Wednesday 2 June 2021

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I look forward to seeing many of you on Sunday. There are still a few seats available. If you would like to come, please contact the office by 11am on Thursday morning. As usual, you can also follow the service online. We are all very thankful to Hector, Martin and Art for making this possible.

Booking Seats (please read this)

• If you would like to attend a service, please do contact the office to book a seat before Thursday at 11am. (I am aware that in some larger churches it is not necessary to book seats, but unfortunately we need to do this due to our limited space).
• I know that some people kindly only book a seat every other Sunday in order to give others an opportunity to attend a service. But if you would ideally like to come every week, please do say so. This would enable us to have a realistic picture of the numbers of people who want to attend Sunday worship in church.
• If there are too many people to fit in the church, we will compile a waiting list.
• If you book a seat and find you are unable to come, please contact us to tell us so that we can offer the seat to someone else. It is a shame if there are empty seats when others may have wanted to attend. NB Maria is not in the office after Thursday lunchtime, so after this point you will need to email me, or text me on 077 495 7419.

Numbers and Singing
As you may know, it is now permitted to have 100 people in church services, or, for smaller churches half the capacity of the building (which in our case is around 60). While we maintain the 2 meter distance between those of different households, we cannot fit any more than 45 people in St Ursula's. At the moment it does not seem that any more than 45 people wish to attend on a Sunday morning. But when the numbers of those wishing to attend increases, and most people are vaccinated, then we will consider reducing the distance between seats so that we can fit more people in.

From this Sunday we will be singing two hymns or songs (quietly, with masks on).

Everyday Faith: Bringing an Object
This Sunday, I invite you to bring an object which represents something of your daily life: your work, leisure, family life or community involvement. Or it could be a photo of someone you are concerned about. We will offer these to God at the beginning of the service and take them up again at the blessing and dismissal.

Men's Group
The group will be meeting on Sunday at 11.30am, via Zoom. If you are not on the mailing list for the Zoom link, and would like to be, please let me know.

Sunday Coffee Time
Every Sunday at 11.30am. We meet together, via Zoom, to share reflections on the readings and sermon. Ask for the Zoom link.

Online reading of Mark's gospel: Tuesday 8th June, 7-8.30pm (via Zoom)
On Tuesday, we continue our reading of Mark's gospel, chapters 9-16. The gospel will be read aloud by different readers. I will offer some comments and we will have opportunity to share our reflections afterwards. Please do join us.

Online Summer Fete and Book Stall
The summer fete online site is now closed. But do come along to look at our books. (Numbers are restricted to 5 people at any one time). The book stall will be open:

• Friday 4th, 11am-1pm.
• Saturday 5th, 10am- 2pm. Why not look at the books when collecting your orders?
• Sunday 6th, 11am-12noon.

A big thank you to those running the book stall and organising the online sale and to all those who are baking and cooking and contributing in other ways.

We are very fortunate to be able to read and study the Bible in our own language. I end my message with a poem written by Wendy Martinek (a member of our congregation) in honour of William Tyndale, who was the first person to translate the New Testament into English, in 1525. He was burned at the stake in 1536

To place the Bible in a ploughboy's hand
You wrote and taught, and toiled with scholar's pain.
We hold the word of God between our hands
And savour it, and turn the page again.
You, saintly scholar of an age gone by,
Gave up ambition, comfort, home and self
To translate truth, and would not let it lie
Buried in scroll dust on a clerkly shelf.
You and your work were fuel for the flames
That sanctified your sacrifice to God.
Such holy fire changed ashes into fame.
The living word still lights the path you trod.

We read transcribed 'the truth shall make you free';
And we are blessed if we have eyes to see.

(Wendy Martinek)

With love in Christ,
Helen