April 2015 50p

36 Pages·2015·5.62 MB·English

by  Nick Sanders

OUTLOOK
The cross on Cobden Edge
Serving the communities of
Mellor, Marple Bridge, Moor End, Mill Brow,
Cote Green and Ludworth.
April www.mellorparish.org.uk
facebook.com/stthomasmellor
50p
2015 @stthomasmellor
The Parish of St Thomas , Mellor
Registered Charity No. 1130414
Vicar: Rev’d Alex Sanders MA, The Vicarage, 51 Church Road, Mellor 427 1203
Phone [phone] (Parish Office)
email [email protected]
www.mellorparish.org.uk
Parish Office The Parish Centre, Church Road, Mellor, Stockport SK6 5LX
For all enquiries and bookings for the Church & Parish Centre
Phone: [phone]
The office is open Monday to Friday 9.30am to 12.30pm
Reader Nick Sanders 51 Church Road, Mellor 427 1203
Reader Emeritus Dr Peter Harrison 24 Clement Road, Marple Bridge 427 6542
Parish Administrator Val Wallace (Mon, Wed & Thurs mornings)
Parish Secretary Peta Stockton (Tues & Fri mornings)
Churchwardens Anthea Nicholls 18 Townscliffe Lane, Marple Bridge 427 2187
Richard Elliott 64 Ernocroft Road, Marple Bridge 427 5981
Dep.Churchwarden David Butterworth Lea Cottage, 18 Low Lea Road, Marple
Bridge 427 7469
PCC Treasurer David Ackroyd 57 Clement Road, Marple Bridge 427 1568
Assistant Gordon Johnson (Gift Aid and Envelope Scheme)
Treasurers: Lynda Gwyther (Income) Anthea Nicholls (Expenditure)
PCC Secretary Karen Greenough, Podnor Farm, Moor End 449 8234
Director of Music Jonathan Lo
Outlook Editor Guy Nicholls
Members of the PCC David Butterworth, Julie Elliott,Tim Holt, Beverley Williams, David
Ackroyd, Lynda Gwyther, Clare Jackson, Michael Benford-Miller,
Janet Wilson, Helen Kennedy, Alex Gunz, Karen Greenough
Diocesan/Deanery Julia Mann & Judith Shiel / Mary Heijbroek, Ann Hearle &
Representatives Richard Benford-Miller
Churches Together in Marple Representatives Helen Kennedy & Janet Wilson
Baptisms, Weddings and Funerals are arranged through the Parish Office
Articles for publication should be submitted to the Parish Office (preferably by email to
[email protected]). The deadline for the May 2015 edition is 14th April.
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Vicar’s Viewpoint
Easter joy!
I love the joy of Easter morning! Wake up! Spring is coming, with new life! We
can eat chocolate Easter eggs! It’s a bank holiday tomorrow! Lent is over. The
sorrow of Good Friday has been wiped away by the glorious Resurrection!
But for the first followers of Jesus, Easter morning was not a time of
straightforward joy. It was not straightforward at all.
These followers were even then only one week further on from Jesus’
triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when He was welcomed by crowds shouting
‘Hosanna – save us now!’ Everything that He seemed to promise was drawing
to a climax that week, yet it was also strange and unsettling. Alongside the
cheers of acclamation went Jesus’ talk of death. Death? Now? And even more
strangely, He seemed to be linking the disaster of death with the glory of God.
It was unsettling, unexpected.
And Jesus’ followers watched, in disbelief and despair, as He was nailed to a
cross to die, hanging in profound humiliation between two dying thieves. They
saw Him die. They were bereft. This man whom they had followed, this man
who had told them He was God’s own son, was dead and gone. So
unexpectedly. What was supposed to happen now?
The very last thing the followers could have been expecting was to see Jesus,
alive again on Easter morning. Yet there He was, calling Mary by name, and
then recognisable; unique; and risen from the dead. If ever there was an
unexpected outcome to a series of events, this was it.
And this is still the Easter message for us today. Jesus unexpectedly (to us at
least) died to pay the price for our sins and to bring us close to God. Jesus
unexpectedly (again, to us) overcame death to rise again. Our living God is a
god who does unexpected things.
