Building bridges between church and community

EASTER is just around the corner . . . hard tobelieve I know! It doesn’t seem five minutessince we were celebrating that other greatChristian festival, Christmas, knee deep insnow. Now there is a real hint of spring in the

air: the sun is shining, new green shoots are appearing, the daysare lengthening and the temperature is rising.One of the greatest needs of every person on the planet is to know they are loved, that theirlives count for something. And one of the greatest gifts of Easter is to celebrate the loveGod has shown to each one of us in the Person of Jesus Christ. One of the mostwell-known verses in the whole Bible tells us that

‘God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life ’

(from the Gospel of John, chapter 3, verse 16.)

It doesn’t matter who you are, or what you’ve done. The love of Jesus is for you. His deathon the cross and return to life three days later brings forgiveness for the past, hope forthe future, and a whole new meaning to life in the here-and-now.

This is what the Easter story is really about – God’s unconditional love for every one ofus. It really has nothing to do with chocolate eggs or Easter bunnies.

Why not come and join us at church over the Easter weekend * to find out more about thisamazing love.? You’ll wonder how you ever lived without it!*For details of Easter services at St Margaret’s the back page of this edition of In Touch

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A week of activities for the over 55’s.Come along and join in the Fun atthe Parish Centre, St Margaret’s

Church, Burnage Lane from 10.00amto 3.30pm each day. Watch out for

Further details at Love BurnageDay on 19th June 2010.

A week of activities for the over 55’s.Come along and join in the Fun atthe Parish Centre, St Margaret’s

Church, Burnage Lane from 10.00amto 3.30pm each day. Watch out for

Further details at Love BurnageDay on 19th June 2010.

STOP PRESS!!ST MARGARET'S PARISH CENTRE -

NEW POLLING STATIONFor several months St Margaret's

Church has been in negotiation with theElections Officer at Manchester Town Hall,the local Councillors and Green End PrimarySchool regarding the venue for the BurnageWard Polling Station. We are pleased toreport that all of these bodies are in agree-ment that the venue for all future electionsshould be moved from Green End PrimarySchool to St Margaret's Parish Centresituated at the rear of the church.             There are a number of reasons forthis move, primarily so that the school canremain open on election day ensuring thatchildren can continue to be taught andparents will not need to make alternativearrangements.              St Margaret's Church is pleased tobe able to offer our premises as an alternativevenue and we trust that the readers of thisedition of In Touch will help to circulate thenews of this change in order to ensure thatvoters attend the correct venue on electionday. Your Polling Cards will also confirm thischange of venue when they are issued.

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Christians in Burnage fromthe different traditions, meet for a series of LentStudies and a Good Friday Walk. We choose adifferent route to walk in the parish each year.This year our walk starts at 12 noon on GoodFriday from Christ Church United Reform Churchon Burnage Lane. We shall walk north up BurnageLane and turn right into Crossley Road. At thetraffic lights we shall turn right again and walkdown Errwood Road and turn right yet again intoAvon Road until we meet Burnage Lane, Here weshall turn right into Burnage Lane returning toChrist Church (on our right!).We shall walk in silence carrying the CTIB bannerand a cross. The walk ends with a short service toremember and reflect the death of our Lord JesusChrist.

Mar 21 Kayden Kai Price

Dec 7 Freda Lister Dec 10 Winifred May Griffiths Dec 21 Zena Mearman Jan 5 Annie Powell

Jan 6 Clifford BroadhurstJan 11 June StanwayJan 25 Elizabeth CampbellFeb 3 Violet Kathleen YatesFeb 12 Irene Smith

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but Cameroonhas a diverse economy in which women aremajor players. In industries from bananas andcoffee to oil and aluminium, women are involvedand also in the caring roles for those with HIV,leprosy, malaria and malnutrition. This year, wom-en there have planned the International Women’sDay of Prayer. Here’s how Burnage women tookpart :

On Friday evening, 5th March, 43 people from StMargaret’s, St Bernard’s, Christ Church and

Parrswood Church attended the Women’s WorldDay of Prayer Service. St Margaret’s Lay Reader,Pam Corps, led the service and Caroline Throupgave the address – Caroline will be joining us asour new curate in June.

Twelve ladies from the churches from the Burnagechurches each read a short piece about the variousjobs the women of Cameroon do and how theypraise God whilst doing them. Alan Wilkinson, ourorganist, helped to keep us in tune.

The service lasted just an hour and we ended theevening with tea, biscuits and plenty of chat!.

