Thursday 14 January 2021

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We are all hoping that we will be able to hold services in church again soon, but we also need to act wisely. In a recent letter to all chaplains, Bishop Robert urged us to consider carefully the situation in our local context and also the age and vulnerabilities of the members of our congregation. At our council meeting on Tuesday, we noted that the number of new cases of the virus locally is going down slowly, but that there is concern amongst health professionals that there may be a surge in the next few weeks due to the after effect of the Christmas holidays and the spread of the new variants of the virus. We decided therefore to monitor what happens over these next few weeks and review the data at the next council meeting on 2nd February. For now, all services will be offered online only. We are tremendously grateful to Hector and others for all the hard work involved in this.

The service for this Sunday, 17th January, will be put online on Saturday evening here

Private Prayer in Church
Some people may like to come into church for private prayer. When we offered this during the first lockdown noone took it up, but it may be that there is more interest now. If you would like to do this, please ring Maria in the office and you will be given a 30 minute slot. We will only have one person praying in the church at any one time (unless there are several from the same household). Anyone who comes to pray will need to disinfect any surfaces they have touched afterwards.

Sunday Coffee Time
You are invited to meet together after church every Sunday at 11am via Zoom. This is an opportunity to discuss the readings or the sermon and to generally catch up with one another.

Lectio Divina
A group of us meet every Thursday morning, 10.30-11.15am to reflect on a short passage of scripture in silence and share our thoughts afterwards. Let me know if you would like to join us.

Bible Studies
The next Men's Group will be at 10.45 on Sunday 24th January. The next online Bible Study will be at 7pm, Tuesday 26th January.

Following Christ in troubled times
We live in very troubling and challenging times and we may sometimes be tempted to lose heart. As followers of Christ, we are certainly not promised that everything will be easy or that we will be protected from suffering. But we can know that 'he is always with us' no matter 'whatever storms or floods are threatening.' You might find Malcolm Guite's poem below helpful:

The Call of the Disciples
He calls us all to step aboard his ship,
Take the adventure on this morning's wing,
Raise sail with him, launch out into the deep,
Whatever storms or floods are threatening.
If faith gives way to doubt, or love to fear,
Then, as on Galilee, we'll rouse the Lord,
For he is always with us and will hear,
And make our peace with his creative Word,
Who made us, loved us, formed us and has set
All his beloved lovers in an ark;
Borne upwards by his Spirit, we will float
Above the rising waves, the falling dark,
As fellow pilgrims, driven towards that haven,
Where all will be redeemed, fulfilled, forgiven.

With love in Christ,
Helen