TANGO A.G.M.
Tango’s next A.G.M. will be held in the Centre on Monday 18th April at 7.30pm. Everyone is welcome and anyone can put themselves forward to be nominated to be on our Steering Group.
You may wonder what TANGO does with the money that it generates. The kindness of people who make donations enabled us to help approximately 50 families with emergency packages, which we give free of charge, approximately 100 families sent to us from Helena Housing, 135 families from St Helens Council and about 20 families from Children and Young People’s Services. We also supply Baby Basics with essentials such as Moses baskets and clothing, which they give to struggling new parents. We also send jewellery to help The Alzheimer’s Society.
We now employ 10 people with hours ranging from 4 hours per week to 28 hours per week. We also have to keep our van on the road to enable us to collect and deliver donations, which costs quite a bit.
At Christmas we made over £4000 of donations – to the Foodbank, Pennington Lodge (to go towards a children’s Christmas party), Tearfund and we also buy £25 grocery vouchers which we distribute to the families we have helped throughout the year and struggling people in our community. £150 of these vouchers went to Safe Families Merseyside for them to distribute how they saw fit.
This year we also made a donation to Toilet Twinning and we have now helped to provide a toilet block for a school in Pakistan!!
These are just a few of the things we do that you may not know. The community give to TANGO and everything we generate goes back into our local and wider community. If you want to know more please try to come to the meeting on 18th April.
Anne Administator
EASTER SERVICES AT ST.MARK’S
THURSDAY 24TH MARCH – 7.30PM MAUNDY
THURSDAY SERVICE
FRIDAY 25TH MARCH – 10AM GOOD FRIDAY SERVICE
2PM – HOUR AT THE CROSS
SUNDAY 27TH MARCH – 9.15AM, 10.45AM AND 2PM
EASTER SUNDAY SERVICES
WE WILL BE CLOSED FO9R OUR EASTER BREAK FROM GOOD FRIDAY 25TH MARCH AND WILL REOPEN ON TUESDAY 5TH APRIL.
WE WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY EASTER
DON’T FORGET TANGO’S A.G.M. ON MONDAY 18TH APRIL – 7.30PM IN THE CENTRE.
HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!
EASTER CHOCOLATE BARK
This attractive chocolate treat makes a perfect alternative gift instead of Easter eggs, and it's easy enough for kids to make too
Ingredients
- 3 x 200g bars milk chocolate
- 2 x 90g packs mini chocolate eggs
- 1 heaped tsp freeze-dried raspberry pieces – or you could use crystallised petals
Method
- Break the chocolate into a large heatproof bowl. Bring a pan of water to a simmer, then sit the bowl on top. The water must not touch the bottom of the bowl. Let the chocolate slowly melt, stirring now and again with a spatula. For best results, temper your chocolate (see tip).
- Meanwhile, lightly grease then line a 23 x 33cm roasting tin or baking tray with parchment. Put three-quarters of the mini eggs into a food bag and bash them with a rolling pin until broken up a little.
- When the chocolate is smooth, pour it into the tin. Tip the tin from side to side to let the chocolate find the corners and level out. Scatter with the smashed and whole mini eggs, followed by the freeze-dried raspberry pieces. Leave to set, then remove from the parchment and snap into shards, ready to pack in boxes or bags.
QUOTES FOR THE YOUNG AT HEART
Don’ let ageing get you down – it’s too hard to get back up! (John Wagner)
I’m 59 and people call me middle-ages. How many 118 men do you know (Barry Cryer)
As you grow old you lose interest in sex, your friends drift away and your children often ignore you. There are other advantages, of course, but these are the outstanding ones. (Richard Neeham)
You can’t turn back the clock but you can wind it up again. (Bonnie Prudden)
Just remember, once you’re over the hill, you pick up speed. (Charles M Schulz)
Experience is a comb life gives you after you lose your hair. (Judith Stern)
Time might be a great healer but it’s a louse beautician. (Unknown)
The easiest way to diminish the appearance of wrinkles is to keep your glasses off when you look in the mirror. (Joan Rivers)
Old people should not eat health foods. They need all the preservatives they can get. (Robert Orben)
Middle age is when you are not inclined to exercise anything but caution. (Arthur Murray)
One of the advantages of being 70 is that you only need 4 hours sleep. True, you need it 4 times a day, but still. (Denis Norden)
As you get older three things happen. The first is your memory goes, and I can’t remember the other two… (Norman Wisdom)
Middle age is when your broad mind and narrow waist begin to change places. (E. Joseph Crossman)
MOTHERING SUNDAY 6TH MARCH
Mothering Sunday is the fourth Sunday ofLent. Although it's often called Mothers' Day it has no connection with the American festival of that name.
Traditionally, it was a day when children, mainly daughters, who had gone to work as domestic servants were given a day off to visit their mother and family.
Today it is a day when children give presents, flowers, and home-made cards to their mothers.
History of Mothering Sunday
Most Sundays in the year churchgoers in England worship at their nearest parish or 'daughter church'.
Centuries ago it was considered important for people to return to their home or 'mother' church once a year. So each year in the middle of Lent, everyone would visit their 'mother' church - the main church or cathedral of the area.
