Dear Friends

I am writing to you at the beginning of Holy Week. We had a donkey again this Palm Sunday and the children dressed up for the triumphal procession from the top gate, as Jesus did from the Mount of Olives, to church, as He entered into Jerusalem and into the Temple. It was a glorious day and a good start to Holy Week and Easter. Every year we enter into the passion of our Lord, his suffering and self sacrifice, through the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday, his death on the cross on Good Friday and so enter his joy of resurrection of Easter. This year I have been very pleased to be using the new Stations of the Cross every Wednesday during Lent. We have had Compline on Wednesdays and Sunday evenings, which is a lovely little service and we have had our own Lenten disciplines. We should now be ready to enter the Easter season with our faith renewed and our commitment to Christ and his church strengthened.

Every Sunday is a day of resurrection and a day of joy. I always look forward to Sunday, the first day of the week.

Some of you may have noticed that I now put SSC after my name. This is because recently I was admitted as a member of the Society of the Holy Cross (Societas Santae Crucis) which seeks to promote the catholic faith within the Church of England and encourages priests to live out their vocation in the service of the gospel. I hope to say a bit more about this on another occasion.

Each of us has our call from Christ to follow him and all of us have a ministry to perform. God gives each of us gifts in varying degrees. We are all part of the body of Christ and are called to be joined with him through the Holy Eucharist and be fed with his body and blood. Attending the Eucharist is the most important thing we can do and is in obedience to Christ 'to do this in memory of him until he comes again'.

Our APCM went smoothly. Ann Harris and Roger Ballamy were duly re-elected as our Church Wardens. Thanks to your generosity and last year's Stewardship Campaign the finances of the church are in reasonable shape and we avoided the large deficit which was predicted. We are very grateful to Peter Leigh for keeping our finances under control.

The Bishop is visiting our parish on Thursday 12th May and will be at the Archdeacon's Visitation that evening in our church with Ellesmere and Oswestry Deaneries. Christian Aid Week begins 15th May and again the Churches Togethcr is organizing this and will be asking your help. On Sunday 22nd May they are walking the bounds starting at 2pm at Elson Park.

My prayers and best wishes,

Fr. Philip Edge - Vicar