Newsletter

September already! We seem to have spent a lot of the year waiting for something different… better … more… to happen and we are really still doing the same. Much has improved since last September but there is still a great deal of uncertainty. Yes, we are mostly double-jabbed and hoping to be able to go out and about as normal, but it’s not as easy as that! Some normality has happened… and some has been re-restricted. We’ll have to wait and see whether schools’ returning to classes brings about a massive rise in cases of covid…

One bit of old normality was our church meeting this week. At our first members meeting held in the hall since February 2020 (OK, not as previously in the quiet room, we made concessions to safer distancing and ventilation), it was good to be able to see each other round the table rather than at quite a distance in church after service and have more time to discuss things. Hearing what was said was still a problem… masks don’t make life easy. We’ll have to find ways of getting around that, but we were able to complete a rather long meeting and make some important decisions concerning marriages and funerals in our church, the revamping of the church website and the revoking of the deacons’ temporary authority to make decisions during the covid restrictions. We also finalised the plans for a Harvest Tea to be held on Saturday September 25th at 3pm and decided to resume morning and evening bible studies in the church building as from September. There was interest in continuing the zoom bible studies and it was decided to investigate a different day/time of the week for these.

It was agreed that as a church we seem to have coped well with the covid restrictions over the last eighteen months. The pandemic is by no means over and there will be continuing disruption and possibly restrictions reimposed as we go into the winter months, but the worries that as a church we may not survive, that by not being able to meet in person in church, a lot of us would give up or get out of the habit of regular worship has been proved wrong. Our electronic meetings and contacts have kept the vast majority of us together and talking, discussing, supporting each other. If restrictions on our meeting together are re-imposed we should be able to revert to our zoom services and studies and keep going. We may find that as we get back to in-person meetings we wish to keep up with the electronic ones as additional activities … so we end up with more fellowship and meeting together. That’s brilliant!! We come out with more than we went in with .. which may come as a surprise to some… but let’s embrace technology and let it continue to help us grow!

As we move into Autumn let us hope and pray “normal” continues to be more of an option. Please take care and stay safe… it’s not time to ditch your mask and meet up in huge groups. We will get there but caution is still needed. Keep washing your hands and looking out for your neighbours.

Bible studies will recommence on the first and third Wednesdays and Thursdays as from 1st September: Wednesdays at 8pm and Thursdays at 10.30am.

Please check the Newsletter for future dates and times.

Zoom Bible studies, as the studies are restarting in the hall on Wednesdays, the day and the time of the Zoom studies will need to change to allow those who may wish to go on Wednesday evenings. I am happy to continue these after my summer holiday, I am away the first full week of September.