Saturday 23 May 2020

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Many of you will have heard the news that churches are permitted to open after May 28th. This is wonderful news and many of us will be very keen to have St Ursula's open as soon as possible. As I have often said in my messages to you all, we miss out on so much when we cannot gather in person to worship.

However, there is a great deal to be done before we can open our church again. There are lots of guidelines to be worked through and we are required to submit a detailed plan. A group of us are meeting (online) on Monday to make further plans, but we will also need to take note of new Church of England guidelines that are due to come out next week. We will do all we can to plan carefully, taking due note of the regulations from both the Swiss government and the Church of England. We will open the church when we know that everything that needs to be done is in place. We very much want to open the church for worship, but we also have a responsibility to make sure this is done as safely as possible. We should all also be prepared for the fact that church services will be very different for some time ahead. I will give you more details about the date church will be opened and what the restrictions will be in my email next week.

Tomorrow is the Sunday after Ascension and the material for the online service is here.

The focus of the service will be 'Thy Kingdom Come', which is also the name of the global prayer movement I mentioned in my last message. I remind you that, during this period between Ascension and Pentecost we are particularly encouraged to pray together with Christians all round the world. Please let us say the Lord's Prayer together every day at noon. There is a wealth of other material to help us pray as individuals and as families. Please see the links in my last email.

After the Sunday service, the Men's Bible Study Group will meet as usual at 10.45am, and the Coffee and Discussion Group will met at 11.30am, both via Zoom. If you would like to participate please let me know.

Peter Hawker passed on to me a very interesting talk by Murray Watts, a Christian playwright, on 'hope and hopelessness'. You may want to listen to it here: https://www.murraywatts.co.uk/talks

Looking further ahead, we are planning on having another quiz night. Below is a message from Sue:

'Dear Friends,

Our last online quiz was a fun event and a lot of success. In particular the participants enjoyed getting into breakout rooms and getting to know each other better. Therefore we are planning another event for Church members only, where the questions will be aimed at getting to know each other better, and the teams will change from round to round. It will be in the next magazine, but I wanted to give you advance notice of it.

The event will take place on Zoom, on Sunday 14th June in the afternoon to allow families to join in. As it is an online event, you will join from the comfort of your own home, and can join as a family, a couple or a single. It really does not matter.

There is no fee to join, as this is just for fun. To register, please send an email to event@stursula.ch. Include in the email your name and names of any others in your household joining. The time of the quiz is currently planned for 3pm, but we can be flexible, so if there is a time that works better for you, please include it in the mail, and we will see if we can change it. The duration of the quiz will be around 2 hours, but children can come and go as they please. Questions will be displayed on the screen for the hard of hearing.'

A huge thanks to Sue for organising this event.

I leave you with a poem which reminds us of the upside down nature of God's Kingdom:

Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be Done

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth
Can we imagine what we're asking for?
When all we know and all we think we're worth
as vanity might vanish, disappear,
fading before the splendours you reveal:
the beggars crowned with glory, all the meek
exalted even as the mighty fall,
and everywhere the triumph of the weak.

And we, who have been first, will be the last
and queue for mercy like the refugees
whom only moments earlier we passed
by on the other side. For now the seas
that separated are no more. The Sun
is risen like justice, and his will is done.

(Malcolm Guite)

As we pray 'Thy Kingdom Come', let us also pray for the resources of the Spirit.

'May the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing through the power of the Holy Spirit' (Romans 15:13)

With love in Christ,
Helen