Dear member of the All Saints family,
Psalm 147 v1 says:
‘Praise the Lord.
How good it is to sing praises to our God,
how pleasant and fitting to praise him!’
and in v 7b
‘Sing to the Lord with grateful praise;
make music to our God on the harp.’
The rest of the psalm relates many things that God is, that He does and that He has done providing many reasons why we should praise Him: ‘He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds’; ‘Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit’; ‘He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills’ – to name just a few.
We have many things to be grateful to God for, as throughout the pandemic he has been faithful to us. He has provided us with each other and many ways of keeping in contact, even if we can’t see each other as we usually can.
We have been mostly unable to sing together in any form during lockdown. If, like me, you miss this greatly, this Sunday is your chance to come and sing praises to the Lord as our 10:45 service will be a ‘Songs of Praise’ in the Orchard. We will be socially distant, of course, but come, worship and sing your heart out to the Lord! Do bring a picnic rug/garden chairs. We can provide some seating if needed. You will need a mask if you wish to use toilet facilities and we will sit socially distanced. One final request – please pray for good weather….
As a result of the service being in the Orchard, it will not be live-streamed, but the 9 AM service will be – please see the Facebook page or website for details.
As Sam wrote in his message last week, he will be ordained as Priest this Saturday 19th at 5 PM in Chester Cathedral. It is wonderful that he has reached this stage as we have seen him in All Saints grow as a student, running the Theatre Group B-it, becoming youth minister and now being ordained. The service is available online on Youtube with the details: https://youtu.be/EqZYNwA2IMg.
Please pray for Sam as he prepares for this next stage in his ministry, praying for God to equip him as he continues ‘to serve Him with love in my heart and faith in the gospel to transform lives’.
As you are no doubt aware, the government has decided to maintain COVID restrictions for a further four weeks and we will continue with our current restrictions in the church and church centre. We also need to be cautious as the Delta variant spreads around us, with the government giving a national enhanced support package for Cheshire West and Cheshire.
It was great to hear that Cathy Armstrong, a member of our congregation who has been serving as a paediatric nurse in Madagascar for the last two years, has tested negative for COVID and is able to travel home this week. Please pray for her as she isolates and spends time in the UK before returning in the Autumn.
With best wishes and blessings,
Andy Creeth and John Chester, Churchwardens