Dialstone Lane News
Ted Dawber
Many of you will now be aware of the sad news of Ted’s death last week. He died in The Christie after a long battle with illness and our thoughts and prayers are with Ann, Lesley, Christopher and their families and friends at this sad and difficult time.
Ted was a stalwart of our church, holding the offices of treasurer, steward and communion steward and was always on hand when help was needed.
He had many passions, plane spotting, Manchester City, a good cup of coffee and Ann’s cooking to name just a few.
He was passionate too about his Bible study, starting most days with the daily readings on the Methodist website and this together with his strong faith and positive outlook on life made him an ideal host for the Men’s Fellowship. We spent many evenings together not just on Bible study but putting the world to rights as well. Sadly, illness and the lockdown meant we could no longer meet as we had done in the past.
Ted knew everyone and everyone knew Ted, we shall miss him greatly.
Margaret Holmes
We are sad to let you all know that Margaret Holmes died peacefully at her home on Sunday last. She had been a lifelong member of our church community, as were her parents, and was choir mistress and organist/accompanist for many years until her increasing lack of mobility rendered her housebound. There are no further details available at present.
Christmas Greetings
There is still time to send your Greeting message for the newsletter to Pat (see the last newsletter for details). Last date is Monday 30th November.
Church Open
Dialstone Lane will again be open for private prayer on Tuesday December 1st from 11.00- 12.00 and you are invited to come and experience the privilege of quiet time devoted to prayer and being in God’s presence.
The Church leadership team has taken the decision today, that while the Government is permitting “corporate acts of worship” to go ahead, whichever tier we are placed in, we feel it is safe to re-open Dialstone Lane for services from Sunday December 6th. But it is only safe if we all remember to socially distance, wear our face masks and sanitise our hands. And we will have to keep the church ventilated so remember an extra woolly, scarf and gloves, even a flask with a hot drink, are all allowed in Church. Please don’t be upset if you are given regular gentle reminders about this; we all need them! And, of course, we will still be limited as to how many people can be admitted to a Church service.
As before, weekly Circuit services will continue on zoom, see Services for details.
The details of the services planned for December and January can be seen here. You will again be invited to church in your Fellowship groups, apart from two services which you need to book in for.
One of these is our Blue Christmas Service at 3.00pm on Sunday 13th December. It has been a tough year for many people in 2020. If this applies to you and as a result Christmas, with its emphasis on joy and merriment, feels hard to face, the Blue Christmas Service may bring comfort. You need to book a place for yourself and, if you want, a friend or family member, by phoning Gill Ramsbottom, our Pastoral Worker, on 0161 483 8812.
We can only provide one service on Christmas Day at 10.00am so if you want to come along, with your family or on your own, again, you need to book in with Catriona Stoker, Co-ordinating Steward Tel 0161 487 2010. We need to know numbers in advance so that people in bubbles can sit together.
We have included two special circuit events in our plan for December –
“Carols in the Car” at Hazel Grove Park and Ride on Saturday 19th December.
There are services at 4.00, 6.00 and 8.00pm and you stay safely in your car throughout. This will give you a chance to sing some carols on your own or with your family or friends but aware that you are sharing with many others in their cars. All proceeds will go to Stockport Mind. You book and pay (£6 per car) in advance through this link: www.carolsinthecar.co.uk.
Tell your family, neighbours and friends so that there can be plenty of people to make a great atmosphere.
Circuit Christingle service on Zoom at 3.00pm on Christmas Eve.
All are welcome to this service and the circuit will be providing Christingle “kits” to all who want them. We can only do this by knowing in advance how many people want them, so please let Catriona Stoker (487 2010, email cat.stoker@btinternet.com or pm me via Facebook) know by December 16th at the latest, how many kits you and your family would want.
The kits, which will include the details for joining the Christingle service via Zoom, will be available for collection from Dialstone Lane Methodist Church at 12.00 on Sunday 20th December and 11.00am on Tuesday 22nd December. Masks will need to be worn to come into the building.
