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Diary Dates March 2020

Weekly

Sun 10.30am Before service prayer meeting

Tue 9am-10am Lent Study @ Kev’s Café Brymbo Enterprise Centre

Tue 3.15pm Pebbles (7-11s) @ Ysgol Heulfan

Wed 11am Lent Study & Holy Communion @ Royal Court

Fri 2pm-3pm Friday Fellowship Group

Week Beginning Sunday 8 March Sun 8 11am Morning Prayer @ Holy Trinity

Mon 9 7pm Church Committee @ The Vicarage

Week Beginning Sunday 15 March

Sun 15 11am Holy Communion @ Holy Trinity

Sun 15 4pm-6pm Messy Church @ Resource Centre Week Beginning Sunday 22 March—Mothering Sunday

Sun 22 11am Mothering Sunday All Age Family Service

Thu 26 10am Crafty Angels: Craft Fellowship @Holy Trinity

Thu 26 6.30pm-7pm Service of Reflection @ Holy Trinity Fri 27 2pm-3pm Fellowship & Music @ Holy Trinity All Welcome

Week Beginning Sunday 29 March –Passion Sunday Sun 29 11am Morning Worship @ Holy Trinity

Sat 4 11am-1pm Community Brunch @ Resource Centre

Week Beginning Sunday 5 April-Palm Sunday Sun 5 11am Holy Communion @ Holy Trinity Sun 5 1pm Baptism @ Holy Trinity Fri 10 2pm Good Friday Service @ Holy Trinity

(See page 4 for full list of Holy Week Services) Week Beginning Sunday 12 April –Easter Sunday

Sun 12 11am All Age Communion @ Holy Trinity

Don’t forget to put your clocks forward for Sunday 29 March

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Issue :

Marc

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The Newsletter For The Friends Of

Holy Trinity Church

The Way of the Cross

40 simple Acts for Lent

Real Easter Eggs celebrate their 10

th birthday

Growing God’s Kingdom of Hope & Love in our

Lives, in our Church and in our Community.

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From the Registers

Our sympathies go to the families of those who have died recently:

David Griffiths, Martin Phoenix, Teresa Griffiths

HOLY TRINITY CURCH GWERSYLLT Vicar: Rev Paulette Gower

The Vicarage Old, Mold Road, Gwersyllt. LL11 4SB Tel: 01978 756391 email revpaulette@gwersyllt.plus.com

Curate Rev Simon Piercy Vicar’s Warden Barbara Jones Tel 07563553126 People’s Warden Sharon Griffiths Tel 439798 Worship Leaders Brenda Trickett Tel 720424 Tim Mandeville Tel 755714 Barbara Jones Tel 07563553126 Sharon Griffiths Tel 439798 Pam Wedley Tel 750121 Secretary Pam Wedley Tel 750121 Treasurer Chris Brooks Organist & Choirmistress Haulwen Jones Tel 756723 Pastoral Assistants Tim Mandeville Tel 755714 Betty Davies, Tel 755139 Brenda Trickett Tel 720424 Sacristan & Verger Betty Davies Tel 755139

Donations for flowers to decorate the Church will be gratefully received.

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18

KENT SUPPLIES

Ltd.

Builders Merchants

Ceramic Tile, Kitchen, Bathroom and Fireplace

Showroom

Mold Road Gwersyllt

Tel 720820

ELIZABETHAN PATIO DOORS

Mold Road, Gwersyllt, Wrexham

Top quality made-to-measure windows, doors, patio doors and

tailor-made conservatories

We manufacture and install all our own products

Our exhibition site is probably the

largest in North Wales

Phone now for a no-obligation quote on (01978) 752020

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Mission Area Lent Groups Tuesdays 9am-10am Kev’s Café Brymbo Enterprise Centre

(Please bring money for food & drink)

Wednesdays 10.30am Church House Gresford (followed by a frugal lunch)

Wednesdays 11am

Royal Court Bickerton Drive Gwersyllt

Thursdays 11am All Saints Southsea (followed by lunch)

Thursdays 7pm St Tudfil Coedpoeth Thursdays 7pm St Paul Isycoed

Holy Trinity Mothering

Sunday Family Service

22 March 11am

Messy Church 4pm-6pm Gwersyllt Resource Centre 15 March -19 April -17 May

Children please bring an adult with you

Crafty Angels Craft Fellowship

10am-12noon Holy Trinity Church Thursday 26 March

Please contact Barbara Jones for more details

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Palm Sunday 5 April 11am-Palm Sunday Holy Communion

Monday 6 April 11am-Film + Fish & Chips (To book Tel: 756391)

7pm –7.20pm Holy Week Reflections

Tuesday 7 April 7pm –7.20pm Holy Week Reflections

Wednesday 8 April 11am-Easter Communion @Royal Court

7pm –7.20pm Holy Week Reflections

Maundy Thursday 9 April 6pm-Maundy Thursday Supper (To book Tel: 756391)

8pm Holy Week Reflections

Good Friday 10 April 11am –Children & Family workshop 2pm –Service +Hot Cross Buns 7pm –7.20pm –Holy Week Reflections

Easter Sunday –12 April 11am –All Age Communion (Easter Eggs included!)

