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Saturday 4 July 2020 Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, I look forward to seeing many of you tomorrow in church as we celebrate communion and sing hymns for the first time since 15 March! The service will take place in church, but it will also be live streamed into the upper hall. We want to check that this runs smoothly in preparation for the two Sundays later in July when I will be away and our Archdeacon, Adele Kelham, will be leading the services and the live streaming will be necessary. For next Sunday, 12th July, booking will open at 10.30am on Monday and be closed at midnight on Wednesday. Please book your seat online or by ringing the office on 031 352 85 67. I am delighted to welcome Dr James Morgan to preach at this service. James is a lecturer in Biblical Studies at Fribourg University and a regular member of our congregation. He led one of our Advent Bible studies last year and he has regularly led the Men's Bible Study Group. As a Christian community we are called to share our joys and our sorrows and to support one another. You will be sad to hear that Jean Charlton White died this week. Please keep her daughter Natasha and her son Adam and her wider family and friends in your prayers. The family have requested a very short private ceremony in church this Wednesday at 11am, led by Peter Hawker who knows the family well. The family are very sorry that more people cannot be invited at this time, but hope that sometime in the future there will be a memorial thanksgiving service open to everyone. The Diocese has organised several services, via zoom, during this lockdown period. The last of this series is a Restoration Service, this Tuesday 7th, 6.30pm. The service will be led by Bishop Robert and I have been asked to preach. The numbers on zoom are limited, but anyone who is interested should be able to access the service via YouTube. A link will be put up on the Diocesan website on Tuesday and we hope to put it on our church website too. The church garden is looking splendid at the moment. Please do look at it when you next come to church. The garden team have worked extremely hard, digging, weeding and planting. There is also some new attractive garden furniture. We need to keep up the regular watering of the garden. If you would be willing to help with this, and join a team to water once a week, please come to a short meeting tomorrow outside church at 9.15am. In our joys and our sorrows, let us remember God's love surrounds us. A Prayer of Trust In darkness and in light,
With love in Christ,
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