Wednesday 12 August 2020

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope you are keeping well and in good heart. I also hope you are coping with the heat!

If you would like to book a seat for next Sunday 16th August, please do try to book by midnight this evening, through the booking link.

There are generally more people coming to church now so if you want to be sure of getting a seat you do need to book.

The Lectio Group will meet tomorrow at 10.30am (via Zoom) to meditate on a short passage of scripture in silence and then share our thoughts and reflections afterwards. Everyone is welcome. If you would like to know more about this, please let me know and I will send you the zoom link.

Last Sunday I spoke about 'bad news; good news'. We are all too aware of the 'bad news' in our world. We may think first of the Covid-19 pandemic affecting the whole world and having particularly disastrous consequences in some places. But of course there are other forms of suffering too. The country of Yemen is in my thoughts often at the moment. It has been described as the worse humanitarian situation in the world: ongoing war, violence, homelessness, disease and severe poverty. More than 24 million people – some 80 per cent of the population – are in need of humanitarian assistance, including more than 12 million children. 'Since the conflict escalated in March 2015, the country has become a living hell for the country's children,' the charity UNICEF declares. Now, in addition to the violence, poverty and disease, some areas have suffered from recent flooding and Covid-19 is spreading rapidly, unchecked and untreated, throughout the country. The extent and depth of the suffering is very hard even to imagine. Let us keep the people of Yemen, men, women and children, in our prayers. You might also like to know that St Ursula's recently sent CHF 1276 from our discretionary fund to Caritas Schweiz's 'forgotten disasters' fund for work in Yemen. This money is but a drop in the ocean but let us pray that it may be used to bring help in a small way in a desperate situation.

As we think of all the 'bad news' in our world and sometimes in our own lives, we are reminded that the gospel of God's love in Christ is 'good news': good news for individuals, families, communities, societies and for creation itself. Let us pray that we might be more and more open to that love day by day and share it with others.

A Prayer

Almighty God,
who called your church to bear witness
that you were in Christ reconciling the world to yourself:
help us to proclaim the good news of your love,
that all who hear it may be drawn to you;
through him who was lifted up on the cross,
and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

With my love in Christ,
Helen