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Bowdon Church News
For the BCN by email, click the link on the website.www.BowdonChurch.org
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No 723 July 2020
Parish and Lettings Administrator Kay Holt [email protected]
Bell Ringers David White (Tower Captain) [email protected]
BCN Editor Hilary Gartside [email protected]
St Mary’s, Stamford Road, Bowdon, WA14 2TR
St Luke’s, Vicarage Lane, Bowdon, WA14 3BN
Parish Office: 0161 929 1537
Our world is full of conflicting voices, all claiming to be authoritative pronouncements. Our society is currently wrestling with the impact of the pandemic and toxic racism. Whilst in jail, on 16 April 1963 Martin Luther King Jr wrote in a letter:
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”
We are all in this together and “there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Thank goodness that we can pray in suffering and in joy; that we are NOT expected to have all the answers, but we are to have humility to listen to the questions. We have a God who is at work in and through cultures - who calls people to their right selves, and convinces us to be those who steadfastly stand for those most acutely affected by life, its trauma, and its suffering. Foxgloves grow between nettles, stickweed, dandelions and all kinds of bramble and thorns! In stony times there is growth and beauty and vibrant possibility of new life.
“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)
The book of Micah is a complex mixture of judgment and hope. Micah denounces rulers, priests and prophets, deplores the exploitation of the helpless, dishonesty in business and the sham religion. God’s judgement will fall on Samaria and Jerusalem. But Micah also sees a
glorious future and provides one of the most significant prophecies of Jesus Christ’s birth in all the Old Testament, pointing some 700 years before Christ’s birth to His birthplace of Bethlehem. (Micah 5:2)
Just three things are required: justice, mercy and humility. Maybe all God is asking of us is to stand for what is right … to choose kindness … and to walk closely to Him, submitting our will daily.
Being Christ’s ambassadors is a powerful call - our cracked clay jars with all their flaws being made into beautiful reflections of holy vessels - serving God, reflecting the Kingdom, demonstrating the in-breaking of God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold, built on the idea that in embracing flaws and imperfections you can create an even stronger, more beautiful piece of art.
May we be restored more than we were, and repairers of this world.
Debi Green
Cracked clay jars and the Japanese art of Kintsugi
Parish Missioner (Youth) Sam Wilson [email protected]
Churchwardens Patricia Arrowsmith [email protected] Susan Redford [email protected] John Newton [email protected] Jo Howling [email protected]
Parish Recorder (Donations) Kate Stross [email protected]
Director of Music Michael Dow [email protected]
Organist and Associate Music Director Roger Bryan [email protected]
Parish Office [email protected] 0161 929 1537Vicar Revd Ian Rumsey [email protected] Fenton [email protected] [email protected]
Parish Missioner (Zone2) Julia Dow [email protected] Parish Missioner (Schools) Kirsten Wood [email protected]
As Sue Redford explained to us in last month’s BCN, the Hope Centre at the Hideaway in Partington was the response of Ruth and Andy Lancey and their team to the coronavirus crisis which was inevitably going to hit the residents of Partington and Carrington very hard. Since then businesses have closed, jobs have been lost. People who have never had to ask for help before have found themselves needing money for rent and food, which has in itself knocked their self-esteem and confidence. From the outset, Ruth and Andy have been determined that no one is missed, that everyone is taken care of. On their website their guiding principle states:
“We are not interested in your financial status, meeting our criteria for support or where you live. We understand that many people simply need help now and we are here to do what we can.”
Helen Oakley, who worships at St Luke’s, and her husband, Steve, have been volunteering as drivers twice a week and are full of praise when describing how efficiently and effectively the operation is run. The Partington foodbank, which is housed in the Hope Centre, is a real lifeline for families in need. Well-being calls are made to ensure that those living on their own or who are concerned about their mental health are coping. Modestly-priced nutritious hot evening meals are also delivered six days a week. The housebound or those who are self-isolating or having to shield can place grocery orders which are then delivered by volunteers such as Helen and Steve. Emergency food boxes are given out to families in crisis who are not yet in receipt of Universal Credit vouchers. Since lockdown began, all food collected from the yellow grit bin outside the Parish Centre has gone to Partington for the emergency food boxes.
