Hello folks Once again, it is with a heavy heart, that we inform you that along with the St Francis Church building, St Wilfrid’s Church building will also be closed with immediate effect for all use except funerals (and weddings) for the duration of this 2<sup>nd</sup> full national lockdown or until it is deemed safe to reopen. The Parochial Church Council and Ecumenical Church Council agreed unanimously that this was the responsible course of action given the current extremely grave situation in which we find ourselves nationally and locally. This decision will be reviewed on a regular basis and we will keep you informed of any changes. If you know of someone who does not have access to the internet (eg may be someone you have been supporting as a volunteer with our Support Team), please would you let them know of this change. Thank you. An important reminder that there continue to be various ways you can access worship and fellowship whilst we are not able to meet in person: -Nationally, the Church of England offers a range of options. Simply go the CofE website. -Locally: -Our 10.30am Sunday services continue at braytonparishselby on YouTube -Our weekly Morning Prayer with Coffee and Catch Up by Zoom continues on Wednesdays at 9.30am -‘Refresh’ for younger women continues fortnightly on Wednesday evenings by Zoom -Beer & Banter for younger men continues online as “Lockdown Arms” by Zoom fortnightly on Monday evenings -We continue with Alive@5 provision by Zoom for those with young families every couple of months -Friday Fun Club for parents/carers and pre-schoolers continues by Zoom weekly on a Friday at 1.30pm -Our ministry to our teenagers continues on Zoom with the Zone, A2O and Thrive -Pete in Touch continues to be recorded on YouTube for schools and families at home If you would like more information about any of these, please contact me, Pete Watson, at pete.d.watson@outlook.com. Thank you for your understanding, and I’m sure you’ll join with us in prayer for our nation and local community at this time. Every blessing Rev Pete Watson & Rev Christine Gillespie
<div>Hello everyone,</div><div>Unfortunately, for various reasons, there<b> </b><u><b>will not</b></u> be a 9.30am service at St Wilfrid's tomorrow to replace the service that would normally have taken place at St Francis. The PCC will make a decision about the potential closure of St Wilfrid's during lockdown this week.<br></div><div>Thank you for your understanding.</div><div>Pete</div>
This month Revd. Roy Shaw wishes us all a happy new year in God, and also, with tongue firmly in cheek, imagines what the various Church groups would make the discovery of a sitting Cat in the Bible.Tony Service writes about all matters Methodist, and includes a piece about the annual Covenant Service.Pat Jarvis reports on the Parish Living Advent Calendar initiative, that was well received, and no doubt the start of a ‘tradition’. Meanwhile husband Karl provides an update on the Parish Hall, and shares his, and Pat’s, love of walking in the first part of Walking the St Hilda’s Way.I am grateful for a beautiful poem from Mike Bunn, and Revd. Pete reports on the Carol Singing groups that helped to raise good cheer across the Parish. Next year will be even better! Finally I bring down the tone with suggestions to improve one’s filing system. Works for me!
After a few quiet weeks it's started again - local church office holders such as churchwardens, treasurers etc. have received fraudulent email messages impersonating members of the clergy, typically in their own parish but sometimes more widely, asking for a variety of things including the purchase of vouchers and gift cards.There have been some close calls with one church office holder actually having spent quite a lot of their own money, but fortunately discovered before it was too late.The sender has taken some trouble both with identifying their chosen pseudo-sender and the intended victim (we guess someone is trawling parish church websites). In many cases the sender has used an un-traceable gmail address.In several cases the first message reads "Do you have a moment I have a request I need you to handle discreetly. I am currently busy in a prayer session, no calls so just reply my email."A reply then draws the recipient into a dialogue in which they are encouraged to buy vouchers, and ultimately send images of their serial and security numbers to the fraudster.If you think you have received one of these messages you can report this to the police on their non-emergency 101 number. They will pass it on to Action Fraud, a national agency. It may not help you directly, but by increasing the number of reports we make sure that they continue to take this seriously.No one at St Wilfrid’s - the clergy, the PCC or its officers - will ever ask anyone to spend their own money in an email – and therefore anything purporting to do this is a fraud. This is a low-tech solution – and it’s roughly what the big banks do when they keep repeating that they will never ask for login details by email, and will never ask you to move money to a different account by email.