When the Church is open there is an opportunity for you to purchase lavender bags and Sheila’s knitted Christmas decorations. Both bargains at a pound each.
St George’s Virtual Christmas Tree Festival – Live on line from 1st December
There are 2 routes into St George’s Virtual Christmas Tree Festival.
Either directly into Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/stgeorgeschurchstockport
Or through the Church website; http://www.stgeorgestockport.org.uk
and scroll down until you see live link. It will take you through to Facebook BUT you don't need to have Facebook, just click ‘no’ when asked to sign in.
I’m afraid I haven’t been able to test this out before the newsletter comes out.
There should be an appearance of the tree that stands in our Church foyer this year. It’s designed to highlight the work of the Stockport Fairtrade Group, so is made from Traidcraft delivery boxes painted green and decorated with as many bright, sparkly, red and green Fairtrade goods as I could find. For years now the Fairtrade Group has hosted a Christmas Fair in Stockport, inviting many stall holders selling a huge range of Fairtrade goods. This year we’ve had to cancel but you will find a list of contact details for all the traders who came to last year’s fair in the church foyer. There will be pictures on the Church website and Facebook page if you cannot get in to see the tree in the flesh.
There may well be other trees provided by Dialstone Lane in previous years popping up in the presentation that the Tech team at St George’s have put together. Do you remember our tree made of tins of food advertising the Food Bank last year? And the tour de force the previous year supporting Toilet Twinning?I sent in the pictures so they may be there!
Catriona Stoker
Traidcraft
You are still welcome to order Traidcraft goods from me although quite a lot of the craft and Christmas goods in the catalogue have now sold out. However, I do have possibilities of obtaining the goods from elsewhere as I am in a Swapshop with other Traidcraft traders. I hold stock of a good range of chocolate (including bags of chocolate coins), tea, coffee, hot chocolate, biscuits, dried fruit, including Medjoul dates, marmalade, honey, nuts (plain and salted), olive oil and some Christmas cards.
Catalogues are available in the foyer of the Church. Feel free to contact me if you want to check the availability of an item.
Catriona Stoker 487 2010; email; cat.stoker@btinternet.com
Toy and Gift Donations.
I want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone for the amazing response we had to our appeal for Toys and Gifts for Stockport Social Services and The Wood Street Mission based in Manchester.
We all did really well and lots of Children will benefit enormously from your generosity, the gifts have all now been collected and both organisations send their thanks.
Gill Ramsbottom
Food Bank
Urgently Needed:
Tinned Vegetables, Tinned Puddings e.g. Sponge puddings, Rice Puddings,
Tinned Fish, Tinned Tomatoes, Tinned Fruit, Tinned Potatoes.
Long Life Orange Juice.
Soap. Shower Gel, Shampoo.
Not Needed
We’ve got sufficient stock of Cereal, Beans, Pasta, Rice, Pasta Sauce, Tea and Tinned Soup.
Coffee Mornings/Afternoon Teas
We’ve been enjoying the alternating weekly coffee mornings and afternoon teas on zoom during the lockdown and have decided to continue them.
Peter Wentworth is hosting an afternoon tea at 3:30pm on December 3rd. The link for that is here:
Topic: Afternoon Tea Get-together
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/75253089400?pwd=S0NUaW03WDZ3Umt1TXc2eDlRdk5Tdz09
Meeting ID: 752 5308 9400 Passcode: s7rs4C
and there is a coffee morning at 11:00am on December 10th
Topic: Dialstone Lane Coffee Morning
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 924 1816 8185 – no password
Bake Off Winner
Apparently, Peter Sawkins, who is the youngest ever winner of Bake Off, is a regular worshipper at the City of Edinburgh Methodist Church. They certainly have a very nice café there, but I doubt if that was where he learnt all his baking skills!
Next Newsletter
The newsletter which comes out for Friday December 11th will cover the next four weeks until January 8th, so if you have anything you want people to know about that’s happening in the first half of January please make sure you let Pat Wentworth have it by Monday, December 7th. Thank you