On the evening of September 12^th, about 20 of us from Altrincham Interfaith Group met in the Terminal 1 Chaplaincy Office at Manchester Airport for what proved to be a fascinating tour around  Terminals 1 and 3 Prayer Rooms as well as three illustrated talks about the work of the Chaplains, Airport Community Relations and future plans for expanding the airport itself to form the so-called Airport City.

We started off in Terminal 1 Prayer Room, which contained prayer books for all the major faiths, an altar for Christian worship and a sign pointing to the direction of Mecca for Moslems. Reverend George Lane, who is the Coordinating Chaplain, gave us a short talk before leading us into the impressive Olympic House where David Roberts, Property Development Director at the Airport, talked to us about the massive development plans for a business park at the airport, with hotels and leisure facilities, known as Airport City North.   Airport City South will be a huge new logistics park; both sites are near the proposed station for the new High Speed Train linkingManchester to London.  We were taken for refreshments followed by a fascinating illustrated talk by Reverend Lane about the work of the Airport Chaplains – to help, support and guide people and provide pastoral and humanitarian aid.  He stressed that people were at the centre of their work – people both travelling through the airport and working there.  This was followed by an illustrated and lively presentation by Wendy Sinfield, Community Relations Manager, who talked about her liaison with local communities, businesses and schools, explaining how the Airport puts on special days both in schools but also at the airport, helping young people from deprived backgrounds into work. 

We were then shown the Prayer Room in Terminal 3 with its amazing mosaic of blue, white and brown tiles, showing a stylised Pegasus, the flying horse.  It certainly was a full and action packed evening; we all learned a lot – not only about the dedicated work of the Chaplains, who do such a fantastic job, but also about the Airport itself and its exciting future.

Sunday 30th June 2013
from 2pm (food served at 2:30pm)
Tatton Park
(beside the Mere).

Bring enough food for yourself or your family, plus a little more to share. Don’t worry about dietary rules – people can choose what they like. Simple labels on food, saying what they contain would be a great help.

Games and activities for children

Note that the car park entrance is £5.00 even for National Trust members(Blue Badge Holder £2.50).

If the weather is uncertain, please contact 0795-714-7709 (Poonam Kakkar) to confirm that the picnic is still on.

This years Altrincham Interfaith Group’s Grand Quiz will be at

7:30pm on Thursday 13th June

Altrincham Baptist Church
Hale Road, Altrincham, WA14  2EW
In the downstairs room entered from Byrom Street.
(There is limited on street parking near the church.)

Adults £3 each                                   Children Free

Light Refreshments will be served

 No need to pre-book, just come along on the 13th June.

This year’s Annual General Meeting will take place on Sunday 12th May at The URC Church in Hale.

About 35 members of Altrincham Interfaith Group gathered together at the Sale Quaker Meeting house on Park Road, Sale,  on the evening of May 8^th. We were welcomed by Pat Lee, the Clerk, and then Colin McKenzie, one of the Overseers, started the proceedings with a minute of silence, after which he  gave us some background to the origin of the Quaker movement which was started by George Fox and his wife Margaret Fell in the mid seventeenth century.  He then explained that because the early Quakers were dissidents they could not attend University so many of them turned to industry and became very successful -  names like Cadbury,  Rowntree,  Fry’s, Clarks (for shoes), banks such as Lloyds and Barclays were all founded by Quakers.  Elizabeth Fry is well known for her work in bringing about dramatic changes in prison reform, and Quakers  were also instrumental in the abolition of slavery and are famous for their peace movements. Their strong opposition to war and nuclear weapons is well known and they also lobby MPs at Westminster, Brussels and Geneva. They believe in putting their faith into action, and living out their faith.  Colin also talked about their beliefs – there are no creeds, as creeds are not timeless and circumstances change. They believe in peace, justice, freedom and eachother and try to put into practice things they believe are right. Equality is extremely important to Quakers, at all levels of society.  After his talk there was a very lively time of questions and answers, ranging from the absence of music in meetings to the practical problems of keeping children quiet during a meeting.  Quaker concepts of God were discussed as was the place of Jesus in their belief. The event was rounded off by deliciousdrinks and biscuits. It was a most interesting evening, enjoyed by all, and we are most grateful to Colin and other Friends for their warm hospitality.