Church News – July and August 2026

Dear Brothers and Sisters

Summertime – and the livin’ is easy!

As the opening line of George Gershwin’s Summertime from Porgy and Bess begins, we are invited to relax and enjoy the summer.  The melody and setting is relaxed and encourages us all to see the summer as a time to slow down and trust that all will be well.  In the show, it is first sung as a lullaby and its message of trusting that daddy and mommy will be standing by, sending the baby off in a spirit of truth and safety in a busy and chaotic world of struggle.  It marks a stark juxtaposition between the message of safety and the reality.

The world rushes by with change and challenge at every turn.  Blink and you’ll miss it and every day brings a new headline and new thing to worry about.  It’s good then to take a moment to have a break, rest in the sunshine and place our trust in God for all that worries us.  One way we can do that is to spend time in nature.  When Jesus talks about worry, as part of his Sermon on the Mount, he uses nature as an example of us not needing to worry.  

Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds in the air; they do not sow or reap or store away into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father  feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

And why do you worry about clothes?  See how the flowers of the field grow.  They do not labour or spin.  Yet, I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying ‘what shall we eat?’ Or ‘what shall we drink?’ Or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first His Kingdom and His Righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of is own. 

Matthew 6:25-34

This summertime, rest when you can, spend time in nature and listen to the birds in the trees and place upon God all your worries and cares.  Breathe, pause and don’t get swept away by the rush of the world.

God bless, James

We hope your summer is going well!!

NEWS

The highlight of the month must be the Summer Fayre which is being held on 18th July.  Please do all you can to support this fund-raising event of the summer.  We need helpers on stalls, donations of bric-a-brac, tombola items, unwanted gifts, bottles and home baking.  The event starts at 2 p.m.  Please pray that the weather allows us to hold this event in the garden,

On 23rd August, Fairfield congregation are holding a special service of farewell for our Br Peter Gubi who has served all the Lancashire District for over 14 years.  Lunch will be served after the service.  If you wish to attend, please let Sue Selby know and she can put your name on the list.  Our regular service at Dukinfield will still be held, led by Br James.

PATRON SAINT OF GARDENERS?

Many of us are gardeners, but not many of us are buried in our gardens.

Phocus was a fourth century Christian gardener who ran a little guest house in Sinope, on the Black Sea (now part of modern Turkey). He used the produce from his garden to welcome and feed any visitors who came by, as well as giving anything left over to the poor.  

In a time of persecution, the governor of the district sent soldiers to kill him because of his Christianity. But when the soldiers arrived at Phocus’s guest house, they did not recognise him. Phocus politely fed them and invited them to stay the night, during which he crept out into his garden to dig his own grave and prepare for death. In the morning, Phocus divulged his true identity, rather to the dismay of the soldiers, who did not want to kill this kindly man. But Phocus assured them that he considered martyrdom the highest honour, and humbly bent his head to their swords. And so, the soldiers killed him and buried him in the grave he had prepared.  

The news of Phocus’s martyrdom spread far and wide, drawing many pilgrims to his garden. His calm courage and faith in God were widely admired and in time Phocus became the patron of sailors in the Black Sea, and then the whole Eastern Mediterranean.  

Phocus’s life echoes that of many Christians today, who go calmly about their daily mundane jobs in lands of persecution, and who do not avoid the call to Christian martyrdom, however it may come to them.

WHAT’S ON IN JULY 2026

SUNDAY 5th at 11 am	Morning Worship led by Sr Sue Selby
Monday 6th at 7.30 pm	Church Committee Meeting on Zoom
Wednesday 8th at 1.15 pm	M.W.A. Meeting in Schoolroom
THURSDAY 9th – MONDAY 13TH	SYNOD AT THE HAYES CONFERENCE CENTRE
SUNDAY 12th at 11 am	Morning Worship led by Sr Penny Weir
SATURDAY 18th at 2 pm	SUMMER FAYRE
SUNDAY 19th at 11 am	Morning Worship led by Sr Glenys Marshall
SUNDAY 26th at 11 am	YOUTH AND PARADE SERVICE led by Br James

WHAT’S ON IN AUGUST 2026

SUNDAY 2nd at 11 am	Morning Worship led by Sr Gillian Taylor
SUNDAY 9th at 11 am	Morning Worship with Holy Communion led by Br James
SUNDAY 16th at 11 am	Morning Worship led by Sr Jackie Marsland
SUNDAY 23rd at 11 am	Morning Worship led by Br James
SUNDAY 30th at 11 am	Morning Worship led by Sr Gillian Taylor

“Let us make God the beginning and end of our love,

for He is the fountain from which all good things flow

and into Him alone, they flow back.

Let Him therefore be the beginning of our love.”

Richard Rolle