Dear friends,
It has been a little over 24 hours since my last email to you all, and
already it feels as though life has changed significantly for most of us.
Since yesterday, a small team of us from St James’ have been working hard
to establish what the current situation means for all aspects of our life
and worship together. At this stage, it feels important to clarify two
things:
1) Our regular pattern of worship together on a Sunday morning will not be
taking place for the foreseeable future. Most churches with a level of
computer literacy are looking into ways of sharing regular times of worship
together online – we are exploring avenues of how to do this simply and
effectively. When we have figured out what we would like to do, we will do
our best to enable everyone to have access and communicate clearly what it
involves. It will take time to set up a system that best suits our needs,
so, for the time being, we will be uploading worship resources to our church website on a dedicated page. Stay tuned for more information regarding this coming Sunday in the next day or two via email or our website: https://stjameswoodley.org/
It is more important than ever that our database is complete and up to
date! If you know of anyone who is not on our mailing list, please get them
to contact Sue Karsten. Additionally, if you know of anyone who doesn’t have access to the internet, please send me a separate email with their phone number if you can.
2) Many of you have been asking for advice about small groups. I recognise
that for many of us, these groups are precious sources of friendship,
company, prayer and support. The decision to suspend public worship is of
course to protect everyone, and especially the most vulnerable in our
communities. With that said, this doesn’t necessarily mean that all small
groups need to stop meeting. Please speak to those in your groups, and
consider the level of risk involved – level of contact, personal health,
etc. If you do choose to meet, please exercise best practice at all times.
I leave the decision entirely to each individual group whether you would
like to continue meeting.
I am aware that there are many things that I have not mentioned in this
email. To avoid overload, I will try and share new information gradually as
we make more concrete plans. Please be assured that I will be doing
everything to ensure the best provision of worship, teaching and pastoral
care that I can during these coming weeks. In the meantime, I am already
moved by the generosity of the people of St James’ in offering help of all
kinds – that is Christ at work in each of us, and an amazing testament to
his love and grace.
Let’s be full of praise for God, love for one another, and hope for the
future.
With love,
Laurence
