Catherine Attewell— Many Congratulations

Catherine says: “ I have received and accepted a job offer from Swindon Carers and I start in my new role on 28th July. The ad-ministrator role in St John’s has been a great blessing to me. My thanks and appreciation to all the PCC.”

Catherine will be working in future with Judy Evans. Her succes-sor will benefit from the many improvements Catherine made to the way the parish office is run. It is great to see her move on to something that, I think, will be a great fit for her.

We have no lettings at present and hardly any services so we will not be advertising for a replacement for Catherine until lockdown ends. Sharon has offered to help with the printing and enveloping of the bulletin on a Friday. Any other offers of help gratefully re-ceived. Catherine’s furlough was extended a little, so if you wrote to her at any point in the last two weeks, your email may still be on the PC in the parish office.

Church Re-Opening

To describe it as a re-opening may feel like something of an exaggeration. We are not going back to what we had in early March, but we are in a different place from last week—so there is some good news.

Funeral and Weddings: These life events can go ahead with no more than 30 people present in the building and with so-cial distancing in place.

Private Prayer: We plan to open the church for private pray-er from 12 noon to 2pm on a Wednesday each week. This will be supervised. Hands must be washed or sanitised on entering and leaving the building. You may pick up a Bible on the way in, and return it to a box in the foyer where it will be placed in storage for a week.

Services of Worship: Up to now we have been running two services each week online. On alternate weeks the Wednesday online service will be replaced by a Sunday morning service at 9am in church. The chairs will be removed and replaced at a distance of 1m from each other. This ensures that we can get 22 people in the worship area. At 2m that number falls to 11.

A mask is a requirement. If you do not have one, we can provide you with one. There will be no singing, though we will be able to have music played via Media Shout through the televisions. We will not be able to share the peace.

Holy Communion: We understand that communion, in the form of bread only, is a possibility. We will begin with a service of the word and see what guidance fol-lows. Children’s work is sadly, not possible right now.

What if more people come than we have places for? If we fill the available chairs, including the balcony, church room, and crèche, we regret that we will have to

close the doors.

We do not expect people to come in such numbers that church members will be left outside the door, but if that should happen, we will have to think again and consider asking people to book in. We are expecting the services to start small and grow as people grow in confidence.

Trevor sent us this photo of life in the lockdown.

Thanks, Trevor. Definitely more interesting than

watching paint dry.

Hot Under the Dog Collar. A Plymouth vicar managed to set his shoulder alight

during an online service. The lengths people will go to just to get a “like”.

So …. Is Lizzie …

a. … Swindon’s answer to Bat-Woman? b. ….Re-living her holiday in Australia? c. … Resting sore feet after another half marathon? d. … Providing Raymond with plenty of scope for captions?

Diamond Wedding

Brenda and Terry

will be celebrating

60 years together

on Thursday . Many

congratulations!

Prayers: Please pray for Jean Sharp and her family. Mick’s funeral service took place on Friday morning in St John’s. Ivor Rumble and Yvonne still need our pray-ers following Ivor’s time in hospital. Please pray for our musicians as they contin-ue to lead us in worship Sunday by Sunday. Pray for strength, inspiration and re-freshment for them and for the technical team who make it all look so seamless. Catherine Attewell begins her new job with Swindon Carers at the end of the month. Pray for our Archdeacons Christopher (our preacher on Sunday) and Neil as they encourage clergy and give guidance during the Covid Emergency.

Sunday

5th July 2020

4th after Trinity

A Visit from Archdeacon

Christopher Bryan

Time Service Preacher Readings

11.00am

followed by

Zoffee

Morning Worship The Ven.

Christopher

Bryan

Genesis 24 verses 34-

38, 42-49, 58-67

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-

30

Please pray for our church family

Mon Susan Hamer

Tue Lyn Hammond

Wed Sue Harvey

Thurs Christopher and Lesley Hawkes

Fri Doris Haynes

Sat John and Rachel Hodgkinson

Sun John and Dee Howard

Please note

Our first Sunday service in church will

be July 12 at 9am

Our next Wednesday online service will be July 15th (not July 8)

Services Next Week

12th July

12th July

9am

11am

In Church for a Word Service

Daniel in the Lions’ Den for All

Ages

Raymond Adams

Lesley Mead

Black Lives Matter

Revd Cathy Mark, from Gorse Hill and Ferndale, brilliantly led the PCC in our thinking about how to respond to the Black Lives Matter protests. She told her own story and helped us see what we can do as a church. We will be taking this further at our next meeting. I will also be inviting Cathy to preach online in the not too distant future so the whole congregation can hear her. Without Black Lives Matter, the theme of racial justice would not have been on our PCC agenda.