Children in deprived areas have been particularly badly hit during the coronavirus crisis. The Hope Centre is currently providing daily packed lunches for over 50 children – that’s well over 3000 lunches since Easter – who do not qualify for free school meal vouchers for various reasons:
Children under school age are not eligible for free school meals.
Many low-income working parents are not entitled to free school meal vouchers. Having been furloughed from low-paid jobs, they cannot make ends owing to the reduction of 20% in their income and increased food and energy costs.
While the Government U-turn on free school meal vouchers over the school summer
holidays is obviously welcomed, many families will struggle to feed their children over the summer, whether or not they qualify for free school meal vouchers. Some families have been denied self-employment grants and will not be able to rebuild their businesses fully for some time. Domestic arrangements sometimes result in children being passed between parents/carers but the available money is not shared proportionately.
Can your family feed an extra child this summer?
Many of us in Bowdon have not suffered serious financial hardship from the impact of the coronavirus crisis. In fact, some of us have saved a lot of money from not being able to go out and socialise or go on holiday over the past three months. Why don’t we get behind the “Sponsor a Child Scheme”, through which the Hope Centre is aiming to ensure that no child in the M31 area has to go to bed hungry this summer? Please do go to the Hope Centre website www.the hideawaymanchester.com/summerfood to sign up to sponsor a child for the summer or to make a donation. Alternatively, why not do a sponsored event as a family to help raise the money to sponsor a child? It is a marvellous way to teach our children in Bowdon that although we are all equal, not enough families have enough food and that it is important to help to share what we have when we can.
Hilary Gartside
A Centre of Hope
From now on St Mary’s is open for private prayer from Mondays - Fridays, 9 am - 12 noon. Please adhere to seating restrictions to enable social
distancing to be implemented. Thank you.
Kintsugi bowl. Artist: Martin Howard (photo: Flikr)
Designed by Ben Dean
Jack Longstaff – an inspirational Bowdon organist
Jack Longstaff arrived at Bowdon early in 1961. He worked tirelessly and with meticulous detail and exacting musical standards to create a fine choir and a new generation of dedicated choirboys. Even though most church music is written for richly reverberant buildings, Jack created beauty of tone, blend and balance in Bowdon’s dry and unrewarding acoustics.
I had been recruited after a visit to Bowdon Church School by Jack and was eventually to become Head Chorister in the choir. Choristers were always encouraged to take advantage of both day and residential RSCM courses, at many of which Jack was regularly a housemaster or director.
Jack was just as meticulous and skilled in his approach to organ teaching and to academic paperwork; I would travel to his home in Whitefield for weekly tuition in harmony, sparking a lifelong interest for me in this area. His expert guidance and criticism was detailed and unsparing. It was however as Director of Music at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School (QEGS), Blackburn for nearly 20 years until 1986 that he established a reputation as a widely respected music pedagogue, with several of his students becoming renowned professional musicians, including the international conductor Ivor Bolton. Many former students remarked that his training often surpassed their tuition at university.
It was this inspirational training and first-class musical education at Bowdon Church that was eventually to lead me into the world of professional music as a cathedral organist, teacher, performer and choir director myself. Jack’s huge musical knowledge, ability and integrity, and uncompromising insistence on the highest possible quality of performance set standards for which I and many others owe him an eternal debt of gratitude.
Jack’s three sons are themselves distinguished musicians, and his grandson Giles is presently Organ Scholar at Blackburn Cathedral, where the Bowdon choir visited to sing choral evensong last year.
Jack passed away in April, and his stature as an inspirational musician was underlined by a fulsome tribute in The Times; it is not every church organist or music teacher who is held to merit such appreciation. It is he, building on the work of previous organists, who was largely responsible for establishing Bowdon’s pre-eminent musical reputation throughout the Chester Diocese and beyond, and upon which successive professional organists at Bowdon have been able to build ever since.
Jack Longstaff’s important contribution to the worlds of academic and church music will long be remembered by all those who were fortunate enough to have learnt and benefited from his teaching and example, and from his huge and lasting influence in so many different ways.
