Corona Virus – Message from Our Minister
19 March 2020
Dear all
This is already quite a week and it is now only Thursday!
It became quite obvious to me on Monday night that the church had a moral duty to comply with the plea coming from experts that we do all we can in order to protect the NHS and the most unwell people to the best of our ability. I informed the Elders that we would be suspending all church activities forthwith. Whist this is the only decision my conscience would allow me to make and I had informed the Moderator of this, I admit I waited with some trepidation for the church to catch up. It was with some relief when the Church of England announced their decision later in the day and the URC followed.
So here we are, and I still have to pinch myself to believe it. The overriding aim of myself and the Elders is to take as much care of you as we can and in order to do that, we will be in regular contact with you by phone and email. If you have email but we do not have your address please let Shree, our church Secretary, and myself know. By now you should have been contacted by your elder by phone and this is the something your elder will continue to do unless your wish otherwise. Be assured you do not have to wait for us to contact you. If at any time you are feeling overwhelmed, anxious or lonely contact them or indeed myself. I believe not only that we have the support systems in place but as a deeply caring community already we will not only get through this but can do so with personal relationships stronger than ever. Many of you will already be phoning each other in friendship but don’t hold back from contacting somebody you might not normally ring but who you think would value hearing another voice right now. The Holy Spirit can be a great prompter in these things when we are alert to her and ready to listen!
There is much to sort out over the coming days and a lot of what we were expecting to share over the next few months will have to rearranged. I will be compiling a list of these and will get back to you with it as soon as I am able to.
In the meantime, I offer the following link for Sunday Worship. They already print a Daily Devotion consisting of a Bible Reading, Reflection and Prayer and they are very good so please consider signing up to them if you are able to. They are adapting to the present situation all the time so I will keep you abreast of all that they are providing for us. https://devotions.urc.org.uk
This has been quite a difficult week for us as a family. We have gone through a period of readjustment where we have accepted that the funeral, we planned for my Dad can now no longer happen. Frankly, Dad was never much bothered about his funeral and for him it was more about the process of getting there. What Dad would now be deeply and passionately worried about is that people are safe and he would not want anybody to take any risks. Therefore, from today I have the task to contacting people to inform them that we are restricting the funeral to close family members. Dad would be tellingly us keep away and keep safe as well, but I am afraid that this is one request we are doing all in our power not to grant him! As a result of this I have been working closely with the minister because it is obvious that a completely different type of service the one, we had prepared is now required. Dad wrote his life story (‘My Story’), which is both funny and extremely well written and I have spent quite some considerable time putting the Tribute together by drawing on that. I now need to start again to find a much shorter set of words containing very much more personal family memories. The original tribute will be finished and we will be letting people who were coming to the funeral have a copy. If any of you who knew Dad would like a copy, I would be pleased to send it to you if you let me know. Be warned it is quite long and I shall no longer try to cut it down! I have grown to be comfortable with the new arrangements for the service, but the bit that’s still particularly hard is that not only have we had to cancel the reception, which Dad would have loved, but the hotel that we were staying in is closing the restaurant from this Friday! So that is making even a small family gathering afterwards difficult. So, the next few days will be busy for me, but be assured I am still here in this huge moment of uncertainty that we are all sharing because of this tiny virus which is having such huge consequences.
Please stay as safe as you can and remember if you are feeling it’s all becoming too much, you are a deeply valued and deeply loved member of a much wider community and we are all here to help each other just as the beautiful hymn ‘Brother, sister let me serve you’, explains.
Finally I would like to finish with a prayer by Jan Berry and also a quote that Revd James from Northwood URC has sent me. I start with the quote
Much love
Liz xx
19th March 2020
Quarantine is a challenge previously unthought of by our Sages. It is lonely and depressing. Those feelings are natural and valid. All of us in quarantine are feeling them. But taken in the right way, it can provide time and opportunity to connect with God, rethink values and recommit to the priorities that are important to us.
— Rabbi Uri Pilichowski March 12 2020
Prayer
God our refuge,
we seek your protection.
Protect the vulnerable from illness:
those who are old and frail,
weakened by years and struggle;
those who care for others,
expending energy and love;
those for whom inability to work
means hardship and poverty.
Protect us
from the greed and suspicion
which snatches at our own security
stock-piling and panic-buying
that deprives others of the necessities of life.
Protect us from the shortsightedness
which sees the germ in our own eyes
and ignores the plagues
of hunger, war and violence
that take so many lives each day.
Protect us from the isolation
that leads to loneliness and despair
denying the interconnectedness
that links us with one another.
God our refuge
in our panic and fear
may we not lose sight of our common humanity
that makes us one people in you. Amen.
Contact (also see our contact us page):
Church Secretary: email: shree.nhurc@ntlworld.com
Office Manager: email: office.urcenwh@gmail.com or phone: 07935 094 104
19 March 2020
Dear all
This is already quite a week and it is now only Thursday!
