God’s great faithfulness towards us, even and perhaps especially in the darkest of times. You will I’m sure all be familiar with that beautiful story entitled “Footprints” – in the most difficult of times, when we may have felt abandoned by God, yet we were in fact being carried by God. The message of the angels, celebrated by us all at Christmas in the birth of the Messiah, is as powerful and hopeful now as it was 20 centuries ago – Emmanuel – God with us – now and always.</span> May God bless each one of us in this coming month and in this New Year, whatever it brings! The Revd Alec Brown.
