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Mothers’ Union Matters in the Diocese of Chester

Summer 2015

Charity Number 221214

Members enjoying summer

weather in the beautiful

countryside near Marple and

in Chester on our annual

Prayer Walks.

Read the article on page 12

for more about the events

St Paul’s Church, Strines, near Marple

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From the Diocesan President

Were you there? We had a wonderful

Diocesan Festival on 12th May graced by Bp

Libby and with an interesting and humorous

address by Lynne Tembey, our Worldwide

President. Congratulations to Canon Chris Humphries

who was commissioned as our Chaplain at the service.

Were you there when the three Queens turned 180 degrees in the Mer-

sey on Bank Holiday Monday? What an amazing sight to see three

ocean going liners in synchronised movements. I enjoyed both events

for their celebration of considerable achievements.

My heartfelt congratulations go to Viv Ley, who has been duly elected

as your Diocesan President for the next triennium. Congratulations also

to Diana Bancroft elected as Chester Archdeaconry President and

Wendy Sykes who is continuing as Macclesfield Archdeaconry

President. I am sure they will make an excellent team and pray that

God will be with them in all they do for Mothers’ Union.

Our wonderful Secretary Brenda Bailey will be retiring at the end of

June after 6 years as Diocesan Secretary and 3 years previous to that

as Assistant Secretary. Brenda's commitment to Mothers' Union has

been second to none. She has always been the helpful voice on the

telephone and has cheerfully and efficiently carried out her duties. I

have particularly enjoyed working with her and know we shall miss her.

But I am very pleased to say that Dawn Colwell who has been Assis-

tant in the office since last September will be taking over as our Dioce-

san Secretary as from 1stJuly. I know she will fill Brenda's shoes very

well and will continue to serve our charity in the same efficient and

cheerful way. We congratulate her on her appointment and look

forward to working with her.

I was delighted once again to present the Moira Garnet Award for Pub-

lic Speaking on 22nd April to a young lady from Sale Grammar School

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for her excellent presentation on the work of Mothers’ Union. We

are also very grateful for the funds raised by the pupils for our Litera-

cy Fund. Hopefully they will become members when they are a little

older!

I look forward to joining those of you who are going on the Pilgrim-

age to Rydal Hall in the Lake District and I hope you all have a most

enjoyable summer – when the good weather arrives!

With my love and prayers, Angela

T: 0151 336 6312 E: klabou@btinternet.com

Below. Our retiring secretary, Brenda (L) and Dawn, (R) who

will be taking over the role, so efficiently and cheerfully filled

by Brenda.

Look out for the Summer 2015 Quiz.! Your Deanery Leader will have a copy. Answers to be returned to

the Office by the end of September. Please print and sell as many

copies as you can. Remember that, of the monies raised, half is for

‘Mothers’ Union charities and the other half can be retained by

branches to fund running expenses .

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This proved to be a truly wonderful occasion, with the service

conducted by Bishop Libby, (proudly wearing her MU badge,) a

packed Cathedral , Canon Christopher Humphries being

commissioned as our new Diocesan Chaplain, plus no less a person

than the Worldwide

President of MU, as our

speaker.

From L to R.

:Lynne Tembey,

Bishop Libby, Canon

Chris Humphries and

Angela Klabou

During the service, our Diocesan President, Angela and Canon Chris

gave a presentation entitled “Our Father for everyday”, based on the

Lord’s Prayer, which was very thought provoking. Canon Chris had

also written one of the hymns that were sung that afternoon.

Our Worldwide President, Lynne Tembey, in an interesting and

amusing talk, started by saying that the last time she had come to

Chester Diocese was when she was the York Provincial President.

She had been in London the previous day meeting with our Chief

Executive, Reg Bailey, will soon be retiring, . The next day she to fly

to New Zealand to meet members there. A hectic schedule!

She reminded us of this year’s theme “United in Prayer”, saying that

we were meeting to celebrate and reflect on our unity and diversity in

Christ. She told us that prayer is vital to us – it is at the heart of all we

do. She felt that God had chosen her to be one of his disciples.

Chester MU Diocesan Festival Service , compiled from notes

kindly supplied by Alison Neale and others. (Ed)

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She felt like Mary Sumner, who seeing a need, stepped out in faith

We know we never need to be afraid to seek – God will always an-

swer.

Lynne gave examples of various people and groups she had met –

young offenders, abused wives, those on AFIA holidays…. A great

variety of people ,reflecting the varied work of our organisation. She

quoted her granddaughter, who, on hearing that she was to be

World Wide President said ‘ Wow, my Nana's going to have the

whole world in her hands!’ She thanked us for reaching out in love

with various projects, but said that some things do reach their end of

their course and we must not be afraid to hand them over to others,

or move on to different challenges.

