I hope you have had good week and have kept well.
Thanks to all of you who supported the plant sale last week. It raised over 2 days £250. Thank you Ruth (Neville) and Kate (Edmonds), with the Church Fellowship, for organising it.
One of the most enjoyable events of the week was being to hold a communion service on the Wharf in Moore. Thanks to Pam (Taylor-Floyd) and others we had a service using the reserved sacrament with 11 present, and one dog! There is something very different and special in holding a service outside with the world going by doing its normal business. It helps if the weather is good!
It was also a good way of getting into resuming our Thursday morning communion services at the Milner. We stopped doing them at the beginning of the first lockdown in March of last year. When the Milner began to reopen, its priority was to make sure the nursery/preschool could start up as soon as possible because the children’s education had to come first. Now that things are beginning to get easier, and with some changes in the internal layout of the building, we plan to hold a service on 22<sup>nd</sup> July at 10.00am whilst the children are on holiday. What happens after that will depend upon the next set of announcements and the Milner Committee’s view on what can be done as a consequence.
After some debate over the last few months, the Ministry Team has decided to drop the Friday afternoon service on Facebook live. With my retiring at the end of the month, and James having some time off for some much needed spiritual renewal and refreshment, we felt that we should focus our efforts on the weekday morning service.
Other developments being looked at include reviewing the seating arrangements in Church. We have recently held a number of baptisms and other services. With people sitting in bubbles we have realised that we can get more in. More on this to follow.
Monday this coming week the country will be marking the 73<sup>rd</sup> anniversary of the NHS. As the Bishop of London has said, it was born out of a vision of healthcare available to all, regardless of wealth and status. It was born out of a belief in the common good. Never has that vision seemed so far sighted as over the last 18 months. May we never forget the contributions made by those who provide healthcare in the UK today; from Doctors, to Nurses, to specialist therapeutic staff, to housekeeping staff, to catering staff, to Pharmacists, to maintenance staff, to research scientists, to portering staff, to Chaplains, to management boards, to administrators, to policy makers ……. all of whom ensure that healthcare is available free at the point of delivery. To mark all this the our bell-ringers will be joining in with a national peel on Monday around 8.00pm. Thank you Christine (Owens) for organising things.
Tomorrow’s service sheet is attached.
With God’s blessing,
David