Good Afternoon!
I hope you are well. I promised a further update on Sunday and its now Tuesday and I still haven’t sent it – sorry about that. Here’s a few updates for you.
Prime Minsters Statement
The Prime Minister has announced today that weddings and public worship can resume from the 4th July. As with all the decisions so far, the official Church of England guidance may take a couple of days to filter through. Whilst I am keen to resume public worship in our church building, I wont make any final decisions, and therefore announcements on this, until the PCC have met to discuss this. There is a PCC meeting scheduled for Thursday 9th July, so please be praying for your PCC members, as we will have various decisions to make about how we return to public worship.
Jess’ Licensing as Associate Minister of Stockport and Brinnington
On Monday 29th June, at 7.30pm, Jess will be licensed to her new post as Associate Minister for Stockport & Brinnington. Due to churches still being shut, this will take place virtually, and she would like to invite you to join her as she marks the beginning of this new ministry. The service will be led by the Bishop of Birkenhead and will take place on Zoom, the details of how to access this are as follows:
Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83371997256
Young People Quiz the Bishop-Elect of Chester
This evening at 7pm the new Bishop of Chester will hold two virtual gatherings with selected young people from the diocese. Young people will have the opportunity to ask the Bishop questions and play a few games with him. I’m delighted that a member of our youth group – Georgia Watson, will be involved. You can watch this session at 7pm by either using the following link and info, or by watching on facebook.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82113668873
Webinar ID: 821 1366 8873
Open Church
The church remains open for private prayer between 9am and 12pm and 3pm and 6pm every day. In my original email I stated the guidance that I had been issued. Since then, the government have relaxed things, so the only guidance I will offer is, if you choose to come down to church, please clean your hands and observe social distancing. The judgment about whether it is safe for you or not, is in your hands.
Pastoral Care Network
As lockdown began we launched, rather quickly, a pastoral care network to keep in touch with people and support those in need. I am very thankful for the members of the church who have helped on this. The wardens and I conducted a review of this yesterday and will be making some changes in the next couple of weeks. In the short term we asked for help from members of the PCC. Going forwards we want this network to be part of how we offer pastoral care at St. Michaels. There will be a need to change some of the groups, and some of the group leaders may not want to continue. As a result, if you would like to be involved with the Pastoral Care Network, whether you are a PCC member or not, please would you let me know. We reckon we will need around 25-30 group leaders to make the network effective.
Produce Table
Every year, Robert Cryer and others do a sterling job growing vegetables and selling them in aid of our Newala link. Unfortunately we have had to cancel all fundraising activities for the foreseeable future – but we weren’t able to stop the onions growing in the allotment. So from tomorrow there will be a produce table available in the foyer of the parish centre. If you would like some fresh veg, do pop down to see what’s there and make a donation in return for what you take. There will be some gloves available – please put on gloves before handling any veg – and do remember to wash it (both the veg and your hands) when you get home.
Grant from the Diocese
The diocese have recently cashed in an investment dating back to World War 2 and have made a grant to every parish in the diocese of £2000. This is very kind of the diocese and one of the things on the agenda for PCC next month is looking at how we spend this.
Congratulations
Finally, congratulations to Sally and Phil Harwood who celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary and Fred and Doreen Donnan who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, both last week. None of them look old enough to have been married that long.
Thanks for taking time to read this email – Jess, Samuel and I hope you are well, and look forward to worshipping with you again, hopefully in the not too distant future.
God Bless,
Calum