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Thursday 20 August 2020 Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, It is wonderful that the numbers attending church on Sundays is now increasing. It is very good to see you all. The increased numbers do mean that it is not always easy to get a seat on Sunday and sometimes the seats are fully booked and people are disappointed. Please can I ask that if you do book a seat and then cannot attend, for whatever reason, that you let us know - even if it is at the last minute on the Sunday morning? Please text either 077 495 7419 or 076 690 50 88 to let us know if you are not coming. Otherwise we end up with empty seats which someone else could have used. We would like to make it possible for all those who would like to come to church to be able to do so. We are looking at creative ways to enable this to happen. One of these includes holding a mid-week service, with the same content as the Sunday service. This would not be an additional service for the same people who come on Sunday, but an alternative service to Sunday. We would like to know how many people would consider coming to a mid-week service instead of Sunday. Please would you take time to answer a very short and simple survey which asks this and a few other questions concerning Junior Church, Bible study, and the online service. To answer the survey, please click on the link. We were grateful to the large number who answered our first survey before our re-opening and we do hope that you will take a few moments to answer this survey now. This will be very helpful to us in making future plans for the benefit of everyone. This Sunday, 23rd August is a special service as Rachel will be baptised. Please do keep Rachel in your prayers. I am delighted that Rachel will give a short testimony during the service. For those of you who cannot be there I am attaching it here for you to read. I'm also attaching some words from Rachel's friend, Dr Kelly Shang, who has encouraged her along the Christian way, and is now training for ministry in the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne. The online service for this Sunday will as always be available from Saturday evening at: http://www.stursula.ch/Services/ Thank you to Hector and Martin for their hard work in producing this. Booking seats for next Sunday, 30th August, will open on Monday 24th, 10am, and close at midnight on Wednesday 26th. You can use the online booking system at https://www.trybooking.com/BLCMT or ring the office. So many people contribute so generously to the life of our church. Amongst other things, I am sure we all appreciate the lovely flower arrangements each Sunday. The flower team, who hard so hard to make these arrangements, is now very small in number. They are appealing for more helpers, especially someone who would take on organising the rota. If you are interested in finding out more about this, please do let me know. Since the lockdown began I have been sending out email messages twice a week to stay in touch with everyone, provide news and information, and to seek to offer some reflections, thoughts and prayers in these strange times. As I am now seeing more of you in person, lockdown is easing, and other activities are increasing, I will only be sending out one of these messages each week in the future. As we prepare to celebrate Rachel's baptism on Sunday, perhaps this is a good opportunity to give thanks for our own baptism and reflect on what it means to follow Christ and be a member of his body. Below are a couple of prayers from the baptism service: Almighty God,
God of mercy,
May the words I say to Rachel at the end of the service be true for us all: You have received the light of Christ;
With my love in Christ,
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