Roger Bryan
(Present Organist & Associate Director of Music)
We all know the stories of the little boats coming to the rescue of our beleaguered British soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk 80 years ago. Well this is exactly the spirit that prevailed once my friend Suzi Robson had telephoned to ask how I was planning to ‘help’ during the Covid Crisis. It then dawned on me that in my shop doorway I could collect donated scrub bags and the “raw materials” with which to make new ones, whilst being able to self-isolate safely next door. We agreed that Suzy would bring any donated bags from her home in Sale whilst continuing to care for her art students online, and I would set up the Collection Point. After an explanatory email was sent out in mid-April, I didn’t have long to wait! People I had never met before, people I hadn’t seen for years, and dear friends drew up outside the shop and popped old pillowcases, duvet covers and sheets into tubs, in fact everything required to make scrub bags and scrubs. Donated scrub bags were left on a chair. We had texts, phone calls and emails requesting scrub bags, with embarrassed voices asking for 50, 60 or 100.
Saskia, who had inspired me initially when she told me she was making scrub bags for her hospital, arrived daily with many other volunteers and their fresh supplies of scrub bags. After several requests for scrubs themselves, Saskia and Marianne set about making these too. There was John, who had the
wonderful knack of coming with fresh supplies of hand cream when it was about to run out, and the inspiring Eileen, who at 91 was busy knitting amazing ‘ear buddies’ to make the wearing of face masks on lengthy shifts more comfortable. Christine delivered bootfuls of brown paper parcels of scrub bags to hospitals on an almost daily basis; Sasha helped too when she was not transporting supplies to the Hope Centre in Partington. In fact there were just so many wonderful, wonderful people involved!
Then the heart wrenching thanks came, and we knew exactly why we had done it.
Sue Redford
Scrub Bag Suzies
In early March this year Bowdon Church of England Primary School (BCS) was visited by a team of Ofsted inspectors. They stayed at the school for two days, watching lessons, talking to pupils, staff and Governors, and looking at the extensive range of services offered by the school.
At the end of this process, they gave the school an “outstanding” judgement in all areas and therefore for its overall effectiveness. This makes it one of only a handful of schools in the country to retain the judgement so far under the new framework.
Key points of the report included: “Bowdon C of E Primary School is a wonderfully vibrant place for pupils to learn and thrive”; “the school’s Christian ethos shines through in all that it does”; “pupils embody the school’s ‘Golden Values’ of being ready, respectful and safe.”
If you would like to read the report, it can be found on the BCS website under ‘key information’ or on the DfE Ofsted website.
Just over two weeks after this inspection took place, so much
changed. Due to the Covid-19 crisis the school became a quite different place. Some staff were affected by the illness and had to self-isolate, while some have needed to shield. The school remained open, even through the holidays, for the children of key workers.
Teachers either working from home or in school have been providing curriculum learning for pupils to work at in their homes. There has been use of video conferencing and filming to try to bring pupils together in very imaginative ways: for instance, members of staff organised a super VE Day sing-along. The school also publishes “Notice and News”, a newsletter for the pupils which has photos of the children and their work. At the beginning of last month the school welcomed 260 children and so much reorganisation has been needed to make the school safe for them. Mrs Hudson and
her dedicated staff are working tirelessly to adapt to all the changing guidance that confronts them from the government and the local authority, so that they can welcome more children back into school.
Everyone is looking forward to when we can all be back together but in the meantime we are trying to look after each other and to stay safe.
I would like to finish with the lovely words of one pupil to the Ofsted inspectors:
“We are a big school but we are like a small family”.
Glenys Lambie, Chair of Governors
Outstanding in all areas
Christian Aid Week in 2020 was an online event because of the coronavirus pandemic. After the virtual Christian Aid service on 10 May, we set up a Just Giving site, which enabled people to donate via the Parish website. Donations were passed directly to Christian Aid, but we could track the level of giving. I am delighted to report that, despite the absence of the house-to-house collection and Big Breakfast, giving by this Parish amounted to £2934, or £3530 including Gift Aid. This is just under half of what we usually raise in a year. Thank you very much indeed for your generous support.
Kate Stross – Christian Aid Parish Coordinator
Generous giving – thank you from Christian Aid
Jack Longstaff conducting at the Free Trade Hall whilst organist at Bowdon. (photo: Sue Redford)
(photo: Bowdon Church School)
