Almighty Father,
who in your great mercy made glad the disciples
with the sight of the Risen Lord:
give us such knowledge of His presence with us
that we may be strengthened and sustained
by His Risen life,
and serve you continually in righteousness and truth.
This we ask through Jesus Christ Our Lord
AMEN.
My Dear Friends,
Briefly...... ALLELUIA ZOOM! I hope that you will all join us this coming Sunday for our Alleluia Zoom Service at 9.30am. Please remember to have a candle, matches, bread and wine near you for the service. Click here to download the Order of Service Zoom details, Sunday 26th April. 9.30am.
Please click the link below to join the webinar: https://zoom.us/j/97739000345
or: Phone Number: 0203 481 5237 Webinar ID: 977 3900 0345
There are 'practice' sessions available on Saturday, so that you can try using Zoom, check your connection etc. We strongly recommend taking the opportunity to test your setup, and friendly St Mary's faces will help you to fix any issues! How to use Zoom and the details for these practice sessions are found by clicking here. INTERCESSIONS One of the things we can all do at the moment is to bring those who need our prayers into the presence of our listening and loving God. Some of you I know are using your phone contact list, your address book or your Christmas card list to remind you who to pray for. You can now find the list of those who have been commended to the prayer of our church, who either seek healing in their lives or who have recently died and who we are asked to pray into the resurrection of Christ. If you would like the names of anyone added to this list, please contact me on hopkinwilliams@btinternet.com For the names of those currently on our Intercession list please click here. PRAYER CYCLE Many of you have been using the prayer cycle for many years and would like to continue to do so. Others of you may like to start. To access the prayer cycle for April please click here RESOURCES FOR CHILDREN I am enormously grateful to those who are providing resources for our children and young people to continue to be nurtured with a positive sense of God's presence and love, especially in the current lockdown. I am also hugely grateful to those who are providing an ongoing experience of Sunday School, courtesy of Zoom. For further information about this important aspect of our life together please click here. RESOURCES FOR ADULTS I am also enormously grateful to those who are providing stimulation for our souls each day, with readings, pictures, meditations and prayers. For further information please click here. CONTACT Many of us are enjoying the opportunity the lockdown is giving us to make new friends in the congregation by speaking to each other on the telephone. If you would like to `phone or be `phoned by someone in the congregation, as we try to encourage each other through this challenging period, please contact me on hopkinwilliams@btinternet.com. THANK YOU It is always good to get feedback from you following one of my mailings or after the Zoom Services. Thank you for taking the trouble to write, I always enjoy reading your messages. Obviously, like all of you I am very much looking forward to us getting back into church to continue our worship and life together there, but I am truly inspired by the sense that we have not let this recent experience, brought about by the Coronavirus, effect the vibrancy and commitment of our church community. Indeed, in many ways, we are perhaps growing closer. Someone wrote to recently me to say that as a result of the mailings, they have not read the Bible so much for years, others have said that this year they felt more engaged in Holy Week as never before. It is a sign of the depth and strength of our congregation that we are allowing this experiences of worshipping in our homes rather than in our church, to deep our faith and our life together as Christ's people. For this I thank God and thank you too. With blessings and best wishes, Jeff