Congregational Bulletin
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CONGREGATION BULLETIN – May 2021 This bulletin is sent as St Peter’s and St Saviour’s prepare to make a fresh start in their life and worship, with Covid restrictions beginning to ease. It also coincides with each church’s Annual Parochial Church Meeting, at which Wardens and PCC Members will be elected.
SUNDAY MORNINGS For over a year, in and out of lockdown, our Sunday mornings have been completely given over to online worship – mostly on Zoom. This has been the lifeline which enabled our church communities to hold together in worship and fellowship while face-to-face meetings were impossible. More recently we have complemented this provision with actual Eucharists on Sunday afternoons. We now feel that it’s time to return to LIVE Eucharists on Sunday mornings. Covid has given us pause to consider how best to deliver our main Sunday worship so that timing is best for everyone, and that the Priest-in-Charge is fully present before and after worship. The solution we have reached is to return to a 10.30am Sunday Morning Eucharist. That was the time at which both churches (when they each had a separate vicar) used to meet. Now they will share it, St Saviour’s on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of each month, St Peter’s on the 2nd and 4th. Each church will hold an afternoon Eucharist when the other church has the morning one – for now, St Saviour’s at 4.30pm, St Peter’s at 6pm. We plan to use the 5th Sunday of the month when it occurs – as on 30th May – for a joint, shared service of some kind. There will in time be other occasional afternoon forms of worship, as before, but for now we are focussing on re-establishing this morning pattern after such a long interruption. Sunday 9th May will follow, for the last time, the pattern of morning Zoom and afternoon services in church. THE NEW TIMETABLE WILL START ON SUNDAY 16TH MAY WITH 10.30AM EUCHARIST AT ST SAVIOUR’S, AND A 6PM EUCHARIST AT ST PETER’S. The following week (23th May) will be 10.30am at St Peter’s, 4.30pm at St Saviour’s, and so on. Each week the website and the church Porch Notice Boards will have arrangements for the following Sunday clearly marked. Our intention is to continue online worship on Sundays, livestreaming each 10.30am Eucharist wherever it comes from, but not using Zoom as before. Though very helpful in allowing us to participate in the services from our homes, Zoom requires careful management, which will not be practicable now we move back to public morning services. Coming to the end of our use of Zoom allows Helen Nicholson, who has personally acted as ‘Zoom Host’ all the way through, to have a well earned retirement from that role which will allow her to join us in the normal way, or to sing in other churches as she sometimes did before. I could not have contemplated getting through this last year without her expert help, and we are all immensely grateful for everything she has done!
These intercessions for 4th Sunday of Easter – adapted from material by Sam Wells – were used at St Saviour’s by Celia Pachmayr Loving Shepherd, thank you that you give us safe places. Thank you for those who experience church as a place of safety. We pray for members of both congregations who are finding the prospect of changing service times unsettling. We pray that your presence among us as the Risen Christ may become more real as we cope with changes and uncertainty. Nourishing Shepherd, thankyou for trees coming into leaf and blossom. Thank you for the gardening group restarting and for the help given us by Petrica. Thank you for the two neighbours who joined us and want to come again…. We pray for our planet, help us to be willing to change our lives to keep it sustainable. We pray especially for those living in hot dry parts of the world where water is becoming increasingly scarce. We pray for those working to enable communities to continue to live in increasingly harsh environments. Good Shepherd, thank you for our meeting with the church architect a few days ago. Thank you for her good ideas on how best to rebuild in the church in preparation for our Community Space. Give us wisdom and courage as we plan to make this possible. Show us how we might best raise the money for it. Increase our vision of how we might best serve our local community. Faithful Shepherd, you come to find us in places of danger, and you walk with us through the valley of the shadow of death. Be close to those faced with fear and panic in the face of the Covid virus. We pray especially for all those in India. Please find ways for oxygen and ventilators and vaccinations to reach them more quickly. We pray for the sick in our own congregations… Searching Shepherd, you know us and call us by name. When we hide from you come and find us. When we are lost, track us down. When we are limping or in pain, set us on your shoulders, make us feel your touch and your confidence, and bring us home to you. When like the ordinary shepherd we want to run away, give us what we need to stay still. Make us a people whose lives lie in the palm of your hand, whose relationships are infused with the breath of your Spirit, and whose setbacks become windows of your grace, that we may never cease to wonder at how much you love us, and others may see us and wonder at what your love can do.
Happily, there is a musical event at each church to help celebrate our national ‘roadmap to recovery’, and the new beginning we are making this month.
The Mark Crooks Jazz Trio are returning to St Saviour’s to play in the garden on Saturday 22nd May from 2pm (if the weather is rainy we will switch to inside the church – suitably distanced, of course!) We are unable to provide refreshments, but as the poster says, you can bring your own picnic blanket, and anything other sustenance you fancy! There will be a collection for these top-ranking artists as they perform, and entry is by donation.
St Peter’s resident Orchestra, ‘Belsize Baroque’ have already returned to the church once, as permitted, late last year within the restrictions. Directed this time by eminent period performance specialist, Lucy Russell, they will give a programme of Bach, Handel, Telemann and Green on Please note that tickets must be booked in advance for this indoor performance (cost and details as on poster) Wine and soft drinks will be administered in a Covid-safe way, possibly outside, weather permitting.
THE ANNUAL MEETINGS Our churches have their Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCMs) within days of each other. WE HOPE THAT AS MANY MEMBERS OF EACH CHURCH AS POSSIBLE WILL JOIN THESE MEETINGS! As St Peter’s hold their meeting first – on Sunday 9th May at 11.45am, just after the Zoom Eucharist, we supply details for this now:- PARISH OF ST PETER BELSIZE PARK NOTICE OF MEETING TO ELECT CHURCHWARDENS followed by ANNUAL PAROCHIAL CHURCH MEETING to elect two representatives to the Camden Deanery Synod and 8 members of the Parochial Church Council and for other matters ON SUNDAY 9 MAY AT 11.45am by Zoom The meeting to elect Churchwardens may be attended by members of the church electoral roll and persons resident in the parish. The Annual Parochial Church Meeting may be attended by members of the church electoral roll.
To join the Zoom meeting, go to:
St Peter Belsize Park | APCM 2021
The above meeting actually uses the same link for admittance as the Sunday Zoom Service, as it follows it directly. ST SAVIOUR’S APCM is on WEDNESDAY 12th MAY at 7.30pm. It will of course follow a similar pattern to that of St Peter’s, and the Annual Report and any other papers will be put on its website next week, before the meeting You will all receive a link for this during the day of the meeting We look forward to seeing you!
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PRAYERS FOR ‘GOOD SHEPHERD’ SUNDAY