Holy Trinity Church Gwersyllt

Holy Week and Easter

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Hunger for God

Forty days of prayer and fasting Forty days of hunger and thirst; Forty days to put self behind us Forty days in Jesus immersed!

In this Lenten time we hunger for God Come to know that Jesus comes first.

May our hunger

not be for manna May we thirst,

instead, to be blessed. May our hunger be for justice –

Justice for the poor and oppressed.

In this Lenten time we hunger for God Come to know that Jesus knows best.

May we come through

Lent’s forty trials To a truly God-centred place!

May we cease obsession with mirrors

Come to look, instead, on Your face

In this Lenten time we hunger for God

May we all encounter Your grace.

(Tune, Picardy (Let all mortal

flesh keeps silence.))

Nigel Beeton

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Pancake Party

February Photos

Messy Church

Pebbles

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From The Vicarage Dear Friends, One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother had several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head. She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked, "Why are some of your hairs white, Mummy?" Her mother replied, "Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me cry or un-happy, one of my hairs turns white." The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then said, "Mummy, how come ALL of grandma's hairs are white?”

On 22nd March we will be celebrating Mothering Sunday. I wonder what the statement ‘thanks a bunch mum’ might mean? It could mean Thanks Mum for listening to me, helping me and being a shoulder to cry on. It could also mean Oh great! shown up again in front of my mates, are we on the same planet? Were you ever a child?

In the same way for some of us Mothering Sunday is a celebration while for others it can be a very difficult time. However, Mothering Sunday is not just about our relationship with a human parent, it also allows us to reflect on the mothering aspects of God; the love and care and nurture God shows for each for us that we come to understand as we get to know God and develop that relationship. Please come and join us on Mothering Sunday as we give thanks for our human mothers and those who have been mother figures in our lives and at the same time take the opportunity to renew our relationship with God and receive all that he wants to bless us with. God Bless Paulette

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Real Easter Eggs celebrate their 10th

birthday! The Real Easter Egg campaign has been running since 2010 and involves thousands of churches, schools and groups. It crosses all denominations and offers individuals a simple way to share the Easter Story while supporting Fairtrade and charitable projects. The idea began in 2008 when I was given a chocolate Easter Egg. On the side of the box it read: ‘Easter is the festival of chocolate and loveliness’. I began to wonder – was it right for the manufacturer of an Easter egg to change the meaning of a religious festival in this way? Imagine the outcry if this had been done to Christmas. I searched for an Easter egg which mentioned the Christian story of Easter. It became clear that out of the 80 million eggs on sale there was not a single manufacturer who was willing to mention the religious aspects of the festival. So, I started The Meaningful Chocolate Company to manufacture the UKs first ‘Real Easter Egg’. For it to be a ‘Real Easter Egg’, it had to reflect the Easter themes of hope and new life and do three things – have a copy of the Easter story in the box, be made from Fairtrade chocolate and support charitable causes. The Real Easter Egg was launched in 2010. It was a struggle, as the supermarkets turned down the idea. It was left to churches and schools to place orders and fund the making of The Real Easter Egg. Ten years on, more than a million eggs have been sold, with over 750,000 eggs sent through the post directly to customers. The rest have been sold through retailers and supermarkets. Nearly £275,000 has been donated to charitable projects with Fairtrade Premium fees paid to farmers allowing them to buy everything from school-books and solar panels to providing fresh water. For Easter 2020, there are five types of Real Easter Eggs available, all with new content. Each egg has an edition of the Easter story included. There is a new 24-page version in the Original and Dark eggs with activities, biblical text and a prize competition worth £200. There is a poster activity version of the Easter story in the Sharing Box and Fun Pack and a simple guide version in the Special Edition. Both the Original and Dark 2020 eggs are plastic-free and all our chocolate is Palm Oil free. (As usual we will be giving each of our Pebbles a ‘Real Easter Egg’ if anyone wants to donate £3.50 for an egg then please speak to Paulette)

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The Women's Tea for next week has been cancelled. We are sorry for any incontinence this may cause. The cost of the Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals. The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility. Parish Supper Sunday at 5pm - prayer and medication to follow. Don't forget the Singles Progressive Dinner. Attire is optional. The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday. Thursday at 5 pm there will be a meeting of the Little Mothers Club. All wishing to become Little Mothers, please see the minister in his private study. Attention Parents. There will be a conference on how to help your teen avoid pre-marital sex. The featured speaker will be Molly Kelly, a nationally known speaker on abstinence and mother of eight. The sermon this morning: ‘Jesus Walks on the Water.’ The sermon tonight: ‘Searching for Jesus.’ Ladies, please don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands. Don’t let worry kill you off - let the Church help. For those of you who have children and don’t know it, we have a nursery downstairs. Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married last weekend in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days. Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.

