Message from Derek
Dear Friends,
The dust has just about settled on our Easter Day worship, which was a wonderful occasion with the choir and organist making their first appearance together since September of last year… and we even managed a congregational hymn outside the church at the end of the service. We are, however, moving into a new season, and the time has now come to end the pre-recording of online acts of worship, in preparation for the eventual live-streaming of our live acts of worship in church.
I have now been producing these pre-recorded services since Palm Sunday 2020 and I am given to believe that they have been of great spiritual value to those who have made use of them, including worshippers from well beyond the benefice’s boundaries. But the process has been relentless—I have missed only one Sunday in fifty-four! The work involved in recording, editing and post-producing these acts of worship is surprisingly considerable and takes up a lot of my time. As the government now has a plan and timeline for the relaxation of pandemic-related measures the time is right for us to move into a season of gradually regathering to worship together in the church building and of considering what ‘church’ should look and feel like in a greatly changed context. This feels a particularly appropriate time to begin this process; Easter is, after all, about resurrection!
Please do keep your leadership team in your thoughts and prayers as we use the time between now and September to discern God’s will for this faith community as we seek to move firmly and intentionally from a season of ‘maintenance’ into a season of purposeful mission and renewal.
With every Easter blessing,
Derek.
