22nd August 2020
Benefice of Farleigh, Candover and Wield
e-mail: davidchattell172@btinternet.com e-mail:- stevemourant@btinternet.com
01256 389474 01256 381217
Living the life...telling the story....visit us at http://www.farleighcandoverandwield.org.uk
Dear friends,
The harvest is almost in across the fields of the deanery, and we look forward to thanking God for His mercy, in a time when climate change appears to be producing variable weather patterns that affect the viability of some of our crops. But human beings have adapted to these sorts of changes before, so we trust for God’s immutable mercies and guidance in all that lies before us.
This week’s single online service is on the theme from Romans 12: “Is God getting from you all He should?” And “Are you getting from God all you should?” – more to follow next week! The link is here: https://youtu.be/0-XqbH5DhM4.
Those who responded to the question about continuing the online services unanimously said “no” after the end of August, so next week’s will be our final offering – unless some serious calamity ensues in the meantime – everyone seems to want to get Sunday worship back to normal.
Singing hymns remains a contentious issue, although choirs or worship groups may sing to the congregations as long as they socially distance and have a health and safety risk assessment. That could mean for smaller congregations one or two singing from the sanctuary whilst congregations may quietly whisper the words as they sit – the main issue being the water droplets we expel when singing which potentially, if we have the virus unknowingly, could be picked up by someone else whose health is considered vulnerable. Currently the number of hospitalisations is around 2-3% of those contracting the virus, and as we have seen from the latest published statistics, deaths per day are now in single figures. Good ventilation and social distancing seem to be the solution.
We are looking at the autumn programme of services and although we have published rotas for September into October that assume worship indoors, there is no reason why services can’t be held outdoors in our churchyards with weather permitting – and with the current 5-day forecasts ahead, we are fairly well informed of the likelihood of inclement or sunny days, so over to churchwardens to decide in good time.
We shall persevere and adapt as we go along, and are trusting God’s great mercy to bring to an end the worst of this pandemic; we pray also that the government’s guidance will be based on truth and the best available scientific assessment, so that we can rapidly return to worshipping our Saviour and Lord in singing, receiving sacraments of bread and wine, and telling others of His mercy and joy.
Prayer times continue on Wednesdays 9.00 to 9.30 am – we met face to face this week at Ellisfield church with a few candles as we had a scheduled power cut for essential works – this week we will be on Zoom again, so you are most welcome to join in – contact peter.c.w.raine@btinternet.com for a link to allow you to join us.
May God bless you all,
With our prayers and greetings,
David and Stephen