From the Vicar

Dear Friends

Celebrating Christ’s Risen Life

Happy Easter everyone! One of the great signs of Easter life is the vibrant, visible and active faith of church members. So may I take this opportunity to celebrate many unsung heroes of God’s church who give of their time, energy, love and commitment to serve our All Saints family in its ministry and mission. This duty and joy is of course inspired by an active faith in our risen Saviour. At Easter particular thanks are due to those who donate and arrange flowers helping to make our church such a beautiful place of worship. Wardens, those who welcome, PCC members, administration and finance teams, those who visit homes and care homes, those who run mid-week and Sunday groups. Those who pray publicly and privately. Those who write and read emails (!). The list could of course go on.

“Know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain” Paul says at the end of that great chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians. This labour in the Lord is not in vain because it is inspired by the reality and fact of Christ’s risen life. The evidence for the resurrection of Christ is many and varied but one of its greatest witnesses is the faith of the church’s members which inspires love and devotion to Christ and his church. We are grateful for all that is done and not least on this Easter day for the pointer it gives that faith and trust in Christ is real and alive through her members. Happy Easter.

Thanks be to God for raising Christ to live for evermore, the faith and trust of those who believe this and show it by their commitment to serve and share.

Mark

PS We celebrate this in public forum at our Annual Meeting and seek God’s direction for our future together May 21st, 7:30pm.

From the Music Minister

Easter is a wonderful season for music. As we approach Holy Week, we can be grateful that the church over history has produced such a rich repertoire of music and hymnody that captures both the theology and the impact of the Passion of Christ. It is my privilege at All Saints to oversee the provision of such music each week, and the three days of Easter are certainly the highlight of my musical year. Good Friday and Easter Sunday will see the addition of instrumentalists to the usual lineup of worship musicians, and on Easter Saturday we will celebrate some of the musical talent within the church family with an evening of Bach’s music, with an Easter reflection. Would you come?

I hope that our music over the Easter season will aid you in your own spiritual journey. We would love that you pray for our worship and music at All Saints, and especially during Holy Week; that it will bring glory to God, and be a help in drawing us closer to Him.

George Parsons.

From the Youth Minister

We are in an exciting season of Youth Ministry at All Saints as we approach the countdown to House Party 2025! Many young people signed up and will be going again to Carlton Lodge in Thirsk during the Easter Holidays. Please pray that the young people will have fun and grow in their faith. Please also pray for the leaders going that we would be filled with excitement and expectation for what God is going to do. At all services we will be praying them off – there will be names to take away to pray for at the 9:15, 11 and 6 services this Sunday. We will celebrate stories and see some photos next week at 6pm on Sunday 13th April.

Cam Catto

From the Church Administrator

Introducing 'MyChurchSuite' at All Saints

This year, as we renew the Electoral Roll, we are excited to introduce 'MyChurchSuite'. This is the parishioner-facing side of ChurchSuite, our church directory. The app and website offer several useful features for all church members, including:

• Updating your details: Easily check and keep your information up to date.

• Connecting with others: Find contact details for fellow church members who have chosen to share their information.

• Event information and sign-up: Access details of all church events and sign up quickly.

For more information about MyChurchSuite, please refer to the User Guide on our website, located here: https://www.allsaintsecclesall.org.uk/my-churchsuite-user-guide

To ensure your details are correct and you receive an invite to MyChurchSuite, please complete a new All Saints consent form (link in the My ChurchSuite guide on the website, or pink paper forms available at the back of church). This form provides more details about how we use your information, including ChurchSuite. Please return paper consent forms via the box for electoral roll forms or pass it to a ministry team member, a welcomer, or the church office.

Church members with existing contact details on our database will also receive an email invitation to join MyChurchSuite. Upon signing up, you can decide whether to share your contact details with others and specify which details to share (e.g. just your email address). Please note that children's names and details will never be visible or shared.

If you do not use a computer or the internet, you can still sign up for events and choose to share your contact details with others via MyChurchSuite by completing the new consent form.

For any questions, please speak to Ruth or Jo in the office.