We may well expect to eat chocolate eggs on Easter Day, but God has much
more than that to offer us. If we are prepared to open our lives to Him, and to
trust Him, He can do unexpected (to us) and life-transforming things with us.
As Easter people, we struggle to understand the seemingly impossible, to make
sense of the unexpected, and to work out what is to happen next. Yet for God,
Good Friday and Easter Day are perfectly possible, planned and necessary – the
arrival of a new world-view. If Good Friday is the climax of the old story, then
Easter Day is the beginning of the new. Rejoice!
Every blessing,
Alex
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CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR APRIL 2015

1 Wed 10.00am Holy Communion including Lent
Prayers
8.00pm Pilgrim Group (Vicarage)
2 Thurs 8.00pm Choral Eucharist followed by vigil until
Maundy Thursday midnight
3 Fri 10.00am ‘Proclamation of the Cross’
Good Friday (with children’s activities)
2.00pm Meditation
5.30pm ‘Churches Together’ Walk to the Cross
(Meet at Linnet Clough Scout Camp
5.15pm)
4 Sat 2.00pm Children make the Easter Garden
5 Sun 6.30am 'Churches Together' Sunrise Eucharist
Easter Day in the Churchyard followed by
breakfast in the Parish Centre
9.30am Parish Communion
12 noon Holy Baptism
8 Wed 10.00am Holy Communion
9 Thurs 7.30pm FOMPC Event (Parish Centre)
12 Sun 8.30 am Holy Communion
2nd Sunday of Easter 9.30 am Parish Communion
11.15 am Coffee recital (Parish Centre)
12 noon Holy Baptism
6.30 pm Evening Prayer
13 Mon 10.45am to 12 Coffee with the Vicar (Parish Centre)
noon
14 Tues 7.45pm PCC Meeting (Parish Centre)
15 Wed 10.00 am Holy Communion
8.00 pm Pilgrim Group (Vicarage)
18 Sat 10 am – 4pm Textile Journeys (Parish Centre)
1.00 pm Wedding of James Crisall & Angela
Moseley
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19 Sun 8.30 am Holy Communion
3rd Sunday of Easter 9.30 am Parish Communion
6.30 pm Evening Prayer
20 Mon 7.30 pm Peter Cunningham Concert (Parish
Centre)
22 Wed 10.00am Holy Communion
24 Fri 7.30pm FOMPC Event (Parish Centre)
26 Sun 8.30am Holy Communion
4th Sunday of Easter 9.30am Parish Communion
6.30pm Evening Prayer
29 Wed 10.00am Holy Communion
The Women’s Evening Fellowship meets on the second Wednesday at 8.00 pm (Parish Centre)
Prayer Group meets every Thursday at 11.00 am (Parish Centre)
The Choir practises each week on Friday at 6.45 pm
Guides meet each week on Tuesday 7.00pm to 8.30pm (Parish Centre)
Tea and Friendship meets on the first Wednesday 1.45pm to 3.45pm (Parish Centre)
Mothers & Toddlers Group meets on Thursday each week 10.00am (Parish Centre)
The Annual Parochial Church Meeting PCC Secretary
The meeting will be held in the Parish Centre on Sunday 19th April 2015,
following the morning service. Copies of the agenda and reports are planned to
be available in church on Sunday 5th April 2015.
The first part of the meeting will be to elect churchwardens. The second part of
the meeting is for those who are on the Church Electoral Roll to elect members
to the PCC. This is followed by the presentation of reports reviewing the work
of the church and its finances over the last year. If you wish to find out more
about the Church Electoral Roll and/or nominations for members of the PCC,
please speak to the vicar, Alex Sanders, or any member of the PCC.
Situation Vacant! Can you spare about 5 hours a month, spread over two or
three days in the middle of the month? Are you reasonably proficient with
Microsoft Word or Publisher, and would enjoy working on the production
team of Mellor and Marple Bridge’s leading monthly publication?
Outlook is looking for someone to take over the job of putting Guy’s ramblings
into print and making the magazine look even better! Training can be given.
Interested? Contact Nick Sanders on 427 1203 or [email protected] or
via Twitter @falklandfred
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Editorial meanderings
Am really upset, gentle readers. Mrs Editor has accused me of ‘waffling’ and
being ‘long-winded’. I would remonstrate with her if I thought she wasn’t right.
