Just a very brief newsletter for this week. You can blame the football and Wimbledon!We are still awaiting detailed guidance from the national Church following the Government's announcement at the beginning of the last week. So speculation at this stage is pointless as to how it we are affected. However, what we hope will change will be that we can get back to singing the hymns, led by our excellent choir. Music is at the centre of Christian worship and we know that many of you have found it both difficult not to sing and also struggled with the apparent inconsistency allows singing in large crowds yet not in Church. We hope also that that there will be some change in the numbers of those who can attend funerals, weddings and baptisms. At present we are allowed to have as many as the Church building can accommodate for funerals and weddings, yet only have 30 for baptisms. It is hard to understand why there are seen to be different levels of risk.So far as to numbers attending at normal Sunday worship, we have, in the light of experience, increased the number of reserved seats available to 50. This has been done by using more pews and providing more chairs . Those attending will still have to wear masks unless we are advised otherwise.This Sunday's service is attached.With God's blessing,David
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
I hope you are all well and have had a good week.We had our first wedding for over 18 months on Saturday. Andrew and Leah were married for the fourth time of asking. Many of you will know them as they were regular attenders before COVID. They had 3 postponements because of Covid. It was a fantastic occasion, tinged with a bit of sadness on my part as it was the last I will do here before retiring.It was also significant as it was the first we’ve done using the new registration process. As I have explained before we no longer have to complete Marriage Registers and issue a Marriage Certificate. All that we now need to do is to complete a rather ordinary piece of paper and then send it on to the civil registrar at the Town Hall who will issue what we used to call the marriage certificate. The calling of banns remains the same. All this will take some getting used to which I am sure we will do easily and quickly. From all of this you will gather that ‘normal’ parish life is slowly beginning to return. Sunday will see a return to baptisms. Because of COVID there is quite a backlog to deal with.If you want another sign that ‘normality’ is beginning to return look no further to the plant stall that Ruth (Neville) and Kate (Edmonds) have set up by the Lychgate for the next few days. Ruth and Kate will be on hand on Sunday, For the rest of the week there will be an ‘honesty’’ box for your purchases. Thank you, Ruth and Kate, and the Church Fellowship, for your help and support. Tomorrow’s service sheet is attached.With God’s blessing, David
I hope you have all had a good week and have found some time to enjoy the sunshine. It’s hard to believe that this coming Monday is the longest day. The year is starting to change! Thank you to all of you who came to the meeting on Thursday night with Archdeacon Mike. Thanks also to Steve, Mark and Gill for the constructive way in which they have worked with Norton parish and Mike to bring an excellent set of proposals for the future of both parishes. Several interesting questions were asked and answered very clearly by Mike. No one spoke against the proposals. The next step is for the PCC to say that they are happy with the proposals as showing the way God is calling us to move out in faith. This Sunday is World Refugee Day. You may have seen the news reports this week about the number of unaccompanied children and refugees crossing the Channel. Gill tells me that at present there are over 250 displaced people, refugees and migrants living temporarily in Daresbury Park Hotel, including several families and 25 children from the ages of 1 to 17. Please keep them in your prayers, not forgetting those whose responsibility it is to offer support and to help them to move onto to more suitable and permanent accommodation. If you would like to help with clothes etc, please have a word with Gill. Tomorrow’s service sheet is attached. With God’s blessing, David