.Trustees and Deanery Leaders were invited by Elizabeth Forster to

have tea at Bishop’s House afterwards and to chat briefly with Lynne

and Bp.Libby. One thing that Lynne had mentioned was that some-

where s he had gone the members danced for her – so a group ,

including Elizabeth, surrounded Lynne and sang and danced for her.

Editor, with thanks to Alison Neale for her information.

Right . Also at the service was MU mem-

ber , Joanne Whynder, who spoke to us a

Council in November. She is pictured here

with Bishop Libby.

Left Ballet Rambert or

maybe River Dance……?

Trustees dance for our

Worldwide President.

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.St Peter, Little Budworth

Ann Hankinson

Val Martell

Sue Roberts

St Saviour, Oxton

Anna Picariello

Carol Eccleston,

Tracey Williams

Edna Ingham

St Matthew, Stretton

Joan Thomason

Sally Peterken

Christ Church Wharton

Brenda Beesley

St. John’s Mothers’ Union

Sandiway held their own version

of ‘Desert Island Discs’ recently,

with the Vicar, the Revd Dr John

Hughes, as the celebrity.

He gave a very interesting

insight into his life as a General

Practitioner and his ordination

into the church. He displayed his

very eclectic taste in music from

Duke Ellington to Mozart and was very ably interviewed by their

Secretary Wendy Wren., standing in for Sue Lawley.

Sandiway Vicar is marooned on a

Desert Island…….!

Welcome to our new members:

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Wedding Fairs

There was a Wedding Fair at Cheadle Hulme School on April 12th, the

set-up and Mothers' Union rota being organised by Jill Fairhurst and

with Revd James Ambrose in attendance. There were some

concerns about the event, lack of organisation by Archant, lack of

stalls and few visitors to the stand. We have 3 fairs coming up in the

autumn-at Capesthorne Hall, Alderley Edge Hotel and Mottram Hall. I

shall be contacting deanery leaders to ask if they wish to handle the

running of the stands. Ann Elliot

Action and Outreach Report There were many favourable comments about the presentation at

Committee Day this year for the Action and Outreach Unit. My

thanks to Joan Colwell who led it in my absence.

AFIA Several families are to enjoy an AFIA holiday this summer.

Deaneries continue to kindly donate food parcels or Tesco vouch-

ers. This year we are also including ‘Ouch Pouches’ – small first

aid packs made by Joan.

Wedding Fairs There have been a few wedding fairs this year in

the diocese. The Church of England / Mothers’ Union stand being

manned by members and clergy. If you haven’t helped at one then I

suggest you consider going on the rota. They are great fun and a

wonderful opportunity meet people. Worldwide We have had news from Grahamstown , one of our

new links. There is no news yet from the other links.

Virtual Babies These continue to be taken into schools in the

Wirral and Congleton districts with great success.

Parenting We have one or two active parenting facilitators but

unfortunately the requests for parenting groups are not forthcoming.

Much discussion has taken place as to the reason for this. Please

remind your clergy that Parenting Courses are available.

Diana Bancroft A&O Co-ordinator

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You may recall in 2014 the Mothers’ Union sent a magnificent 86

Trauma Teddies to the Cheshire Fire Service. These teddies had

been knitted by Mothers’ Union members of the Knutsford Deanery

and their fantastic supporters.

After the success of getting teddies into Fire Appliances, including

stations at Wilmslow and Knutsford, we approached the Ambulance

Service if they would be interested to have them in Ambulances as

well.

We had some issues to overcome as regards “infection control” of

the teddies but where there is a will there is always a way! Each

Teddy was individually wrapped in their own plastic bag so they could

be safely transported, and we handed over 50 plus teddies to

members of the Cheshire Ambulance Service. The teddies will be

used by ambulance staff when attending emergencies and given to

children at time when a comforting teddy bear may just make things a

bit more bearable (no pun intended!).

A huge thank you to all our knitters and supporters, we couldn’t do it

without you! From Knutsford Deanery

Teddy Bears go off to the Ambulance Service

The following wonderful letter of appreciation

has been received at Mary Sumner House and passed on to the

Chester Diocesan office. It reads -

I would like to comment on my day out yesterday at The Cheshire Show. We had my 7 month old granddaughter with us and my daughter was looking for somewhere to feed her, .We 'stumbled' across the Mothers Union tent and we were absolutely delighted with the reception we got, as well as the facilities which were second to none, everything we needed was offered as well as a welcome cup of tea or coffee, everyone who was working yesterday deserves recognition for their efforts, they did a brilliant job. Would definitely use ANY Mothers Union facilities in the future and will make sure ALL my friends and family know how wonderful you are. Regards Carol Evison

Cheshire Show

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Nearly 2,000 members assembled in

the Theatre Royal in Nottingham for

the General Meeting 2015 of our “life-

giving, life-changing organisation,” as

our World-Wide President described

MU. In her review, she summarised

many of the projects members have

been involved in recently. Nottingham

and Southwell Diocese had

constructed a “washing line” from a

variety of craft objects related to

these along the front of the stage.

