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Saturday 27 June 2020 Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I look forward to seeing several of you at the service tomorrow. I know that some of you have booked seats in the church and some in the hall. However, the numbers are very low in the hall, and rather than doing a separate service for very few, we think that everyone will be able to fit into church to worship together (though it will be tight and there will be no spare seats!). So even if you originally booked in the hall, please come to the church entrance. For those of you worshipping at home, the service will be online from later today. Thank you to Hector and all those who make this online provision possible. I have good news! The guidelines from the Swiss government and the Anglican Diocese of Europe have changed, and from next Sunday, 5th July, we will be celebrating Holy Communion, and singing a couple of quiet hymns. In order to do this as safely as possible, the church council has decided to keep the 2 metre distance (rather than reducing it to 1.5 metres). I know that several of you have said that you wanted to wait to come back to church until we could sing hymns and have communion, so I hope you will come next week! We will offer a service in the church and a service in the hall at the same time as I expect the numbers will increase. Please do remember to book your seat from Monday 29th June, 10.30am and before midnight on Wednesday 1st July. You can book your seat online through this link., or by ringing the office 031 352 85 67. Please book a single seat if you are coming alone and two seats together if you are coming as a couple from the same household. If there are three or more of you please ring the office to book your seats. Thank you, as always, to all who are helping to make these complex procedures work. I know it is hard work for everyone. The Men's Bible Study will take place as usual, tomorrow, at 10.45am. The Coffee Discussion Group will be at 11.30am and there will be a special opportunity tomorrow to share thoughts and memories of Käthy Hoag and to pray for her family. If you would like the zoom links to either of these groups let us know. I want to thank all those who have worked so hard supplying British Food orders this week as an alternative way to holding our summer fete. I know it has been hard work and we are very grateful to Caroline, Agnes, Sue, Jana, Sharon, Tricia, and Jane for organising this and for doing the baking. A couple of people have asked if the church could be open for private prayer at some point during the week. We would like to be able to offer this at a certain fixed time (perhaps for an hour each Wednesday), but we would need to be sure that the numbers were limited to a few and people kept their distance, so it would need someone to oversee it. In order to help us with planning how to do this, we would like to know who might like to use the church in this way and whether you would be happy to do so with several others in the church at the same time. If you are interested in this, please reply, not to me, but to the office on 031 352 85 67. May God give us all the resources we need day by day, sustain us by his Spirit and keep us in hope. 'May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you will abound in hope by power of the Holy Spirit.' With love in Christ,
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