2021 January 3 - Pew News

Services

Changes to the January calendar in the magazine.

At 08:00 there will be NO SERVICE.
At 09:30 we worship virtually in a Service of Parish Communion.

At 18:00 we offer a service of said Evening Prayer (BCP) in the Parish Church.

The presiding minister at our 09:30 service is Andrew Doye, with the assistance of Martin Brown and Marjorie Kipling.

The 18:00 service will be led by Andrew Doye. The readings in our morning service are Jeremiah 31. 7-14 and John 1.1-5, 10-18. 

Our music has been played and recorded by Stewart Taylor, on the organ of our parish church.

The Introit and Agnus Dei are each recorded by members of our choir.

The preacher at 09:30 is the Right Reverend Ruth Bushyager, Bishop of Horsham.

Words from the Rector

We are delighted to hear a second time from Bishop Ruth, of Horsham, as our preacher on Zoom today. She brings a passion to her subject and instils a sense of drive and purpose in our own response to God’s grace.

I can not help feeling what a strange time it must have been for her and Bishop Will, of Lewes, as they take up the reins of new responsibility within this period of covid. Ruth, whose responsibility includes our own part of the Diocese has proved available, accessible and decisive, in the few contacts that I have had with her; but the whole task of taking up the various sector responsibilities of the role will inevitably have been slowed by the shortage of face-to-face meetings. Add to this recent speculation that the Church of England will wish to reconfigure its senior ministries in response to the massive loss of income suffered in the last 10 months (£140 million, as I recall); and the role of the episcopate must seem a little bewildering. We pray for our new suffragan bishops, nonetheless, as they grow into their new posts.

Of course a new year is in itself a time for reassessment and asking searching questions of how we are directing our efforts and priorities. That all seems a little cruel, almost, when we have so many other concerns to distract us. However, it surely is possible to ask those self-same questions of ourselves, however gently, at this time.

I recall how many commentators were quick to suggest, last Spring, that the pandemic might be teaching us some good lessons, putting us right on a few things, and, in a phrase that I do like, helping nations, neighbourhoods and households to press the re-set button. As long as we are thoughtful and compassionate about the drawn-out circumstances of the world’s suffering, this might still helpfully feed into our new year’s recalibrations. It is very easy for us to have slipped into an uncritical survivor-mode, and maybe we can, with refreshment, ask again of ourselves are their ways in which we can ‘be’ a little differently. Material and emotional need may be ours, and may certainly be around us. Let us be challenged to respond freshly as 2021 gets underway.

We all deeply hope to see things happen differently in the coming months: both for us, and for others. New vaccines offer hope, though we do not usher them in with naivety.

But this is the season of Christian newness, too; of the birth and realisation of Jesus Christ - and of a light shining where there has been liturgical darkness. The grace of God is here to be appreciated; celebrated; and shared. That is the transforming tone of both of our readings this
morning. Let us hear them, and allow their message to take new shape in us.

A very happy new year, to you and yours.

Revd Andrew Doye

Worship for the week ahead

Monday to Friday 08:30am Morning Prayer (or Communion on Thursday).
Please contact the Rector or Marjorie Kipling if wanting a Zoom invitation

10 January 2021
09:30 Worship for Everyone (‘Zoom Service’). THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST.
18:00 Said Evening Prayer (BCP)

For our prayers (contact the Rector or Wardens to add names to this list)
For children and staff in our schools and colleges.
For those whose livelihoods are suffering.
For a smooth and understanding entry into the revised trade conditions of this country’s relationship with
its neighbours.

If there are causes or people that you wish to bring to the attention of the Church and its praying
community, please contact Rector or Wardens, whose details are below.

Notices

Andrew and Karen Doye thank you further for your kind wishes and greetings at Christmas.

Services in the weeks ahead.

Our churches’ plans for acts of worship for the period to the end of January are now revised from those set out in the current magazine, and in response to the increased concern regarding new variant Covid. These are now as follows:
1) Those Sunday Services planned for 8am in the Parish Church and at 11:15 at Woodmancote are for the moment suspended
2) We will seek to hold a non-eucharistic service at 6pm in the Parish Church in the weeks that this can be sustained. The established expectations of face coverings, careful sanitising and social distancing, of course continue to apply.
3) There will be no ‘gathered’ Communion services in the parish for the time being.
4) Sadly, the planned Choral Evensong, set for 31 January 2021, is cancelled; and will be replaced by a said Evening Prayer at 6pm.
We continue to await national directives to know what will be possible for us, looking further ahead, and we thank parishioners for their patient understanding.

Open Church: Our Parish Church presently remains open to visitors, but we are reducing those hours again to two occasions each week: from 10am-3pm on Thursday; and 12 noon-3pm on Sunday.

Whilst this remains so, we continue to ask all who come to wear face coverings and to write their details on the sheet to help us fulfil our Test and Trace responsibilities. For smartphone users, we have displayed our own venue QR code which can be used to record your visit. Please enter by
the North door, and leave by the West door, using sanitizer on entry and upon leaving. The toilet
is not in use ‘Zoom’ on weekday mornings.

The local church continues to worship at 08:30 (for half an hour), Mondays to Fridays. As restrictions on our movements increase presently, it is suggested this might be of interest to additional members of our congregations or village. You can ‘attend’ with
whatever frequency works for you, but to be added to the list of those invited please first contact The Rector who will be pleased to add you to the daily distribution list. Just send him an email.

Westbourne Help, which did such a good job locally in the earlier months of the pandemic has been called back into being by the Parish Council to help those who are isolating or have no other support over the winter because of Covid-19. Notices are being posted around the village.