She told us of her visits during the

past year, mentioning her visit to

Chester for our Diocesan Festival,

and, further afield, to New Zealand

and Tonga. Here she admitted

Princess Salote as a new member

on the tarmac of Tonga’s airport!

Bill Crooks and Jackie Mouradian gave a moving presentation of

how, when working for CCMP (Church & Community Mobilisation

Process) they use power of stories from the Bible to motivate

people both abroad ( and now at home too), to look at themselves in

their local situations to see how they can begin to

transform and improve their own lives. Bill read

the story of the woman who touched Jesus’ cloak.

Jackie then became that woman, acting out her

despair and rejection by society, gradually showing

how her faith in the power of Jesus made her

realise that she could do something for herself by

merely touching his robe and believing. After see-

ing and hearing such performances, they find peo-

ple can be inspired to look around and start to find

their own solutions to local problems.

MU General Meeting in Nottingham

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Our Diocesan President,

Angela, met up with a group of

other members from Chester

Diocese outside the Theatre

Royal in Nottingham before

the meeting.

We heard reports from the Britain and Ireland head of Action and

Outreach at Mary Sumner House and from the head of the

Worldwide section, Both focused on how MU help improves the

lives of children, by teaching parenting skills, as there is no such

thing as a perfect parent. How we treat our children influences their

attitude to parenting later in life. The MU Literacy and

Numeracy project has helped over 135,000 adults become literate

during the 15 years it has been running. This has had the effect of

improving the health and general well-being of the children, giving

them hope of a much better future,

Our keynote speaker in the afternoon session was Jane Fearnley -

Whittingstall, not with her gardener’s hat, wearing which she has

won medals at Chelsea, but in her persona as a Grandmother and

author of the “Good Grandma” series of books. She took us on a

delightful trip down memory lane, reminding us of such diverse

matters as tins of Spam and Corned Beef, laced corsets, babies

“layettes”, hoarded collections of soap bars and the dreaded liberty

bodice! She said how glad she was that fathers were now able to

take a much more active role in parenting, but bemoaned the loss

of extended family contacts with cousins, for example and in partic-

ular the fact that so few families spend time together over a meal.

All this, with inspiring services both the evening before and during

the meeting itself, made for an excellent meeting. Editor

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Our CEO, Reg Bailey CBE is retiring

this year and a vey fond farewell was

given to him at the Annual Meeting.

He said that Robin Hood had had

the right kind of idea - take from the

rich to give to the poor -whereupon

he produced an appropriate hat and

bow and arrow! In a more serious vein, he told us “to always preach

the Gospel, sometimes using words”, emphasising our call to

demonstrate Christ’s love in all our dealings with others.

He thanked everyone for their huge efforts of fund-raising and said

how it will be the people he misses, illustrating this with couple of

stories of situations in which the faith and trust of MU members had

been amply demonstrated to him.

He asked “Are we there yet?” . His answer had to be “No”, but the

overall vision of the 20-20 plan and with continued adherence to

“Praying, Enabling and Campaigning” he is sure MU will continue to

be an inspiring force for good in the world.

He was presented with a large bag of cards and letters of good

wishes from all over the UK and a gift from all the Dioceses.by Lynne

Tembey, at which point the whole theatre rose to give him a standing

ovation. He will, indeed, be a very hard act to follow. Editor

Farewell to Reg Bailey CBE, (aka Robin Hood!)

The 2016 Meeting will be held in Winchester, next

September—make a note in your diaries now!

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Prayer Walks in June

This year our prayer walks in the

Macclesfield and Chester Archdeaconries

were led by two canons. The first was at

St. Paul’s, Strines in Marple, known as the

“flat pack church”, a prefabricated 100

year old church with a beautiful interior. Canon Michael

Burgess led members and guests around a route which took us to

five locations representing key landmarks in our

Christian journey. At each station we prayed, sang, listened to

readings and enjoyed the fellowship and friendship of those around

us. We finished with lunch in the church hall. A special thanks to

the Mothers’ Union members for providing

refreshments and an insight into the area

and the church history.

Our second, led by Canon Chris

Humphries, began with a communion

service in the Lady Chapel of Chester

Cathedral with Canon Jane Brooke

officiating. We had lunch together in the

refectory and began our walk from our first station in St Anselm’s

Chapel. We prayed, listened to readings and sang with Canon

Chris providing the guitar accompaniment. He took us over the city

walls to the Roman Gardens, to the

river in Grosvenor Park, St John

Churchyard, finishing in St Anselm’s

Chapel where we had a reading and

prayers and sang a final hymn that

Chris himself had written.

