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The Vicar writes…                                    May 2010

Anticipation!           Summer!           Empowered!

Well five months of the year have gone and we are still waiting for summer to really begin. The promise of it is there with the occasional warm sunny day and all the new growth together with the longer days, but we are still awaiting something better.

I wonder if this is how the apostles felt after Jesus death and resurrection. The promise of something else was there but the reality seemed unbelievable or unachievable. Then the Ascension of Jesus happened followed by the day of Pentecost where they were all filled with the power that Jesus had promised them.

The Feast of the Ascension took place on Thursday 13th May. I joined a group of fellow Christians on Bidston Hill at 6.45 in the morning for a communion service led by Bishop Keith. What a wonderful celebration it was. This service has taken place for quite a few years and will next year too. Put it in your diaries. We had a service for Ascension Day at 8.00pm to which few people came. This day was followed ten days later by The Feast of Pentecost on the 23rd June. Pentecost was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which was promised by Jesus to his disciples through which they were empowered to continue to spread the Good News about Jesus to this day.
As the saying goes: – “Good things come to those who wait”. We are God’s chosen people today commissioned by Jesus to continue to spread the Gospel though our own actions and deeds. To this end we will have our confirmation service later this month.

Confirmation 2010
Bishop Keith Sinclair, The Bishop of Birkenhead will be with us for our Combined Parish Communion and Confirmation Service on Sunday 13th June at 10.00am. There is a small group who have been meeting with Carol Vague and me preparing for this very special day. We will also be celebrating our Patronal Festival where we remember St Stephen (1st Christian Martyr) and St Alban (1st British Martyr) on this day. The service will be followed by a ‘Bring & Share’ meal in the Parish Hall. Please do come along and join in our celebrations.

Alpha 2010
Our next Alpha Course will begin in September this year. For more information about this, please contact me. Final dates and times will be published in the next magazine.

Building Project
As I said above, “Good things come to those who wait”! This is how I feel about our building project. We should have reached the completion of our new entrance to church but due to unforeseen circumstances with obtaining the correct stone and a few other issues, this has been delayed BUT we have been assured that the work will be completed by the end of June. I do ask for your patience while this work is being done.

Final Word
As a community of Christians, we are called to proclaim the message of Jesus through every avenue available to us, and to show people that Jesus is as relevant to us today as he was 2000 years ago. My continued prayer for us all is that we would put aside our own preferences and together seek to be a blessing to those that we worship and live with as well as those who are seeking to find a purpose for life that I believe only Jesus can provide.

St Paul encouraged those in Ephesus with these words, and I use them today for us all as a community here:-

“For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3.14-21)

With love in Jesus
Wayne