Dear Friends
This week our new cameras were installed in church. We hope they will provide more flexibility and contribute to a more professional presentation. One advantage is that the cameras are attached to the parish sound system, so not only will the picture be of better quality, we hope the sound will be too. We also hope our new cameras will provide us with opportunities to do more online, including concerts and other larger events. Like most modern technology, there are endless possibilities, the next few weeks will be a learning curve for us all. That said, this technology is new, and very different from what we have been used to, it might therefore take a couple of weeks to perfect our transmission. Please be patient if Sunday’s worship is not quite perfect. One avenue we are exploring is how to include people reading and leading intercessions, this might mean we change our platform from Facebook to YouTube. We will of course give you plenty of notice if we change platforms and we would still post a link on Facebook for those who prefer to access services from there.
Whilst I long to see you all again in church physically, I understand that this will not be possible for many months. Please be assured of my thoughts and prayers during this extremely difficult time as they say – Keep Watching!
Stay safe, take care.
God Bless
Simon
P.S Advanced notice. We will be arranging a Zoom Sunday coffee morning and chat very soon. Please see next weeks e-bulletin for a date and Zoom link
Dear Friends
On Wednesday morning this week at Morning Prayer we read a passage from Ecclesiastes chapter 8 in which it says ‘I commend enjoyment, for there is nothing better for people under the sun than to eat and drink and enjoy themselves.’ This was a reminder to me that we haven’t been able to do these things together for a very long time! The past year has felt to many of us like an extended period of Lent. So as we begin the season of Lent on Ash Wednesday next week how are we to mark this season of trying to develop better habits in our Christian lives? In a sermon on Ash Wednesday a couple of years ago I suggested that we consider addressing the following: self examination and repentance, prayer, fasting, giving money, and reading the Bible. All highly commendable practices, some of which we might have developed further during these times of lockdown. I wonder whether this year we might want to consider adding to these, by doing something different, namely glorying in God and God’s creation. This might be by developing a habit of really listening to a piece of music (as opposed to having it on as background), reading a poem, studying a painting (perhaps in a book or online), walking round our neighbourhood – or even just our back garden – and looking carefully at the plants and trees, and giving thanks to God for the glories of creation. We don’t have to do this every day, perhaps just once or twice a week, in the hope that it might enable us to find new enjoyment in our lives and enabling us to give thanks to God in new ways during these challenging times.
With every blessing
Mother Eileen