WHALEY BRIDGE’s American-born vicar the Rev Cheri Pinner has invited her congregation to an American-style picnic in the park on Sunday 4 July, Independence Day.

Right after morning service in Holy Trinity, worshippers will carry their picnic baskets to the nearby Memorial Park (or stay in the church if it’s a wet day!)

Cheri has suggested a few American dishes to remind her of Fourth of July parties when she was a youngster in West Virginia.  Among them:  potato salad, cold chicken, Boston baked beans and jelly salad (made from lemon or lime jelly, cream cheese, crushed pineapple, grated carrot, finely chopped cabbage and celery and pecan nuts) all washed down with home made lemonade.

Cheri, who arrived as the new priest in charge of Whaley Bridge parish in the spring, said:  “It’s a good excuse to have fun together.  I realised that the Fourth of July fell on a Sunday, so it will be very nice to be altogether.”

There is a serious side to the day, too. The church is noting Poverty Sunday, when thoughts and prayers will go to the poorest people.  The congregation will be invited to take home a ‘Tackling Poverty Together’ giving box to gather donations and return to the Church Urban Fund.  “It’s ironic that Poverty Sunday is on the day America, the richest country in the world, celebrates its independence,” said Cheri.

Cheri spent 28 years in New Zealand, where she and her husband John brought up their family.  The three children, two now in the UK and one still in New Zealand, have joint British and American citizenship.  They will undoubtedly be partying, too, on the Fourth of July.