Dear all,
As I write I have just watched our parish’s latest online worship which happened to be Cafe Church led so ably by Bob along with the band reading and singing. We have come such a long way from our first online offering when it took me all day to record my offerings; constantly making mistakes and starting all over again to the point at the end of the day I had virtually lost my voice and had a dreadful headache. Any ideas of being a television presenter very swiftly left my mind I can tell you as I coped with the dog gnawing a stick beneath my feet, the cat suddenly making an appearance and even worse swinging on the camera stick as I yet again tried to follow my script!! I later learnt of course if I went wrong to keep a short pause and to pick up where I left off. We discovered there was such a thing as editing!
Just before lockdown I think our last service of worship was in fact Blues Cafe Church at the Crown where our theme was whether Jesus, were he physically here today possibly be King of the Blues? It was an amazing time when lots of non regulars joined us of all ages, with faith or none, to explore his story in terms of an itinerant blues singer. As Bob said yesterday in our online Cafe church he would rather be at the pub than recording at home. Which made me think just how amazing yet again our village has been during these past weeks, what with coronavirus angels, key worker scarecrows, VE Day celebrations, 100th birthdays, our wonderful two shops Capel News and Carters which always seem to have loo rolls or whatever else the supermarkets have run out of! Big breath here – and that’s not to mention our marvellous team at the medical practices, our teachers at the schools and everything else that has taken place or has somehow been enabled to happen despite lockdown conditions. Last but definitely not least has been the tremendous effort and love shown to us all by Vanda, Vicky and their team at the Crown who have worked their socks off preparing take aways for us all, a fab weekly online pub quiz, and their beautiful garden which will be open for business following government guidelines from the 4th July. And yes we hope the next Cafe Church will be live in the garden at The Crown! There may also be a version of Flix reopening at The Crown as well I believe. It is all very exciting!
We are hoping very much that before long, live services will resume in church as well as online recordings. By the time you read this there will be a link for a children’s worship service on our parish website, courtesy of our friendship with Reigate Baptist Church. Please do pass this information onto friends and families who may like to tune in. Funerals are allowed to be held in church – certain restrictions will apply – and I hope you all now realise the church is open from 10 till 4 each day at Capel for individual prayer and reflection. At Ockley the church is open 10 till 4 on weekends only. This is because at the end of the day we try to wipe down any surfaces that visitors may have touched to try to keep down any infection. Hand sanitisers are available and visitors are asked to clean their hands on entering and leaving the building. You will notice that we ask you to only sit on certain pews to enable all of this to be doable. Nevertheless I am sure you will find our beautiful churches as welcoming as usual!
As things begin to loosen and get back to normal if we can say such a thing, its interesting isn’t it to reflect on what positives, if any there have been before the busyness and demands of pre-lockdown life take over. I wonder whether there is anything you would like to keep of your lockdown routine? I guess it will be different for each of us but I suspect some common threads will be around having more time for the things we didn’t have time for before. Will we take the joy of meeting other people for granted any more? The realisation that humans are not really made for isolation, that we are made to be in relationship and in community and how resourceful we can be to somehow still make that happen. Many of you have badly missed coming to church to worship and I have missed you very much too. There is nothing like the personal contact of seeing everyone, of worshipping together and supporting each other in our ups and downs through life, not to mention several much loved church members who sadly died during this time… Perhaps this brush with Covid 19 has made you think about your own mortality and whether there is anything in this whole God stuff or has it simply been too ‘stuffy’ for you in the past, irrelevant?
The world is changing and I hope continues to change post lockdown and most particularly in issues of race and equality as shown by Black Lives Matter. There is a chance for us all to reflect and to educate ourselves in all these issues. In a recent gospel reading Jesus states he didn’t come to bring peace but to bring a sword. A shocking statement for some to read perhaps but the point is where there is injustice and inequality a metaphorical sword is needed to root out sickness in society. Get away from any so called ‘stuffiness’ you think you’ll find in church and realise that Christ was and is a revolutionary who plans that people of every tribe and tongue will be united around God’s throne. Faith in Christ is never more relevant than it is today!
With my love and prayers
Revd Liz
PS Some midweek opening at Capel Church will be restricted due to the new lighting scheme being installed courtesy of the Friends of Capel Church. This will last from 20th July for approximately 7 weeks or so. The church will be open as usual at weekends.
Post expires at 8:19pm on Tuesday June 22nd, 2021
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