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Lent Forty Days

Sundays Fasting Weekly

Celebration Resurrection

Jesus Wilderness Indulgences

Inward

Spiritual Renewal Growth Cross Empty Tomb

Redemption Daffodils Lencten

Lent lasts for 40 days. Sundays in Lent are ‘oases’; as Sunday is never a day of fasting, but a weekly celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. Christians have used Lent as their ‘40 days in the wilderness’, when they set aside the indulgences of life and instead look inward, seeking spiritual renewal and growth. Lent looks towards the Cross and the Empty Tomb, with the assurance of redemption and new life in Christ. The daffodils in our gardens are golden trumpets to proclaim the wonderful message of Easter! The English word for Lent is not at all religious; it is an abbreviation of the Old English word ‘lencten’, or ‘lengthen’. At last winter is over, and the days are getting longer…

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The Way of the Cross ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me.’ (Luke 9: 23)

(Day Williams: Take Up Your Cross) These words of Jesus are spoken at a turning point in the gospel. Jesus challenges the disciples about His identity and their commitment to Him: ‘who do the crowds say I am?’ (18). It is at this point that He ‘resolutely set out for Jerusalem’ (9:51). On our jour-ney through Lent, as we look to events of Good Friday and Easter, what are our priorities as Jesus’ disciples to be? To deny ourselves: this means to saying No to ourselves and Yes to God, as we humbly submit our will to His. Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane ‘not My will but Yours be done.’ (Luke 22:42). It means putting Jesus first in everything: our work, family, ambitions, possessions, marriage, finance and future. We will not be guided by self-interest, but by allowing God to show us how to live in His way. To take up our cross: this reminds us that the disciple is not immune from suffering, as we follow Jesus along the way of cross. Just as He carried His cross to Golgotha, we cannot avoid experiencing suffering in a fallen world. Every day we are to live in way that demonstrates to everyone that we have died to ourselves, our selfish ways and ambitions, and seek to live for God. It means breaking old selfish habits and ways of thinking, as we allow God to renew us by His Spirit. In all of this we cannot lose, because like Jesus, it is only through death that we find God’s new life. ‘He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.’ (Jim Elliot)

The Revd Canon Paul Hardingham

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The Rectory St James the Least of All

My dear Nephew Darren This year, the rigours of Lent have taken second place to a far more pressing matter: the installation of a lavatory at St James the Least of All. Personally, I entirely disapprove of this additional sign of decadence in our moral fibre; we have survived perfectly happily for the last 800 years without one, so why is there such an urgent need now? And being surrounded by acres of fields, there seems to be a completely acceptable alternative. It also spoils the pleasure I used to take, informing ushers at weddings, having liberally refreshed themselves at our local pub before the Service, that we have no facilities and that they would just have to wait. Their look of pained resignation, developing to clear signs of repentance as the Service progressed, was most cheering. It also meant that wedding parties did not linger after the Service but disappeared with commendable speed to safe havens. I anticipate that now we have the thing, a sub-committee will form to devise a commissioning Service for the person who will be in charge of its maintenance. I can already foresee Lady Bartlett proposing an appropriate set of robes for the office holder – although it will need some tact to select suitable insignia on the sleeves. In fact, the project has not been entirely successful; we still need to have a lock fitted and so at present, occupants have been advised to sing hymns loudly. A hymn book has been installed as an aide memoire. The greater difficulty arises from our antiquated plumbing system. A member of the congregation can leave a Service perfectly discreetly; they can enter the lavatory unseen by anyone, but on flushing, water is drawn through pipes running the length of the inside of the building with a thunderous roar. I am sure that in your worship centre you will have lavish cloakrooms furnished with colour co-ordinated walls and towels, baby-changing facilities and video monitors relaying everything going on in the service. But we are made of sterner stuff, and I maintain that our congregation should be grateful that they now a lavatory at all. And to think that someone suggested it should even have heating! Your loving uncle, Eustace

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40 simple Acts for Lent

The Bishop of St Asaph has launched a checklist of 40 simple acts to encourage discipleship through Lent. The checklist (pages 10-11) which can also be downloaded from diocesan website includes a range of two minute positive actions which express the message of Jesus. Lent, which starts on Ash Wednesday and runs until Easter Saturday, is 40 days and excludes every Sunday. The two minute actions reflect life across the diocese and encourage both prayer and acts of kindness, friendship, generosity and love. The Rt Revd Gregory Cameron said: “This checklist of 40 things to do in Lent, all of which are short and can take only two minutes, express something of the Christian message of discipleship in Lent.” The first action encourages people throughout the diocese to join Bishop Gregory in saying the Lent Prayer every evening at 6pm. The prayer has been written by one of the leaders of Hope Street in Wrexham, Andy Kitchen. Hope Street, a new Christian Centre, is due to open later this year.

