Hello one and all!
I hope you are keeping safe and well. We have had three Sundays where St Michaels has been open for worship and I thought it might be helpful to share with you a few updates on parish life.
Sunday Worship.
Over the last three weeks, our Sunday attendance across the three services has been in the seventies which I am really encouraged by with the addition of the ‘livestream’ being watched by around 120 people over the course of the following week. It has been great to have so many of you back in church to worship alongside. Thank you for bearing with me when I’ve got things wrong, and thank you for bearing with all the restrictions imposed on us. For those who don’t feel that it is quite safe yet, I hope you have been able to join us via the ‘livesteam’ – the church hasn’t forgotten about you. Sue Howgego, a member of our 8am service, (and keen gardener) wrote the following to me last week, which I thought might be helpful to share:
‘Thank you to all those people who have been involved in making St Michael's a safe space for worship. The thought that has gone into it all is visible from the moment you walk through the door, with plenty of hand sanitisers, socially distanced chairs and a screen on which to follow the service ( no more papers to shuffle). On Sunday I attended the first communion service since lockdown. Again, that had been carefully thought out with a socially distanced single file for those that were taking communion and hand sanitisers placed on the outer aisles for use after replacing our face coverings. The attention to detail is impressive. Thank you so much for doing all this. It is so nice to attend a service within a church building and to feel safe.’
I have been made aware of a few difficulties with the sound on the livestream – there are a few of us working on this to solve the problem – bear with us.
If you were on a rota for doing one of the bible readings on a Sunday, we have had to suspend that rota for the time being, so if you are one of those organised people and have put it in your diary, you can cross it out for now.
If you come to book on to a service and find it is fully booked, please contact the office and let them know, and Karen will add you to a priority list for the following week.
APCM
The annual church meeting will happen on Sunday 20th September at 2pm in church. I will be sending out a further email this week, with the associated papers and details about the meeting. If you are interested in standing for PCC, please either contact Tricia Munn for a nomination form, or pick one up from on top of the pigeon holes in the Parish Centre.
Director of Music
It was announced on Sunday that Jonnie Gait has decided its time to move on to pastures new. With both Douglas and Heather joining school in September, their family life is going to change a bit and so now seems like the right time to go. I will miss Jonnie greatly, as I know many of you will. Jonnie was one of the first people I had lunch with when I joined St. Michaels and it has been a real joy to work with him over the last 3 years. Jonnie, Hannah and the kids have promised to come back at some point to say goodbye and we want to give them something to say thank you. If you would like to contribute to this gift, please drop off cash or cheques at the office in an envelope marked ‘Music Gift’ or make a bank transfer to the church with ‘Music Gift’ in the reference. The churchwardens have begun a process of drawing up a new role description which we will advertise for a new appointment as soon as seems appropriate in the current conditions.
Head Sidesperson
Over many years, Frank Bennett has faithfully served the church as heads Sidesperson drawing up rotas and keeping order. He has been brilliant in this role both from the perspective as the vicar but also from the perspective of the many churchwardens Frank has served with. Frank has decided now is the time to step down from this role and his role as Sidesperson and I want to put on record my thanks to him for all his hard work. A presentation to him will be made at some point in the near future to say thank you. The churchwardens are going to take on the duty of caring for sidespeople, and are currently on the lookout for new sidespeople to support the effort in keeping the church open with the increased number of services. If you think you could help, please speak to David Walker or Louise Richardson whose contact details are at the bottom of SMT.
Getting Involved
I think its safe to say that the normal programme of services and events for the autumn and winter at St Michaels will have to be different this year. Rather than having services, at which we have been seeing a rising number of people attend in previous years, like the commemoration service, advent and Christmas carols, we are going to need to have a rethink, because of the social distancing restrictions. In the next couple of weeks, I will be setting up a number of groups to look at how we can do these things differently and planning them together. Watch this space!
Thank you for your encouragement and support these last few weeks,
With my prayers,
Calum