Our Parish Church in Mellor
St Mary the Virgin Mellor is a friendly Parish Church committed to serving God and the community of Mellor in the heart of Lancashire. This website and our Facebook page tell you something about who we are, what we do, when we do it etc.. We update it regularly and contributions are welcomed. We hope you find it helpful and interesting. We would be delighted to talk to you about our church life and to welcome you into the congregation.Ā Ā
If you'd like to know more about us, please come along to worship with us on a Sunday or Tuesday, or join in any of our events - we'd love to see you. Take a look at "News & announcements" to see what's coming up.
Karen our Vicar can be contacted on:Ā
01254 814041Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā
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Rev'd Karen Herschell our new Vicar from 27th June 2021
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Link to our church facebook page
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Parish Safeguarding Arrangements
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The Vicarās Light ReflectionsĀ
Light Reflections⦠āLet your light shineā¦ā (Matthew 5.16)Ā
āJesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and asked Godās blessing on the food. Breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread and fish to the disciples to give to the people. They all ate as much as they wanted, and they picked up twelve baskets of leftovers!ā (Luke 9:16-17)
We have now entered the time of Lent, the six-week period of preparation before Easter. The Gospel reading on the First Sunday in Lent was the story of Jesus in the Wilderness where he prayed and fasted for 40 days and nights, overcoming the temptations of Satan. Christians often spend time in Lent, in prayer and fasting or by āgiving something upā reflecting on these sacrifices of Jesus. So, in the light of this, you may be wondering why I chose to head this reflection with these verses from Lukeās account of Jesus Feeding the Five Thousand, this does not look much like a Lenten fast when, 5,000 men, plus women and children were fed until they were full and couldnāt eat any more with just five loaves and two fish; and there was still a mountain of leftovers! What abundance and generosity!
To explain, I do believe that just before the start of Lent, we had a glimpse of heaven breaking in on our Benefice, a sign of Godās love, provision, and deep generosity towards us. This happened at the United Benefice mid-week Holy Communion service. We have a faithful congregation at this well-attended simple service. Now, each week, myself, and the sacristan (the person who prepares the Lordās table and the wafers and the wine), know how many wafers we have and depending on the numbers of people in the congregation, before blessing, I can add to or take away the wafers so that we have roughly the right amount. There are usually one or two left over which I then consume afterwards. That Tuesday, however, at the end of the distribution of the bread, it was apparent there were many wafers still left. I thought it odd that there was so many, as we had a good number of people at the service and all had received the body of Christ, but I dismissed it. When the sacristan came to clear up, they were utterly taken a back about the number of āleftoversā there wereā¦they knew exactly how many they had put in the ciborium before the service (itās the same number every week) and it was nearly that amount again left over, even after all had received. We were both astonished, there did not seem to be any logical or rational explanation for this. We have since pondered on this and the more I have thought about it, the more I wonder, whether like the loaves of bread and the fish, together with the basket of leftovers, we had experienced a miracle.
It is currently a time of scarcity (check out the vegetable shelves in the supermarket!), the cost of living and energy is seriously causing financial difficulties, there is ānot enough to go aroundā and our United Benefice churches too are struggling in paying bills, affording necessary maintenance and repairs to beautiful, but costly Grade I & II listed buildings. And yet, in the midst of these very real concerns and worries, maybe, just maybe God is saying; keep being faithful, donāt focus on the lack, but instead focus on me, for I will bless you, I will not let you go hungry, I will provide for all you need, in my power the less and the least will become a bounty that will feed, satisfy and produce an abundance of leftovers for all to share. āJesus replied, āI am the bread of life. No one who comes to me will ever be hungry again. Those who believe in me will never thirst.ā (John 6:35)
Blessing, Revād KarenĀ Christ Centered...Kingdom Focused
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