This year again our Churches are pleased to be able to host our HARVEST LUNCH at Mere & Tabley Community Club on Sunday October 5th 2025—12.30 for 1pm Tickets £25 Donations for the raffle would be most appreciated Please contact Lyn Greenway 01565 733680 to book your place and let us know of any dietary needs. Please note we do need to hear from you by September 26th, as numbers are limited and we need to confirm with our caterers. We do hope you will be able to join us for this happy occasion.
Dear friends Next week I will be going to Canterbury for another session of my Icon painting course. I started Icon painting back in 2018 when I attended a week course in Canterbury and created an Icon of St Mildred who was an 8th-century Anglo Saxon abbess of the Abbey at Minster-in-Thanet, Kent. She was declared a saint after her death, and later her remains were moved to Canterbury. I find that Icon painting, or writing, is very reflective and enables me to dwell on what God is wanting to say to me, and it also helps me to ‘switch off’ and stop thinking about work and instead concentrate on the process of creating an Icon. When you paint an Icon, it is always interesting to note the strange colours that are used to create the image. In the Icon of St Mildred, the base colour of her robe is a rather bright Red which is then covered by three different shades of green which sounds as though it would not work, and when painting it it is a rather shocking experience, but at the end the effect – I think – is quite lovely. This made me think about how we as a church are made up. We are all different and on the surface it would appear that some of us should not get along with others. However, all of us are needed to create the beauty that is in the Church. All of our talents are required to build the Kingdom of God here on earth. If any of the colours were missed off the Icon then the image would be in complete. For example on Mildred’s face there, under the final wash of Egg Tempera (paint), is a startling bright red placed on the cheeks – rather like the makeup of a Dame in a pantomime, there is also a very green wash around her neck and around the outline of her face – this really makes the image look very ghoulish. However, once the final wash of tempera (this is what the paint is called) is applied this resolves itself into the warmth of a human’s skin. Again reminding us all that we each complement each other, and that much of the work of the Church is done in the background where nobody notices what has been undertaken, but that work is vital to the outreach of the church as without that work the Church would not be whole, and rather like the Icon without the garish makeup we would be left with a death mask Icon which would not enable people to contemplate their place in the world. Taking time out of our busy world is also vitally important, not just holidays, but spiritual retreats where we can recharge our batteries, we can rediscover God acting in our lives and we can come back to undertake God work with more en ergy and focus. I leave you with an image of the completed Icon of St Mildred, so that you too can contemplate the place of God in your lives. I have also included my latest completed Icon of St Christopher. The St Christopher Icon is based on a medieval statue of St Christoper at Norton Priory Museum and Gardens, Runcorn, where I used to work. I am currently working on a large tryptic of The Nativity. Yours in Christ Robert Dear Friends From the Vicarage Thank you Many thanks need to go to many people for all the work that goes on around the four churches, but special thanks must be given for work during August. Thank you to the team who cleaned Rostherne church in preparation for the Brass Band Concert. Thank you to Andrew Riley for arranging the Brass Band Concert at Rostherne, for Mere Brass Band, for those who attended and those who provided all the lovely food – such a lovely evening. Thank you also to Richard Winward for his amazing repairs to the gate between Rostherne church grounds and the car park, the gate now looks fantastic. Thank you to the lovely builders who have been working hard at rebuilding the church yard wall at Over Tabley – when you look at the size of the stones that they have had to move!!! A lovely job, and really well done. Thank you to those who cleaned Over Tabley Church. Thank you to everybody for all that you do to keep our lovely churches up and running – without your work behind the scenes then the church would fail. Robert
Coffee and Chat 10.30 - 12.00Just drop in or stay longer. Wednesday 10th September at St Paul’s Church For further information, contact Judy Hancock : 01565 733246 or email annhancock60@hotmail.com
St. Mary’s4th June 2025Internment of Ashes—Vivien Ann Sutcliffe aged 87St Mark’s9th June 2025Internment of Ashes—Colin Pendlebury