We were blessed with good weather

and warm fellowship and the walks

and experiences were very much en-

joyed and appreciated by all. Derek Buckthorpe and Wendy Sykes

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All Aboard! Although I now find myself

living inland, I am surprised how many people

talk to me about the sea and sailing. Some I

have met sail on the local flashes and meres

of mid -Cheshire, some off the coast of North

Wales, while others have taken sailing holi-

days further afield, perhaps from Croatian

ports or around the Greek islands. As a for-

mer lifeboat chaplain I came to acknowledge

the changing moods of the sea and constant

dangers that needed to be remembered at all times. The essential

elements for safety were:

A well-constructed boat

A reliable crew

A good and trustworthy leader, coxswain or captain.

This was brought home to my wife Barbara and me when we went on

board the lifeboat for the annual lifeboat day. Several special guests

were aboard, but suddenly a message was received that someone

was stranded on dangerous rocks. Immediately the guests, including

ourselves, were unceremoniously stowed below decks and the life-

boat’s powerful engines roared into life. Within minutes the struggling

man had been spotted and brought to safety.

I find it very interesting that the church can be compared to a boat.

The main part of a church is often called “the Nave” which comes

from the same linguistic root as the words “Navy” or “Navigation”.

This is because the design of many churches has in mind the idea of

an upturned boat.

We’re all o n a journey through life, heading towards the harbour of

heaven. So with this in mind let’s reconsider the three elements

above:

Our Chaplain writes….

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Quiet Day at Foxhill

We have booked a Mothers’ Union Quiet Day at Foxhill on

Wednesday 14th October from 10am – 4pm, and is to be led by The

Dean of Chester, the Very Revd Professor Gordon McPhate.

It is entitled: TWO GUIDES: THOMAS MERTON AND HENRI

NOUWEN Chris Humphries

.

The worldwide church is a well-made boat. Despite its faults and

failings, it has proved to be steadfast and sturdy through the centu-

ries. The church has sailed through some turbulent and choppy wa-

ters, yet still provides safe haven for anyone and everyone who

wants to step on board.

God calls all people to be part of his crew. The expedition of life

is not about solo sailing, so we should not be surprised to find a

whole variety of crew members. Some have been Christians for ag-

es and have much experience of sailing the boat, while others are

newcomers and may feel all at sea to begin with! Can we come to-

gether as an effective team? If so, then we will have a good chance

of reaching our destination.

We have a captain we can trust. Jesus is a skilled navigator and

wonderful Saviour. He has undertaken the greatest rescue mission

ever known. The motto of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution is

“Saving lives at sea”. There are many storms in this life that threat-

en to swamp and submerge us. But our captain welcomes us

aboard and will enable us to help save other souls as well.

I’ve always found that the sea and sailing has a powerful resonance

with the realities of life. Nothing on this earth is permanent or se-

cure. Life is fluid and changeable. Sooner or later everybody sails

into choppy waters. At those moments it is good to be aboard a

sturdy ship, with the steady hand of the Saviour at the wheel.

Your fellow M.U. member and crew-member! Chris

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From around the Diocese

Left From St. Saviour,

Oxton, Tracey Williams

(holding Lucca) with Revd Dr

Joe Kennedy and Edna

Ingham, after their recent

admission service.

Right, The Vicar of

St George’s, Stock-

port, Revd. Canon

Elaine Chegwin-

Hall & MU mem-

bers at the

dedication of their

new Banner which

was designed &

made by

congregation

member, Pat

Rigley,

Right Emily Higginson and Kath

Walker are sisters, who joined MU

on the same day, nearly 70 years

ago. They are pictured holding

the cake for the 80th birthday

celebrations of Christ Church

Wharley.

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Calendar 2015 Theme: United in Prayer

Mo 13th –Thu 16th Jul Pilgrimage to Rydal Hall, Lake District

Sat 9th Aug Mary Sumner Day - day of prayer

Tues 22nd Sept. 10am. Trustees meeting at Church House

We 7th - Fri 9th Oct Worldwide Council

We 14th Oct 10 am—4pm Quiet Day at Foxhill

Thu 5th Nov 10am Trustees meeting at Church House

Tues. 10th Nov 2pm Provincial Thanksgiving Eucharist at

Chester Cathedral. Bp Peter presiding

and MU Central Chaplain preaching.

Tues. 17th Nov 10-1pm Diocesan Eucharist and Council at St.

John’s church centre, Hartford

From the Editor Copy for the next edition should be

with the Editor, Judith Dewdney, by

Tues,20th October

30 Henbury Rise, Henbury, Macclesfield SK11 9NW

Tel. 01625 439753 E-mail judith.torview@talktalk.net

Mothers’ Union Diocesan Office

9 Abbey Square, Chester CH1 2HU

E-mail mothersunion@care4free.net

Diocesan website. .mothersunionchester.co.uk

Text Giving dial MUCH22