Greetings from Rachel: a little update from the Vicarage
I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone that has worked so hard to help make our online services work, and for all of you working to support and encourage each other. We are so grateful for all the work that Paul Young does, behind the scenes, to stitch together the services that we share on YouTube. The Church of England have shared our story, on their Digital Labs Learning Blog – you can read that here.
Later this week, it’s likely that Paul will be one of the panellists in a Church of England webinar, helping others to learn about ways of putting together worship at home.
If you missed photos from VE75 last week, local photographer Helen Renouf has published a fabulous album of local celebrations – click here to see.
One of the things I’m learning this season, is that I have to allow time for the unexpected. I am fortunate that various people have lent tech items, to make possible the services that you see (this includes a borrowed camera, tripod, cables, lights etc). Sometimes, things don’t quite go to plan… this week, for example, the first recordings were all out of focus on the camera, and the next retake had the lights flickering strangely, so it was only on the third run through that I was able to have recorded the material that Paul needed from me… and then came the struggle with the internet, to get the files successfully uploaded, such that Paul could download them for editing (Paul is very patient with the 24 hour delay that all the retakes caused this week).
I am also a governor at the Infants and at the Junior Schools here in Pennington. We are so blessed in this community to have amazing staff working at our schools, juggling technology to support children learning from home, whilst also being frontline keyworkers taking care of keyworker and SEN children in school. I know many of you receiving this email are also keyworkers, and we are so grateful for all that you are doing. Please continue to pray for all those that are facing the frontline, who have to face up to their own anxieties every day, serving the wider community. Please continue to be thoughtful and care for them in our words and actions.
Last Sunday, the gradual route to emergence from this season started to develop, with Boris’ announcement. I’m sure many of you have questions and hopes about our church building in Pennington too. At this point, all we know is that July is the very earliest that people will be allowed into any place of worship building – but at this point, we don’t know what that will mean for us here in Pennington. (I am allowed to carry out occasional building checks … you may hear the church bell chime next Thursday night at 8pm, if I can get the timing right and align a building check with the clap for keyworkers!)
This week, clergy are now allowed to go into the church building and record or stream the service from the building on their own. I am choosing not to do that in Pennington, for several reasons. For me, I think it is important that I also experience, with you, the loss of our regular place of worship, and that I join with you in working out what that means to worship at home. I am also one of the people that has been identified by the NHS as ‘extremely vulnerable’, so am on the shielding list. So I suspect, that when restrictions start to lift, I will be one of the many people for whom those restrictions might be in place for a longer season.
We will have many questions to face as a church community, once the guidance emerges, to work out what is possible, when and where. Today, the government have announced a new task force to look specifically at developing a plan to reopen places of worship (click here).
I am aware that early in this season, I promised that we would be in touch by phone. I need to apologise that I have not yet made this happen. Eventually last week managed to take my first full 24 hours off since February, and I am continuing to try and find ways to care for myself and my family, as well as my work here supporting this church and community. Now that we have got a lot of the technology sorted out, on the whole this is becoming a lot easier – it has been a steep learning curve for me too this season, as I suspect it has for all of us.
If you do have any questions or queries, things you’d like to raise or be in touch, please do phone me: 01590 462022 or email vicar@penningtonchurch.uk
Although this season might be painful in many different ways for us, I want to encourage you to continue finding ways to worship, to pray, to connect with God at home, and in our daily lives this season. I want to thank you all for your support, and I look forward to the coming weeks and months as we continue to find ways of being church, of praying, of worshipping, of living, loving and serving in this place.
Best wishes,
Rachel
Coming up…
- Sunday 17th May, 9:30am – Communion service on youtube, followed by coffee on zoom.
- Monday 18th May, 11-12 – Weekly discussion group on zoom. Looking at rule of life. This will be the third week of a five-week course. All are welcome to join us, it doesn’t matter if you came last week or not, you’re welcome to join in.
- Tuesday 19th May 8pm – The Prayer Course. We’re joining with Lymington Church for a prayer course, ahead of ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ from Ascension Day to Pentecost.
- Wednesday 20th May 10:15-11:15am – Coffee Morning on zoom. Phone in or join us on the internet, all are welcome – you’ll need to make your own coffee.
- Wednesday 20th May – 3pm – Contemplative Prayer on Zoom, with Lymington Church – see details below
- Wednesday 20th May – 7-8:30pm – Weekly evening discussion group on zoom. Looking at the rule of life, this is the last in a five-week course. All are welcome.
- Thursday 21st May – 11:30am – Ascension Day service on Youtube
- Thursday 21st May – 11:50am – Midday Prayer on zoom -will be shared on YouTube at 12.
- Friday 21st May – 11:50am – Midday Prayer on zoom -will be shared on YouTube at 12.
- Saturday 22nd May – 11:50am – Midday Prayer on zoom -will be shared on YouTube at 12.
Thy Kingdom Come
Thy Kingdom Come is a global prayer movement that invites Christians around the world to pray for more people to come to know Jesus. Due to the current Coronavirus pandemic, it is going to look slightly different this year. During the 11 days of Thy Kingdom Come, it is hoped that everyone who takes part will:
- Deepen their own relationship with Jesus Christ
- Pray for 5 friends or family to come to faith in Jesus
- Pray for the empowerment of the Spirit that we would be effective in our witness.
For more information check out their website and you can also download an app for further daily prayer resources to use at home (click here). There’s a prayer journal that you can download and use at home too (click here). You can also add your light to the ‘Light up the World’ map (click here).