So trying to keep the waffle in check this issue - might not work but I’m going to
try!
Reading an interesting little book by Bill Bryson on Shakespeare. Particularly of
interest to an ageing (or aged) one-time thespian who is now trying to get
some theatre going on the hill in Mellor. The things, of course, I had to
consider for the first productions, and still do, are size of acting area, numbers
of actors required, costumes, props, furniture, etc. One thing, however, I did
learn about my time in the theatre was that if the product is well done and
absorbing, it will work anywhere and under just about any conditions, however
sparse. Extracts from Bryson’s book about theatre in Shakespeare’s time
confirm this and I’d like to share them with you. The book states:
‘There was no scenery and no curtains (even at the Curtain), no way to
distinguish day from night, fog from sunshine, battlefield from boudoir, other
than through words. So scenes had to be set through a few verbal strokes and
with the help of a compliant audience’s imagination. As Wells and Taylor note
“‘Oberon’ and ‘Prospero’ only had to declare themselves invisible to become
so”. Shakespeare and his contemporaries also enjoyed a good deal of latitude
in subject and setting. Shakespeare could place his action wherever he wished:
on or in hillsides, forts, castles, battlefields, lonesome islands, enchanted dells,
anywhere an imaginative audience could be persuaded to go.’ However the
book also says of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, that they could be ‘notoriously
long-winded’ (so your editor is in good company). Finally, Bryson’s book goes
on to say: ‘The golden age of theatre lasted only about the length of a good
human lifetime, but what a wondrously prolific and successful period it was.
Between the opening of the Red Lion (London’s first true playhouse) in 1567
and the closing of all the theatres by the Puritans seventy-five years later,
London’s playhouses are thought to have attracted fifty million paying
customers, something like ten times the entire country’s population in
Shakespeare’s day.’
But now, gentle readers, we've got Eastenders, Corrie, Emmerdale, et.al., to
entertain the 'groundlings' and serve them their weekly diet of contemporary
angst, misery and family dislocation. The scripts of these programmes may not
have the literary merit of Marlowe, Jonson, Webster and Shakespeare, but I
suppose they serve a similar need and, after all, we must give way to progress.
Nothing formative in the world, nothing great or beautiful in the world has ever
been born of rational argument.
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Baker's delight..... Jill Baker
Lemon Meringue Cake
A recipe for Easter gatherings.
This is based on a Nigella Lawson Recipe and one my Mum
used back in the dinner party days of the 1970s. My
Mum’s was a Strawberry Meringue cake filled with cream
and strawberries. Here the meringue cakes are filled with
lemon curd (see recipe on page 28) and cream.
You will need two 21cm sandwich tins greased and lined.
You are going to make two thin sponge cakes with a
meringue topping on each which you will sandwich
together with cream and lemon curd.
125g soft butter 1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs separated ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g caster sugar plus Zest of 1 lemon
200g caster sugar 4 tsp lemon juice
100g plain flour 2 tsp milk
25g cornflour
Filling
150 g lemon curd, home-made preferably
150 ml double or whipping cream, whisked to soft peaks
1.Preheat the oven to 200C/ gm 6 and prepare tins as above.
2.Mix the 4 egg yolks, butter, flour, cornflour, baking powder, bicarb and lemon
zest in a processor or with a hand whisk.
3. Add the lemon juice and milk and process/whisk/beat again. Divide between
the lined tins, a thin layer.
4. Whisk the egg whites until they form and then slowly whisk in the 200g
caster sugar to make the meringue. Spread on top of the cake mix: make one
smooth and create peaks on the other to form the top layer of the cake.
5. Bake for 20 to 25 mins. When the cake beneath the meringues is cooked
check with a thin skewer; no mixture should stick to it. It is a soft bronzed
meringue as in a lemon meringue pie of old (last one I had was made with
Italian meringue and a blowtorch). Cool in the tins .
6. Unmould the flat topped on to plate or cake stand meringue side down and
spread with the lemon curd and then the whisked cream. Top with the second
cake with its bronzed peaks (the meringue is not white and stiff as for pavlova).
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