From the Associate Vicar

This weekend is Half Marathon Sunday and South West Sheffield shows itself as running mad! Some of you may know that I am actually slightly running mad as well (though I’m not running in the half marathon).

In the New Testament there are at least three moments when Paul is clearly thinking about athletes (1 Corinthians 9, Hebrews 12, 2 timothy 2) when he is ruminating on the Christian life. Here are a few thoughts for us as around 5,000 runners pass our church this weekend.

Paul was keen for Christians to know that when an athlete decides they want to compete, they enter a strict training period and they can’t just be blasé about it (1 Cor 9:24-26) I live on the big hill they all have to climb and watched them grit their teeth and get better at climbing the hill in the weeks before the race. They think about the end goal, the garland round their head (or a half marathon medal round their neck) and this motivates them. But this garland of leaves wither, even the medal ribbon won’t last forever. As Christians we fix our eyes on a finish line with a permanent reward – a life forever fully with God.

But maybe as the runners from our church head up the hill Isaiah 40 will be in their head – but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

From the Wardens

As you may have noticed there have been a number of changes to the seating arrangement in church. Following on from the recent Strategy Review the wardens have been looking at ways of improving the utilisation of the chairs at All Saints. The less formal positioning of sofas and chairs towards the back of the nave has proved very popular, which has spurred us on to look at other areas. Setting the chairs in the west transept at an angle improves their usability and aesthetic appearance, also changes have been made to instrument storage and choir seating in the east transept. The work is ongoing and, fortunately, we are blessed with a versatile seating system, so please watch this space!

Next Sunday sees the start of the Sheffield Half Marathon, and we still require more volunteers to man the water stations on Ecclesall Road. Volunteers are vital to our church, and there is a need for help in a number of areas, thereby sharing the responsibility with others. This also applies to the role of churchwarden where four members of the congregation mutually support and encourage each other, principally dealing with the governance of our church on behalf of the church family. It’s quite a privilege to be a churchwarden because of the fascinating overview the role gives of the workings of church, and I would seriously consider taking on the role if you are ever asked.

‘Let all that you do be done in love.’ - Corinthians 16:14.

Richard on behalf of Rob, Lynne and Alan (the Wardens)

From the Children's Minister

On Tuesday evening we held our Prayer and Pancake drop-in at church. I was delighted to see lots of children who don't regularly attend church, some of our church family members and the 65th Rainbows.

As well as pancakes we had a range of prayer activities linked to the time when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness and some art activities which helped us to say sorry to God for our sins and to help us know that we are forgiven because of Jesus. Alongside this we made some Lent banners for church which follow the themes the clergy are helping us think about over the next 40 days.

I'm hugely grateful to the volunteers who made this event possible, to those who came and to all those of you who prayed. Thank you and praise God for all He did and continues to do.

God Bless,

Rosie

From the Mission Support Group

We often refer back to the five marks of mission as a fundamental and inspiring reference point for our work on the mission support group. The five marks are:

1. to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom

2. to teach, baptise and nurture new believers

3. to respond to human need by loving service

4. to seek to transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of every kind and to pursue peace and reconciliation

5. to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth

The fourth one is a bit of a mouthful, and the one that is, perhaps, the hardest to get our head around. Still, that won’t stop us trying and so at this year’s mission weekend we are hoping to explore it a little further.

It is a topic that can, most directly, stray into politics and even conflict with the rulers and authorities in the world. We need to be ‘wise as serpents and harmless as doves’. Christians have a great tradition of campaigning for justice. Examples include education, prison reform, debt relief, abolition of slavery and sanctuary for asylum seekers. Often these initiatives become part of the state or legal provision and we celebrate these freedoms and improvements in our and others lives. However, we are currently seeing a backlash against many of these hard-won freedoms. Confusingly, it sometimes seems to be informed by a Christian narrative.

We can go back to Micah 6:8 which is often used to inform our call in this aspect of our mission: ‘what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? So, our prayer is that we can understand and respond to this call in our lives individually and collectively as we explore this vital mark of our mission and testimony.

Simon Musgrave