Welcome to the website of the Ascension, Hulme

Thanks for dropping in and spending some time.

MAY AT THE

CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION

ASCENSION EVE PARTY PICS

16/05/2012

 Following a well-attended and very enjoyable service, preached by our guest, the Vicar of St Mary the Virgin, Bury, The Revd Dr John Findon, we were all invited to the Church Hall for a party to celebrate the Church of the Ascension.

Here are a few photos of church members and guests partying the night away!

A huge “thank you” to all who brought food and drinks & helped set-up and clear the hall for the party.

FROM REV. ALMA:

Tomorrow (April 29^th) we have our Annual Parochial Church Meeting, and I don’t yet know what that will bring.

But I do know that I have been making plans for the rest of Spring and some of Summer.

If you read my Parish Priests report, which I hope you will, you may feel that it is rather depressing. I have left out what I have been up to this year, I did this on purpose, so as to concentrate on the state of the Church and the congregation. Our numbers have never been lower in all my time here,  and we are struggling to cover even the basic essential Church tasks. I wrote in a previous month that our finances are very low. This is something I will speak about at the APCM. We need people to commit to being here on Sunday, and/or Tuesdays, to offer their services to the Church. We also need Ideas and help for some Summer fundraising. This is why my report is rather gloomy. And for the most of you, the facts won’t come as any surprise.

However, I want  you to connect all that with our Easter faith, which sees how life came out of death and despair. If each of us acts our on faith, really joyfully lives out our belief in the risen Christ the Ascension will raise again. We must act in union with God and with each other.

This month also sees our feast of title – the Ascension. The Church was named Ascension in the faith of transformation – from the old Hulme which had been destroyed. It had been built and raised up after the death of previous Churches. If we are truly to show our faith in the risen Christ and in the future of this Church here at the Ascension, we must pray, worship, give and act. Then there will indeed be a good future. Ascension links Earth and Heaven. Our Church also, through it’s presence and it’s worship, also links Earth and Heaven. Keep the link and strengthen it.

My prayers for all of us in the faith of the Risen and Ascended Lord.

Your friend and Priest

Alma

NOTES & NEWS

 Deanery Quiet Day

A reminder to all the people who have booked this. The Quiet day is on 26^th May at the Community of the Resurrection, Mirfield. Travel details will be available when known. Public transport is good but too slow for the 10am start. At the moment we have one car (4 places) but we are working on it!

 Student from Cambridge on placement

Please read and note Elizabeth’s piece in this newsletter about her time with us at the Ascension. She will be living with other ordinands in Salford, and also spending time with the Chaplain to Manchester Airport. Please give her a warm welcome.

Elizabeth Burke, Ordinand on attachment until Sunday 24th June. Please click the link here Elizabeth Burke to see her page.

 Photoboard

The photoboard in the hall has been out of date for a long time. Unfortunately the lst person to take photographs stopped attending Church, and never sent us the photos.

So we are beginning again. Steven Evans has kindly agreed to do this, Hilary and Alma have put a list together of those missing, but it is probably incomplete. If you are not on the board, or spot anyone else who is missing, please tell Steven or any one of the Clergy.

Ascension trip to Llandudno

On Saturday 1^st September we have a Church trip to Llandudno. Hopefully the weather will be better than it is at the moment.

It’s a great place for a day out, whether wet or fine, and for people who cannot walk far or very well, it is flat.

We will depart from the Ascension at 9.00am, and leave Llandudno at 5.00pm. The cost for this is £14.00 for adults and 12.00 for the under-fives. To reserve a place, Ena needs a deposit of £7.00 and the balance should be paid 2 weeks before the trip.

The coach is a 36 seater, which we need to fill in order to break even, that means that we can easily take some friends or family with us, to fill the coach.

Please tell the Rector if you want to go, but cannot afford to. All deposits, or the full cost, to Ena, please.

Please put this date in your diary.

Bras!

Well done to all of those who have brought bras to Church for the Oxfam appeal. So far, (end of April) we have 43.

If you can add to that, bring them in, or if you live near and Oxfam shop, take them direct.

This is a serious appeal around a rather funny subject, and it will help a lot of very poor and vulnerable women in the developing world.

Thank you!

From Hilary,

29^th April 2012      Sermon on John 10. 11-18.

4^th Sunday of Easter.

I’m sure you will all have heard the phrase/ expression, ‘ Oh, He’s a born leader he is!’ or ‘ She was born to do that job’, whatever the job may be. These expressions are embedded in our language and they are regularly used in our everyday conversations. However, you may not think the same expressions apply to our very own coalition government! Of course it depends on your political opinion, but it doesn’t take much to understand what a crippling mess this present government seems to be creating with their policies that make the rich, richer and the poor, ever poorer.

