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It’s deja vu all over again [187]

Hello, my good friends- Bertie the friendly Churchmouse here,

feeling a bit down about having to face up to another lockdown and another period of time without seeing all of you,

and yet also determined to keep going and to keep being kind and to keep building on all of the things we learned in 2020 together. I’m still here, I’ve still got things to be thankful for, God can still use me to help others.

It is a confusing mix of feelings at the moment-

on one hand, I have made contact with a man who is running a submarine from Roscoff to Penzance

which is packed to the top of the conning tower with nothing but camembert who has promised to make me a partner

(which is good news, although you mustn’t tell anyone) while, on the other hand,

I can’t find out when they will start to vaccinate enthusiastic young mouses with the new vaccine

no matter how many times I refresh the NHS app. I imagine it is a computer error.

Anyway, a few things to think about:

  1. Richard has put me in charge of public morale and acts of kindness, which is a responsibility I will take very seriously.

Please keep checking in on the people you have been checking in with since last Spring.

Please let me know (or my good friend Louise) if you would like someone to call you from time to time,

or if you would be willing to make a few phone calls to people.

And also let us know if you would like something more than that-

a hot meal each week, someone to collect something from the shops or take something to the Post Office and so on.

We are here to help!

  1. There is a lot already happening which people can join in with online, something almost every day-

Morning Prayer on Monday at 8.30, Parish Bible Study on a Tuesday night at 8pm, Morning Prayer on Thursday at 8.30, Saturday Social at 4pm and then Church on Sunday at 9.30 or 10.

If you ever feel a bit stuck or isolated or bored then why not come along online?

  1. And if you have ever thoughts about what else we could do together then please let me know-

all suggestions gratefully received! Because if you think something is a good idea

then it is a racing certainty that someone else will think the same.

And I’m very happy to set things up and put people together.

We also need lots of ideas for the Saturday at 4pm session- what would you like to do?

What would you like to find out about? What would it be good to do together?

And in terms of Church on a Sunday…

We are still waiting for full guidance from the Diocese but we are planning to carry on doing the 9.30 from St Paul’s

and the 10 from Woosehill online and live for the foreseeable future.

Nothing the PM said last night changes that, since we are (astonishingly) still allowed to do worship in person if we want to.

As a parish we have decided that that is not wise.

We are going to do those services with as few people in the building as possible,

which means that more things will be recorded and the Choir, for example, won’t be present in Church:

but the service itself will be live. We are keen to do a lot from home to tie together Church building and home,

recognising that God is present and powerfully at work in both contexts, and in every place.

The exception to that is this Sunday (Jan the 10th) when there will be one Parish Eucharist at 10am from Woosehill which I

(as in Richard, not Bertie- so confusing to remember which voice I am meant to be writing in at times)

will be taking and which will include a Sermon recorded by Jane.

There is something very wonderful about all worshipping together as we did back in the summer

as we go into this 3rd lockdown together.

The link for the Service will be signposted from the St Paul’s website, and I’ll send it out again at the end of the week-

but here it is: (1) Woosehill Church – YouTube You just use it in the same way you do for the 9.30.

And after the service there will be one Zoom coffee: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85155759369

Meeting ID: 851 5575 9369

Password: 662208

And then normal service will resume on the 17th of Jan.

Above all, please, please remember that this is still the Christmas Season

as we continue to rejoice and give thanks for the gift of Jesus, the Word made flesh.

It is so easy to drift into a Groundhog Day scenario in Lockdown

but we are Christmas people as well as Easter people and we need to continue to dance.

If you haven’t marked your door yet for the Epiphany then use the attachment and some chalk,

or collect them from the Church porch on your daily bit of exercise.

Put on some carols. Eat another mince pie. It is Christmas still.

Enough, and probably more than enough.

Bertie, over and out.

PS- from Lynn about the Tuesday Bible Study…

At after service Zoom this morning we had a discussion about how the Tuesday Zoom Bible Study meeting will be managed going forward in this New Year. We are going to have an informal meeting where we look at what is going to happen in the future, both at 3pm and 8pm each Tuesday. We would be very happy for more people to join our deliberations, we are a friendly group who would like to grow, if you would like to know more please reply to this email or you can phone me on 07757701730

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