My sisters and brothers
We have now had over 100 days of lockdown. I know it's been really difficult, and I pray for you daily. Whilst I know restrictions are lifting this weekend in many ways, I also know from talking to some of you that it feels too soon, and that you won't be rushing to go out.
I am thoughtful about the amount of fear that is in our community - fear of transmission, fear of a second spike, fear about leaving homes, fear about coming to church. We are told over and over again in the Bible that we need not be afraid. I think it's a both / and. We need to be aware, careful, considerate (not that I always experience this in the supermarket when others don't follow the one way system!), but we don't need to be afraid. Jesus has conquered death, he came to bring fullness of life in the ordinary and everyday.
I know that we are likely to see so many mental ill health issues as we emerge more: there will be stories to share, grief to hold, there will be tears to shed when we eventually are able to tell of our experiences during this time. Lament is a biblical truth.
There is also so much to be thankful for over these last 100 days - gratitude is also part of our faith. We have experienced 15 Sundays of worship in different ways - some you may have participated in online at St Martin's, others may have been with other churches, the television, radio, or just in the intimacy and privacy of your home. I'm glad we don't have a 'blooper' reel of the mistakes made with some of our offerings - it's been really hard at times, the learning curve has been steep, we have done our best.
We've experienced Holy Week and Easter, Ascension and Pentecost, Mothering Sunday and Father's Day, heat waves and torrential rain, we've experienced births, and we've experienced deaths. The school term ended prematurely for some, exams that had been so thoroughly revised for didn't happen. The words 'furlough', 'lockdown', 'social distancing' and 'zoom' have become commonplace.We have clapped for our carers, and this weekend we give such thanks for 70 years of the NHS. We will light candles in our windows on Saturday night, and a final clap on Sunday.
All of this - and more - over 100 days. Fullness of life encourages us to see the limitless extent of God's love and provision even in these 100 days.
And now we look ahead - in 100 days time we will be due to celebrate Harvest.
I'm really grateful to those of you who completed the survey to give an indication of how ready you are to return to gathered worship, which as you know is now permissible under government guidelines. The significant majority responded that you are not ready to come back to gathered worship yet.
The PCC met this week, and took the decision that it is too soon to open for public worship. They therefore passed a resolution (as required under canon law by all churches at this time) that we will aim to open for worship in September. However, the core contingency group who meet regularly are going to continue to monitor the situation, I want to keep receiving your feedback, and the ministry team will be praying about how we can creatively respond in the meantime. I will keep you informed.
We will continue to be open for private prayer on Sunday afternoons between 2pm and 3pm, and I am delighted that we will be holding occasional offices of funerals, baptisms and weddings, operating within the guidelines.
Finally, this weekend Laura our curate was due to be ordained priest. As you can imagine, this can't happen, although we hope and pray that the service will be held in October. However, she will be relicensed on Sunday afternoon as our curate. I am so thankful that God sent her to us. Please join me in praying for her on Sunday afternoon at 3.30pm.
Praying as always that you will know God's love, hope and above all peace as we continue to navigate these challenging days.
God bless
Becky
Rev Becky Waring
Vicar St Martins Knowle
Area Dean Bristol South