I don’t hear many of my family /friends declaring what a born leader David Cameron is! Or Nick Clegg for that matter. But what they are doing is alienating people by cutting jobs so severely that it is nigh on impossible for perfectly able and qualified people to gain further employment after so many cuts have been imposed. Employers shift the goal posts all the time and that makes it harder than ever to offer the right skills for the job. I heard recently that 50,000 people applied for 100 jobs in the local dole offices around Stockport! How can that be right? And what is the solution? I don’t know but I know it can’t go on. Unemployment is just ONE of the social problems that this government seems to be hell bent on ignoring the consequences of.

Natural born leaders ARE few and far between. I think Nelson Mandela is a good example. After many years of imprisonment, he rose to lead his own people/ country to live in harmony and to work hard to make people’s lives better. You may think the likes of Hitler and Saddam Hussain, despite their notoriety of being dictators, were natural born leaders BUT not for any, and I mean ANY good reason!

John’s gospel reading today is about Jesus, the good Shepherd. It is about Jesus telling his followers that he is their leader and they are his sheep and so must follow him, if they are to reap the rewards that God has to offer them. In fact, this passage is a continuation from the beginning of the chapter where Jesus begins his speech about Shepherds/ sheep. As is usual in John’s gospel, and we should expect it, I think, Jesus’ words are hard to understand. Even the disciples struggle, yet again, to grasp what Jesus is saying. The important theme from this previous passage, and the whole of chapters 9/10, includes the questions ‘is Jesus from God or not?’ ‘ is he a prophet?’ ‘is he the Son of God/ the true Messiah sent to rule over all in the world?’ Now, in this part of John’s gospel, we are given this Shepherd/ sheep reference. In biblical terms it is a reference to a King and his people. In our world we may think of it as a reference to our leaders of government, as I mentioned earlier. We may think of our modern  day leaders as those who chair meetings, dictate letters or make up impractical policies! Today’s leaders may not know ALL their employees by name. They may be quite detached from them in fact. However, at the time of the gospel writers, the ideal King is pictured as a Shepherd who tends his sheep with tenderness and care. So, it is this commonly known image of Kingship that Jesus uses in our reading for today. But let US not forget either, that Jesus is not your common or garden leader. Not at all! He is not in it for profit or gain. Quite the opposite in fact. The true test of his leadership comes when he is faced with a choice. For the true shepherd’s identity comes out by him being prepared to die for his sheep. And we too know that, that means Jesus’ death and resurrection on the cross, reveals to the whole world, not just his identity, but his true vocation to God and to his people.

Today, after this service is our annual AGM meeting. In my previous parish, this Sunday was the Sunday when people didn’t bother to turn up. This will be my second AGM as PCC secretary, but more importantly I will be there as your NSM priest, alongside Alma, the churchwardens and, hopefully all of you here today. This yearly meeting is compulsory. It is our chance to decide who will lead us into the coming year, as we elect our officers of the church and review last years meeting and events. Yes, to some of you it may sound boring. Well, it may be but it is vital to the running of the church. Alma cannot do it on her own! We all need to play our part in the life of the church and have our say. Being a parish priest is a hard job. My position here at the Ascension is unpaid and I work as well. Time is my enemy and I can only do a limited amount to help Alma in running the church and the weekly services. Maybe some of you could think about doing more?

In the near future, there will be many more unpaid priests in the Diocese than paid. Numbers of stipendiary priests are falling. So the call on the Laity and Self Supporting ministers is ever greater. There are new training schemes in place to enable parishes to train people to ease the load on the parish priest, not sure if you ever can actually!, and to lead and collaborate with others. Without God’s presence in our lives and without our faith in him, we are nothing. Christ IS our good shepherd and WE are his sheep. We need to follow wherever he leads us and in whatever way or whatever form that takes. When Christ calls us, we follow him, to become part of the church, the body of Christ in the world.

I will finish with a prayer:   Christ has no hands  but our hands to do his work today, He has no feet but our feet to lead us in his way, He has no tongue but our tongue to tell us how he died, He has no help but our help to bring us to his side. Amen.    

Yours in Christ,

Hilary

Dates for your Diary

MAY

19^th Quiet Morning at the Community of the Holy Name, Longsight 10.00am to 1.30pm – Rector can give 3 lifts. Please arrange

20^th Deadline for articles etc. for the June Newsletter – Please leave any work in the office for Tony to Collect.

26^th Deanery Quiet Day at the Community of the Resurrection, Mirfield – 10.00am to 4.00pm lifts to be arranged.

27^th Pentecost Sunday

JUNE

3^rd 4.00pm St Ann’s, Manchester – entry by ticket only – details to follow

A Lancashire Bluebell wood: photograph © 2010 by David Crossley

All text and photographs © 2012 The Church of the Ascension PCC & credited authors