Loving God, our unshakeable hope; like a seed falling to the ground,

you endured the cross, dying that we might live in fullness of life.

Strengthen our wills to resist that which easily distracts

or we thoughtlessly consume, and instead, look to you,

the source of all that is good. And as we deny ourselves, make us carriers of hope for the world around us,

by the power of your Spirit. Amen.

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1 Commit to saying the

diocesan Lent Prayer every

evening at 6pm.

2 Say thank you to

God for one of the blessings in your life

3 Smile at someone

in need of a smile today

4 Give a friend a copy

of Teulu Asaph. Pick it up in your

Local church or visit https://

dioceseofstasaph. org.uk/ category/

teuluasaph/

5 Pray for the rural churches in our

diocese

6 Pledge a donation

to the diocesan offering – Haven

of Light: https://

dioceseofstasaph. org.uk diocesan-

conference/ diocesan-offering/

7 When you buy a

coffee, leave some money to pay for

the person behind you in the queue.

8 Say sorry to the last person with

whom you argued.

9 Text someone you have not been in contact with for a while to say you are thinking of

them.

10 Pray for the

partnership we have with the

Diocese of Helsinki as a group

visits Wrexham today.

11 Donate

something to a food bank.

12 Pray for all the guests in the

Wrexham Night Shelter that they

find safe accommodation at

the end of each project

13 Pray for our link

Diocese – SouthWest Tanganyika.

14 Pray for Paulette

Gower your Mission Area

Leader today. Pray that the Mission

Area Leader training taking place

today is inspiring, informative and

nurturing.

15 Watch the

Pilgrimage video: https://

dioceseofstasaph. org.uk/youngpeople

-and-children/ youth-pilgrimage/ Pray for the young people attending,

that they may Encounter God.

16 Switch your – and

the Church - energy supplies to a renew-able energy tariff to reduce the carbon

footprint of the Church and your

home.

17 Call or visit some-one who lives on

their own.

18 Consider how you could encourage

wildlife in your Churchyard.

19 Pray for the St Asaph Youth

Forum. As this group meets to

discuss important diocesan matters, pray that they are given wisdom and

insight.

20 Think about how

you could engage visitors to your church with the

heritage and history of the site, but also with the Christian

faith as we journey towards

Easter.

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EASTER SUNDAY: Celebrate – treat yourself and someone else to a chocolate egg

21 Pray for the pupils in our Church in Wales Schools, across the

Diocese

22 As Mothering

Sunday approaches,

give thanks to God for the

people who’ve nurtured you.

23 Pray for the International

Confirmation and Young Leaders Project Groups.

Pray for the young leaders, that they

will be given insight and wisdom to lead

others.

24 Pray for Hilary and Adrian Murray from

Bala who are spending in a year working in Milo in

South West Tanganyika.

25 Take time to ring

somebody instead of just texting - as Bob Hoskins

once said "it's good to talk!"

26 Pray for Hope Street

in Wrexham: https://

dioceseofstasaph. org.uk/ hope/

27 When you go

shopping, leave a pound in the

Trolley for the per-son after you.

28 Cook a meal for your friends or

family tonight. Don't rush the meal –

enjoy each other’s company

29 Pray for the young

people preparing for Confirmation on the

discipleship programme. Pray

that they may experience the love and grace of God and that they may

grow in faith.

30 Take a cake,

flowers or chocolate to a

neighbour.

31 Offer to do the

chores for someone else in your house – a family member, or

a housemate perhaps.

32 Write an

encouraging letter/ note/email/

message to someone you’ve not seen for a while.

33 As the Easter

holidays approach, pray for the staff in our church schools that they find rest and refreshment over the break.

34 Donate clothes,

toys or hobby items to charity.

35 Pray for those

children who will be receiving lunches

today as part of the holiday Hunger

scheme coordinated

by our churches.

36 Make someone

laugh today

37 See if you have a

loyalty card with lots of points on or a gift voucher and give it

to someone as a gift

38 Give someone a

compliment today.

39 Leave a book you

have finished somewhere for

someone else to read.

40 Say thank you to

God for the People who have

helped and inspired you in

life….and Consider how you

can help and inspire others.