We’ve got our very own Prayer Room on Trello; see details below 24/7 Virtual Prayer Room for Lymington and Pennington. In our communities here in Lymington and Pennington, we’ll be sharing midday prayer together in zoom, which will also be streamed onto YouTube.
We’ll be starting the season with a special Ascension Day service at 11.30am on Thursday 21st May, followed by Midday Prayer at 12. All are welcome to join us in zoom from 11.50am, and we will stream live into YouTube at 12.
- Friday 22nd May: 12noon Midday Prayer
- Saturday 23rd May: Saturday prayer meeting at 9am – details on page 1, 12noon Midday Prayer
- Sunday 24th May: 9.30am Morning Service on YouTube
- Monday 25th May to Saturday 30th May: 12noon Midday Prayer
- Sunday 31st May: 9.30am Pentecost Morning Service
Instructions for Midday Prayer
If you’d like to join us in Midday Prayer together, we’ll be using ‘Prayer During the Day’ in the Thy Kingdom Come Prayer booklet, available here. If it helps you to pray, seeing others pray too, please do join us in zoom where we will be saying the prayers together, although mostly everyone will be muted otherwise the sound gets very complicated! But you will be able to see each other! If you’d like to join us in zoom, please be there for 11.50am.
If you’d like to just watch, then from 12noon, we will be streaming our zoom session live onto YouTube, so that others can also watch and join in. If you know others locally that would like to join us, but don’t have internet, they are welcome to phone into zoom too.
Join us via Zoom here:
- Meeting id: 971 631 0618
- Password: 1839
24/7 Virtual Prayer Room for Lymington and Pennington
A virtual prayer room has been set up which you can visit and interact with at any time, it includes a prayer board and prayer activities. You can access that here.
Follow the instructions to join up via Trello. You’ll need to create an account with your email address and set a password. If you already have a Trello account, the link takes you straight to the Prayer Room board. Details are also on our website.
YouTube
All our services can be found on our YouTube channel here.
Prayer Course: Part 4 – 19th May – Contemplation and Listening
It is absolutely fine to join in even if you haven’t been part of the previous sessions.
For this week the two videos to watch are:
- Session 6 – Contemplation https://prayercourse.org/session/contemplation/
- Session 7 – Listening https://prayercourse.org/session/listening/
Our discussion meeting will be on Tuesday 19th May at 8pm.
The Prayer course Zoom details for all the meetings during the course are from this link.
- Meeting id: 844 8181 6378
- Dial in from your landline phone: 0203 481 5237
Contemplative Prayer on Zoom
Wednesday 20th May at 3pm: join us for a time of meditation and contemplation. This will include 20 minutes of silence and will be led by Sarah Salisbury. Click here to join with the following details:
- Meeting ID: 892 0352 8404
- Password: pray
- Dial in from your landline phone: 0203 051 2874
Sunday Services
Every week our Sunday service is at 9:30am on our YouTube channel here. We’d love to see your photos of you at home getting ready for the service. Please do share them with us at takepart@penningtonchurch.uk, it’s such an encouragement for us. After the service, you’re welcome to join us in zoom for coffee (you will have to brew your own!)
Join the Sunday service via Zoom
If there are people you know in our congregation who do not have access to the internet and would like to phone in and listen to our services, please share this information with them to join the Pennington Church zoom during the service and listen to the audio. To phone in, please dial 0203 695 0088.
- You will hear: “Welcome to Zoom, enter your meeting id followed by hash”
- The meeting id you need to enter is: 971 631 0618 #
- You will then hear it say “Enter your participant id followed by hash, otherwise just press hash”
- Please just press the # key. then you will be asked for the passcode, please enter 1839 followed by hash (#).
You will then be part of a conference call, and you will be able to listen to the service, and then talk to others afterwards.
Lords Prayer
We invite you to video yourself on your phone or computer reading the Lords’ Prayer. Please then email your recording to takepart@penningtonchurch.uk
In future weeks we hope to show the Lord’s Prayer within our service, including each line read by a different person and we’d love to include as many of our congregation in this as we can. Please be brave, and join in the fun. (Trust me, it was strange for me to get used to leading the service in front of a camera or a phone too.) Others in the congregation will be so delighted to see you taking part, as we are each encouraged by seeing those that we know and love.
Evensong
If you’re missing Evensong, we’ve found a couple of places that are offering this service for you.
St Martin in the Fields: are delighted to announce the return of Choral Evensong each Sunday at 5.00pm. This service can be found on their Facebook page. The responses, psalm, canticles, readings and prayers are recorded ‘virtually’, and interspersed with other music from the choir archives. It is sung by members of the Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields, directed by Andrew Earis, and led by Revd Catherine Duce.
- Responses: Plainsong
- Psalm: 87
- Canticles: Plainsong
- Anthem: Morning glory, starlit sky – Barry Rose (archive recording)
- Blessing Anthem: Go forth into the world in peace – Rutter (archive recording)
And of course, the BBC are sharing Choral Evensong too, on Radio 3 – Wednesdays at 3:30pm
Hampshire County Council Hub
If you would like to help with the community at large, the new Hampshire County Council Hub to support the community through the crisis has now been established. If you are able to offer support and would like to be involved, please contact them on 0333 370 4000. Your call will then be triaged and you will be passed to whichever organisation or local contact would be most appropriate.