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Saturday, 19th June 2010, 2 to 5pm St Margaret’s Church, Burnage Lane

Lots of fun activities, games & special features for all the family including a giant climbing wall, community art project display, barbecue, cream teas, brass band and lots more beside!

It will not cost you a penny – it’s all free courtesy of the church community

Following the highly successful family fun day events of the past twoyears, we are once again planning a similar event in June this year. Local schoolsand other community groups have been invited to participate in a community artproject, the finished product of which will be on display during the day. Denton BrassBand have been invited back to entertain us, and it is also hoped that one of the localschools will provide their steel band.

Last year, as a result of the generosity of church members and a Manchester CityCouncil CASH grant, the whole event was laid on for free. This year we are aiming todo the same and not charge for anything. We just want people to come along andenjoy a good day out for all the family. After all, God’s love – although not withoutcost – is unconditional and freely available to all.

We hope you will come along and join in the fun!

This question was asked recently and I suppose the answer is “yes” or “no”.Maunday Thursday, the day before Good Friday, Jesus had a last supper with hisdisciples. Many of them thought Jesus was going to lead an insurrection againstthe Roman rulers. They were discussing which of them would be among the leaders.

Jesus took water and a towel and washed each of the disciple’s feet. (This was a jobfor a slave or the very lowest servant.) Here their leader did it. The clear lesson wasthat they were to serve one another. Jesus also gave them a new commandment:.they were to love one another as he had loved them. (St John’s Gospel ch 13 v 36).

So back to the question: yes, the bishops and clergy are cleaning shoes for charity- that is love as shown by Jesus and no, they are not doing it for money – but youcould give to Tear Fund of you are lucky enough to get your shoes polished.!

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On the last weekend in January we went toLangdale with the church congregation ofSt. Margaret’s, staying in dormitories at theYHA. We had some pizza and garlic breadwhen we arrived, then we explored thehouse; no one had thought about going tobed yet!

Saturday was definitely the most exhaust-ing day. It all started when we went downstairs for cereal and a delicious cookedbreakfast. There were three walks, fromstrenuous to easy, or you could do your ownthing. I went on a walk with my friends,singing Manchester City and Unitedanthems. We walked along by the lake andcould see lots of mountains.

We had lunch (which we packed earlier)and a play. After this we went to the teashop, then we headed back and played foot-

ball in the grounds. For tea, there was lotsof tasty food and loads of nice puddings!

The fire alarm went off twice while we werethere, when someone burned the toast !I hadto go outside in my pyjamas!! On theSunday morning we had a short service,then tidied up and went home. We allenjoyed our time at Langdale.

Account and photography by James , age 10.

You may remember reading in the lastedition of In Touch of two St Margaretchurch members, James and Jenny, goingto train to become missionaries with theiryoung family. The training is in Wales andnow that’s drawing to a close they are goingon a short visit to Australia to meet peopleand see how they can get involved withAboriginal communities.

“Life is continuing to be busy here inLlanelli. We have just had the annual con-ference for the organisation we are with andJames was leading all the music in theworship! Following that now is two weeksof Linguistics which promises to be veryintense (so that we can begin to understandthe Aboriginal languages!).

“In April we are travelling out to Brisbane,first to see friends then a 12 hour drive toCunnamulla (that’s Aboriginal for “longstretch of water”), in Queensland. We willbe spending the next 9 days with anotherBritish family who live there doing variousthings and getting a feel for the town. Wehope the trip will give us some direction forthe future after we finish training and moreof a time-scale as to when we might moveout there more permanently.”

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Burnage Lane

Mass :8pmStations of the

Cross: 10.amThe Lord’s

Passion, :3pm, The Easter

Vigil: 8pmHoly Mass:

10am

Kingsway

Meditation Services 7.30-8pm,: an agape

meal 7.30- 9pmRing rector to book 432 7009

Young People’sActivities 10.30-12 noon

“At the foot of thecross” Service 2-3pm

Book of Common PrayerHoly Communion 8.30amAll age worship 10.30am

Burnage Lane Reflection on

the Cross 10.30am

Book of Common PrayerHoly Communion 9.30amAll-age Family Communion10,30amEaster Praise 6.30 pm

Kingsburn Hall,Burnage Lane

10.30am

United Reform Church 7pm

Good Friday 10.15am 6.3am

at Marple Ridge Car Park10.30am and

6.30pm

United Reform Church 10.30am

11.am

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telephone our Helpline and someone will get back to you