March 28th 2020
Benefice of Farleigh, Candover and Wield
Dear friends,
This has been a tumultuous week. This last Sunday was the first time there has been no Anglican public worship in the history of the Church of England. A sadly momentous occasion and in the last week we are all adjusting to a different way of living, recognising we need to make emotional and mental adjustments to our relationships, our way of life, and how we communicate. But maybe God is showing us that it is our relationships that are the most valuable of all things to treasure.
The use of social media, speaking on the phone more than sending an e-mail, and use of “Facetime,” and other media communications has rocketed – having meetings by these platforms, and speaking and seeing one another, has helped. It is those who don’t use to such IT, particularly the most elderly that need our constant care in the villages, but so good to keep abreast of how the social supports have been set in place in most of them.
We have been pushed rapidly into how to produce some useful services with which others can join, , and the technical challenges have been really big; Stephen’s dining room is now a studio, and our laptops are beginning to protest at the new programmes needed to support the video files.
Sunday services will shortly be uploaded to the Benefice website, so please enjoy, join in, sing, pray, and if you are interested in taking part as a reader or leading prayers, do let us know – there are ways and means of recording you! This week’s from Stephen is more technically advanced than his offering last week but there is a slight glitch in the prayers section – so please forgive the fact we’re not yet Songs of Praise standard. David and Stephen are trying to be as creative as we can, and each week we pray will be a little different. Do let us know how the Sunday worship we’ve put together comes across, music is a problem as much is copyright and we run into this on YouTube – and are trying to work out a way round that at the moment.
This week’s link is:- https://vimeo.com/401480777 USE PASSWORD “church”
There are some interesting stories emerging, like this one sent by “HOPE” magazine from Italy:-
A testimony by Dr Julian Urban, a 38-year-old doctor in Lombardy:
Up until two weeks ago, my colleagues and I were atheists…I always laughed at my parents when they went to church. Nine days ago, a 75-year-old pastor came to us for medical help. He had grave respiratory problems, but he had a Bible with him and it impressed us that he was reading the Bible to the people who were dying and holding their hands.
We were all tired, discouraged doctors, psychologically and physically spent, and so we found that we were listening to him... We realized that we have reached the limits of what man can do. We need God, and we have begun to ask for his help, when we have a few moments free. We cannot believe that we who were fierce atheists are now seeking for interior peace by asking the Lord to help us...
The 75-year old pastor [has now] died. Despite the fact that in the last three weeks we have had over 120 people die in our unit, and we are all exhausted and feel destroyed, he succeeded, despite his own condition and our own difficulties, to bring us a PEACE that we no longer hoped to find.
The testimony was gathered by Gianni Giardinelli and translated by Giuseppe Pellegrino.
Please send in prayer requests, volunteer to read a lesson – it can be done easily by those who are into technology and we would appreciate more participation!
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”. Romans 15:13