It became quite obvious to me on Monday night that the church had a moral duty to comply with the plea coming from experts that we do all we can in order to protect the NHS and the most unwell people to the best of our ability. I informed the Elders that we would be suspending all church activities forthwith. Whist this is the only decision my conscience would allow me to make and I had informed the Moderator of this, I admit I waited with some trepidation for the church to catch up. It was with some relief when the Church of England announced their decision later in the day and the URC followed.
So here we are, and I still have to pinch myself to believe it. The overriding aim of myself and the Elders is to take as much care of you as we can and in order to do that, we will be in regular contact with you by phone and email. If you have email but we do not have your address please let Shree, our church Secretary, and myself know. By now you should have been contacted by your elder by phone and this is the something your elder will continue to do unless your wish otherwise. Be assured you do not have to wait for us to contact you. If at any time you are feeling overwhelmed, anxious or lonely contact them or indeed myself. I believe not only that we have the support systems in place but as a deeply caring community already we will not only get through this but can do so with personal relationships stronger than ever. Many of you will already be phoning each other in friendship but don’t hold back from contacting somebody you might not normally ring but who you think would value hearing another voice right now. The Holy Spirit can be a great prompter in these things when we are alert to her and ready to listen!
There is much to sort out over the coming days and a lot of what we were expecting to share over the next few months will have to rearranged. I will be compiling a list of these and will get back to you with it as soon as I am able to.
In the meantime, I offer the following link for Sunday Worship. They already print a Daily Devotion consisting of a Bible Reading, Reflection and Prayer and they are very good so please consider signing up to them if you are able to. They are adapting to the present situation all the time so I will keep you abreast of all that they are providing for us. https://devotions.urc.org.uk
This has been quite a difficult week for us as a family. We have gone through a period of readjustment where we have accepted that the funeral, we planned for my Dad can now no longer happen. Frankly, Dad was never much bothered about his funeral and for him it was more about the process of getting there. What Dad would now be deeply and passionately worried about is that people are safe and he would not want anybody to take any risks. Therefore, from today I have the task to contacting people to inform them that we are restricting the funeral to close family members. Dad would be tellingly us keep away and keep safe as well, but I am afraid that this is one request we are doing all in our power not to grant him! As a result of this I have been working closely with the minister because it is obvious that a completely different type of service the one, we had prepared is now required. Dad wrote his life story (‘My Story’), which is both funny and extremely well written and I have spent quite some considerable time putting the Tribute together by drawing on that. I now need to start again to find a much shorter set of words containing very much more personal family memories. The original tribute will be finished and we will be letting people who were coming to the funeral have a copy. If any of you who knew Dad would like a copy, I would be pleased to send it to you if you let me know. Be warned it is quite long and I shall no longer try to cut it down! I have grown to be comfortable with the new arrangements for the service, but the bit that’s still particularly hard is that not only have we had to cancel the reception, which Dad would have loved, but the hotel that we were staying in is closing the restaurant from this Friday! So that is making even a small family gathering afterwards difficult. So, the next few days will be busy for me, but be assured I am still here in this huge moment of uncertainty that we are all sharing because of this tiny virus which is having such huge consequences.
Please stay as safe as you can and remember if you are feeling it’s all becoming too much, you are a deeply valued and deeply loved member of a much wider community and we are all here to help each other just as the beautiful hymn ‘Brother, sister let me serve you’, explains.
Finally I would like to finish with a prayer by Jan Berry and also a quote that Revd James from Northwood URC has sent me. I start with the quote
Much love
Liz xx
19th March 2020
Quarantine is a challenge previously unthought of by our Sages. It is lonely and depressing. Those feelings are natural and valid. All of us in quarantine are feeling them. But taken in the right way, it can provide time and opportunity to connect with God, rethink values and recommit to the priorities that are important to us.
— Rabbi Uri Pilichowski March 12 2020
Prayer
God our refuge,
we seek your protection.
Protect the vulnerable from illness:
those who are old and frail,
weakened by years and struggle;
those who care for others,
expending energy and love;
those for whom inability to work
means hardship and poverty.
Protect us
from the greed and suspicion
which snatches at our own security
stock-piling and panic-buying
that deprives others of the necessities of life.
Protect us from the shortsightedness
which sees the germ in our own eyes
and ignores the plagues
of hunger, war and violence
that take so many lives each day.
Protect us from the isolation
that leads to loneliness and despair
denying the interconnectedness
that links us with one another.
God our refuge
in our panic and fear
may we not lose sight of our common humanity
that makes us one people in you. Amen.
Contact (also see our contact us page):
Church Secretary: email: shree.nhurc@ntlworld.com
Office Manager: email: office.urcenwh@gmail.com or phone: 07935 094 104