In this month's News:
- New Resident in Wincle
- Thank you for your Shoeboxes
- Lunar New Year at Wincle
- January at Hollinhey school
- Busy Day on the 16th January
- Sutton St James Pre-School
- A Big Thank You to St. James Church from the Children’s Society
- Sutton St. James: Our Bells are famous
- Blessing Wincle and Bosley Schools for Epiphany 2022
- Wincle & District WI
New Resident in Wincle
Adam Prince, who moved to Swythamley from Burnham in April last year with his wife and daughter ( Paula and Anastasia respectively), was awarded a BEM (British Empire Medal) in The Queen’s New Year Honours List ‘for services to the Burnham Community during Covid-19.’ 
You can read all about Adam's work here
Thank you for your Shoeboxes
We have received a big thank you from Link to Hope, the charity that delivers Christmas Shoeboxes to some of the poorest people in Eastern Europe. Our donations helped them to give out 24,934 shoeboxes this year and our financial donations went towards buying stoves, wood and food parcels for people who really need them- Extra blessings.
Lunar New Year at Wincle School
Wincle school have been celebrating Lunar New Year, we have been chinese dragons on the playground, dressed up in traditional outfits and even enjoyed some traditional eastern food made by Gloria our fantastic chef.
January at Hollinhey School
Hollinhey have had a very busy start to the new year.
Reception class have been recreating art based on Paul Klee and Wallisy Kandinsky and years five and six had an amazing visit to the Van Gogh exhibition in Manchester.
Year one have been drawing their favourite toys to brighten the classroom, and year two have been comparing the nurses Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole and Edith Cavell.
Year three have been enjoying yoga and year four are continuing their brass instrument lessons.
If you would like to read more about what has been happening in Hollinhey school this month and see more photos, please read our full report here.
Busy Day on the 16th January
Sunday 16th January was a busy day in our Benefice. At Bosley, St Mary’s we welcomed Jo Kilby who has long been the parish's mission partner. Jo talked on the passage from John 2 the Wedding at Cana and shared some photos from her wedding at Bosley church. Jo will be joining us again at the joint service on 13th March at the Methodist Chapel at 11 am to tell us more about her mission work.
At Sutton we were able to officially welcome Phil and Julia Williams to our ministry team. Phil and Julia have been worshipping with us for some time and leading services, however, they have now joined us permanently. We welcome them to our benefice and pray for them and their ministry among us
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Sutton St James Pre-School
Here at Pre-School, we are enjoying a busy half term of fun learning. We’ve already travelled to Iceland, learning all about the icy and volcanic landscape, animals and food that they have there. Making our own volcanoes was so much fun!
We’re now looking at the topic “Under the Sea,” where we have been looking at all the creatures and plants living there – the children have been making mermaid tails, starfish and pufferfish!They even walked the plank outside and managed to avoid falling in the water and being eaten by sharks!!
As a special treat, the children all made seaside cupcakes and created their own beaches too – wow!
You can read all about what the Pre-School have been learning Here
A Big Thank You to St. James Church from the Children’s Society
Jo Loftus writes: Thank You to the members of Sutton St James who have so generously supported the Children's Society over the years.
Christine Smith and I are members of our local committee. The Society, believes that every young person deserves a good childhood. They fight for the hope and happiness of young people when it is threatened by abuse, exploitation, and neglect.
By buying Christmas cards, supporting Christingle, and through Box collections we have enabled our Macclesfield committee to send almost £3,000 in the last year to support that work. (pre Covid we were in the realm of £8,000!!). Financially things have been difficult but the parish has been constant.
This year we will hopefully enjoy afternoon tea in Christine and Graham's garden and with luck on March 4th we will have a Quiz Night in the refurbished Hall, Sutton v Langley contesting the much prized trophy. For further information feel free to contact me.
Sutton St. James: Our Bells are famous
Mark Jacot has written a new book about the history of our Tower, Bells and Ringers from 1840 when the church was built.
The six bells, first installed in 1879, were recast and rehung in 1925-6. They are one of the finest Taylor’s peals of six in the country. The stories of the bells and those that rang them over the villages of Sutton and Langley are told through memories of current ringers and descendants of our forebears supplemented with material from the Ringing World and Taylor’s Bell Foundry archives. The book covers the installation and later recasting of the bells, records of early ringing, stories such as a ramble by two ringers in 1884, information on well-known ringers including the local hangman, spliced minor ringing in the 1930’s and more.
It would be very helpful to know if anyone would like a copy (£10 to cover printing costs) so Mark knows how many to get printed. Please email him on mark@jacot.co.uk if you are interested.
Blessing Wincle and Bosley Schools for Epiphany 2022
At the beginning of the month, I had the delightful task of blessing both Wincle and Bosley schools with the Epiphany Blessing ‘20 + C + M + B + 22’. Using chalk, I wrote this over the entrance to the school building, the one used everyday by the children.
As a school we talked about what the word Epiphany means and why it is an important festival in the Church calendar. We also talked about how others celebrate Epiphany around the world and that for some Christians it is almost a more important festival than Christmas as that is when people receive their presents.
We then had an interesting time trying to guess what the numbers and letters in the blessing might mean. I wonder if you know?
20 and 22 are the year 2022, C, M, B are the initials of the traditional names of the wise men, Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, we had some very interestingly named Kings, I think most will remember the friendly ghost but I am not sure about the other two names.
However, the letters are also words in Latin and they are ‘Christus Mansionem Benedicat’, meaning, ‘May Christ bless this home’ and as I blessed the school I said the following prayer
“Loving God, may all who come to our home / school this year rejoice to find the love of Christ here; and may we seek and serve, in everyone we meet, that same Jesus who is your incarnate Word, now and forever. Amen”
You can also bless your home by writing this over your door and saying the above prayer.
Wincle & District WI
Wincle WI ended 2021 with two very enjoyable events. The first one was a visit to Chatsworth House on November 30th to a tour of the house in all its festive splendour. We all met in time to have lunch in our small groups, and then spent an hour walking through the many rooms beautifullydecorated in a variety of Christmas themes. A tour of the illuminated gardens finished the afternoon, as light faded on a lovely experience.
Our very last event was our Christmas party on December 7th held at Swythamley & Heaton Centre. Members and partners enjoyed a delicious 3 course meal provided by caterer Liz Kemp. This was followed by a fascinating presentation from Neil O’Connor, a local photographer, who produces beautiful videos of walks around this area. He captures the amazing landscapes from above, using drones, as well as the views from the ground.
Our 2022 Programme has a lovely selection of topics, from TV celebrity Kelvin Fletcher talking about his farming experience, amongst other things, at our February meeting, a talk on the Blood Bike Service , a Heart Start course from local doctor John Miller and later in the year hearing about how the Macclesfield WI produced a ‘baring all ‘calendar ! Something for everyone hopefully.
Guests are always welcome at any of our meetings, and if you are interested in joining our WI, please contact either myself on 01260 227209 or Judith Bayley on 01260 253129. Meetings are now held at the Swythamley & Heaton Centre and start at 7.30pm.
You can read the full report from Wincle and district WI Here: Full Report