Dear Friends,

Grace & peace to you all in the precious name of the Lord Jesus

I hope you are all keeping well?

Obviously, we find ourselves now in some very challenging times – not just physically with the threat of the virus, but also, I feel, mentally too. Being in ‘lockdown’ is something that we are simply not used to and I know that for many of us this is hard to cope with and that we all may have and will experience a variety of emotions because of this. Please understand that this is quite a normal reaction to such a big change in our normal way of life. But also know that you are not alone in this. I think Maswell is a great community and so can I please ask us to be extra caring to one another during this time? And if you feel the need to chat and pray with someone then please do make that call either to me or to someone that you feel able to talk to. I am certainly open to talking on the phone, or via FaceTime, Zoom, Jitsi or whatever if you think that this would be helpful. So do get in touch.

Again, please do remember to let us know if you are unwell or need some assistance in some way, so that we can pray for you and if possible, help you to get some provisions if necessary.

Thank you for all the positive feedback from last week’s liturgy and I have attached another to this email for us all to be able to share this coming Sunday at 10.30. I do find it very encouraging to think of us sharing this at the same time each week and I hope that you do too. This week I have also included the prayer that Ness wrote and that we circulated last week – can I please ask you to try and pray that prayer each day as we seek to work our way through this season? I will be posting more about prayer in the coming days. Also this week I have included a liturgy for sharing communion (obviously just be mindful as to how you do this if you are sharing with other members of your household).

After the service on Sunday morning, I would like to try and see if we can get some fellowship time together via the Zoom meetings app. (https://zoom.us/meetings). The app is fairly easy to install and is available on all formats. And so at around 11.45 on Sunday morning I am going to be logging in to meeting number 683 220 5565 and hope to maybe see you there??

Finally, can I ask that we might be able to encourage one another in other ways during this time. Maybe you feel able to write something, maybe about your experiences in isolation? Maybe you could write a prayer or a liturgy that we could include in our weekly Sunday morning times together? Maybe you could record a short video clip – simply saying hello, telling us how you are spending your time, or doing a reading, or telling a joke (suitable and clean ones only please!!) or a prayer etc. that we could post onto our website, Facebook & Instagram pages so as to inspire others? Maybe you would like to suggest songs that we could listen to? Or if you have read an article that is inspiring or interesting – we do have a discussion page on our website where we can engage in some dialogue?? (you may need to register on the website before you can post but that is easy to do!). Or if you have a question that we could perhaps try and answer together via an online meeting maybe? Or something else? I know that as the body of Christ we have many different skills and abilities – let’s see how creative we can be and how we can use them to bless each other and connect with one another along with the communities of friends, family, & neighbours around us.

Friends, may you know the love of the Father, the grace of the Lord Jesus, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit and may the divine presence be with you always

Amen

Love & grace

Carl 😊

Click on the attachment below to view the liturgy: