Heritage Day 2007

The weather was kind for a change today! With a blustery wind blowing. The refreshment tent did a brisk business and the tours around the church and graveyard were very popular with adults and children alike.

Punch and Judy kept everyone amused between the teddybears parachuting from the bell tower! Over 100 intrepid teddies took the plunge, some for charity and most landed without any mishap, although the wind carried some of the smaller ones onto the roof or the gargoyles where the 'rescues' proved nearly as entertaining as the jumps!

There will be other reports, but some pictures can be viewed in the Gallery

Shrek Weekend

Shrek is a green ogre and lives in a fairy tale. Ogres are quite used to being in fairy tales, but up till now they have always been the villains; they like to grind your bones to make their bread, and for this purpose they're particularly fond of Englishmen. Shrek is different. He is a good ogre, but you wouldn't know it at the beginning of the story. Because everyone is hostile to him, he lives alone in a smelly swamp, and even his friends have to admit he has some disgusting personal habits. Like an onion he has built layers round him of fear and suspicion.

Purely to preserve his privacy Shrek agrees to go on a quest for Lord Farquaad. He is to rescue the lovely Princess Fiona from a castle guarded by a fire-breathing dragon so that she can marry Farquaad , whereupon he will become a king.

Though Shrek is completely fearless he wouldn't have succeeded in his mission without the the help of a talking donkey who insists on coming with him. Donkeys as it happens are symbols of humanity and patience, and this donkey makes friends with everybody, especially the fire-breathing dragon. He also tells Shrek some home truths about love and loyalty and forgiveness. 'Friends forgive one another'. Shrek gets the princess and they ride away on their honeymoon in an onion-coach

And what about Prince Charming and his mother the Fairy Godmother? They may look nice, if a bit flashy, on the surface but they are up to no good. Their wicked schemes are frustrated in Shrek2, but they will be at it again in Shrek the Third, to be released this summer.

You may be a bit surprised to find Shrek in church this month. He's certainly not the churchgoing type and the only time so far that he has put in an appearance in church in his films was when he went to Dulac Cathedral to bust up the wedding of Fiona to Lord Farquaad. While they were at it, he and his pal the fiery dragon bust up a good deal of the cathedral as well.

But he and his friends (and enemies) remind us of some things which are important and need repeating – the most fundamental one is this: it is not what you look like on the outside that really matters it's what you're like on the inside. We worry about glamour and image, and perhaps give them far too much of our attention, but these are not the things that really matter in life. Small people want to be tall, and tall people want to be small. We live in a demanding and competitive world and if we feel the competition is too much for us we may withdraw into a gloomy swamp of depression. We carry our bitterness and resentment and refuse to ask for or receive forgiveness. In the film Shrek and Fiona learn to accept one another as they are, and be comfortable in their own bodies.

This is a theme that is picked up by the bible: 'Don't judge by appearance or height. The Lord doesn't make decisions the way you do! People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at a person's thoughts and intentions'.(1 Samuel 16:7 NLT). It doesn't make any difference to God what we look like. He made us all anyway.- black or white, rich or poor,male or female, clever or stupid – he loves us as we are, and, in sending his son to die for us, has gone to great lengths to prove it.

So what does God look for in us? He wants a heart that is ready to receive his love, to return it and to share it with others. To do that you have to be willing accept other people as they are too. They aren't all ogres.

St Anne's Christingle at Candlemas

About 50 children came into church with their parents plus some grandparents after school for a Christingle for Candlemas.

The oranges and red ribbons and candles were assembled by each child in school and four cocktail sticks added threaded with marshmallows, dried fruit and sweets representing the 4 corners of the earth and the 4 seasons.

The candle flames were passed on to each child representing our aim to pass on Christ's Light to one another creating a magical scene of childrens faces lit up. After singing the Christingle Hymn the flames were put out and refreshment of juice and Jaffa Cakes followed.

Many thanks to those who helped to ensure all were safe from harm.

The Children's Society promotes Christingles to raise money for Safe Houses [Manchester's was the first one, now several in many cities]

A Safe House ensures that young runaways are kept 'Safe from Harm' and hopefully returned to their own homes after difficulties are resolved.

Money raised by the children will be announced, to them and their families very many thanks.

Thanks too to Nerida for spending a morning in school making them, Alison for threading hundreds of sticks, Wendy, John and Thelma for help at the service.Finally thanks to Mrs Hancock for allowing the school to support this worthy cause.

Angela Gibson

The Children’s Society would like groups to consider finding the most unusual place to hold a Christingle service, [Cub Scouts are usually good at this finding all sorts of intrepid things to do. So if any groups reading this have any ideas why not give it a go at any time of year?

A Christingle is not just for Christmas.

St Anne's

The Parish banner group have made a beautiful pair of banners that were hung in the nave of St Anne's on 21st January 2007. We hope to have some pictures of them in the Gallery soon.

Christmas Tree Festival - Thank You !

The Festival team would like to thank all the members of St. Bart’s and
St. Anne’s who supported Wilmslow’s first Christmas Tree Festival. We were grateful for your involvement in so many ways, from lending extension leads to making or serving refreshments, stewarding, coming with your families and friends to the Festival, the Festival Evening or the Carol singing, or of course decorating a tree and helping with the setting up and the clearing away.

We are most grateful, too, to the many members of the community who
contributed trees and whose imagination and ingenuity gave great pleasure to more than a thousand people from Wilmslow and beyond. The words we heard most often were ‘magical’ and ‘absolutely beautiful’ and a selection of written comments from our visitors is given below. We hope you enjoyed it just as much!

So many wonderful, thoughtfully prepared trees ! Each one has its own charm and “take” on the Christmas message.

Beautiful. A fantastic idea. All the trees are superb.

All marvellous. Wilmslow is a community after all.

A beautiful start to the Christmas season. Thank you.

All truly great in their own right and moving too.

They are all fabulous. The meaning of Christmas, community, fun, love comes screaming through