Inevitably the return to the 'mother' church became an occasion for family reunions when children who were working away returned home. (It was quite common in those days for children to leave home for work once they were ten years old.)
And most historians think that it was the return to the 'Mother' church which led to the tradition of children, particularly those working as domestic servants, or as apprentices, being given the day off to visit their mother and family.
As they walked along the country lanes, children would pick wild flowers or violets to take to church or give to their mother as a small gift.
GRANDMA’S HOME BAKED BREAD
(A POEM BY KEN MUNNS)
Grandma or Nana as she was known At sixty three still lived alone While staying with her she said to me “I’ll bake you some bread to have for your tea.” Down the cellar went this old soul Bringing an old earthenware bowl, From a place so dimly lit A puncheon was her name for it.
I always used to think it strange Seeing her cook on the old-fashioned range, Cinders in the fire glowing ‘cherry red’ Heating the oven for baking the bread. Making sure the damper is right Getting the coals burning so bright.
I’m sent for three h’aporth of balm The coins gripped tightly within my palm. I knew later on we would have a feast The balm she wanted we call yeast. Miss Pashley talked in friendly tone As she filled the little paper cone, Carefully the packet not to drop I returned from the corner shop.
She mixed with flour to make the dough And I stood by and watched it grow. She knocked it back and kneaded it Andpummelled it for quite a bit. Then she said with a smile so wise “Now just you wait and watch it rise”. Each blob of dough she placed in a tin The oven now ready for it to go in.
Soon we knew that all was well The kitchen was filled with a wonderful smell, When it was ready that bread so light With a firm brown crust what a lovely sight, Removed from the tins to cool on the shelf, Spread with butter ‘twas a meal in itself’.
¼ to TANGO
Dear everyone,
Welcome to the Spring edition of our TANGO magazine.
It always feels like a long haul from Christmas to Easter, but as the days get lighter we dare to dream of warm weather and the start of Summer.
Easter is a time of new beginnings, fresh starts and for some of us the end of Lent!
Having a hope and a future is something we often talk about here in TANGO. Building a community that offers this is what I believe to be the reason we are here.
The message of Easter is one of God’s sacrifice, forgiveness and love. Once you have experienced this you will know that you have hope and a future which we are called to share.
At TANGO we are looking to the future and the best ways in which we can share the Easter message with our community through our lives and work.
I hope you all enjoy plenty of chocolate and have a very happy Easter.
Fiona
Good Friday, Easter and Whitsun
Good Friday is observed on the Friday beforeEasterSunday. On this day Christians commemorate thepassion, or suffering, anddeath on the crossof the Lord,Jesus Christ.
ManyChristiansspend this day infasting, prayer,repentance, and meditation on the agony and suffering of Christ on the cross.
On Easter Sunday, Christians celebratethe resurrectionof the Lord, Jesus Christ. Christians believe, according to Scripture, that Jesus came back to life, or was raised from the dead, three days after his death on the cross. As part of the Easter season, the death of Jesus Christ by crucifixionis commemorated onGood Friday, always the Friday just before Easter. Through his death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus paid the penalty for sin, thus purchasing for all who believe in him, eternal life inChrist Jesus.
WhitSunday or Whitsunday, commemorates the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the disciples of Jesus Christ, according to the New Testament of the Bible.
This day became especiallysignificantforChristiansbecause, seven weeks after the resurrection of Jesus (though this is now a fixed holiday on the last Sunday of May), during the Jewish celebration of Shavuot/Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon his first followers, thus empowering them for their mission and gathering them together as a church. In many ways, Pentecost is the birthday of the church.
What does the word “Pentecost” mean?
The English word “Pentecost” is a transliteration of the Greek wordpentekostos, which means “fifty.” It comes from the ancient Christian expression pentekostehemera, which means “fiftieth day.”
But Christians did not invent the phrase “fiftieth day.” Rather, they borrowed it from Greek-speaking Jews who used the phrase to refer to a Jewish holiday. This holiday was known as the Festival of Weeks, or, more simply, Weeks (Shavuotin Hebrew). This name comes from an expression in Leviticus 23:16, which instructs people to count seven weeks or “fifty days” from the end of Passover to the beginning of the next holiday (pentekontahemerasin the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Scripture).
Shavuotwas the second great feast in Israel’s yearly cycle of holy days. It was originally a harvest festival (Exod 23:16), but, in time, turned into a day to commemorate the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai. This day became especially significant for Christians because, seven weeks after the resurrection of Jesus, during the Jewish celebration of Shavuot/Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon his first followers, thus empowering them for their mission and gathering them together as a church.
Peter went on to explain that Jesus had been raised and had poured out the Spirit in fulfillment of God’s promise through Joel (2:32-33). When the crowd asked what they should do, Peter urged them to turn their lives around and be baptized in the name of Jesus. Then they would be forgiven and would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (2:37-39). Acts reports that about 3,000 people were added to the church that day (2:41). Not a bad response to Peter’s first sermon!
Some churches receive new members on Pentecost, thus commemorating the first “new members class” that joined the church after Peter’s Pentecost sermon. Centuries ago in Britain, those joining the church wore white for baptism. Thus the Sunday was called “White Sunday” or “Whitsunday.”