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Hi everyone,

Here’s a link to our latest weekly newsletter.

To read this week’s newsletter, click here.

Please note that there’s a correction to the newsletter as I missed a service off the list!

• Sunday 4 October, 6:30pm Harvest Festival Evensong at Hanley Castle Church

Click here to see the update. (Opens in an external website).

To see this week’s newsletter, click here.

Dear Friends,

So how do you feel about the “rule of six.” It’s a dreadful name isn’t it? I am however glad that the government has to some extent clarified the “is it 30 or 6?” confusion that every event organiser in the country has been wrestling with for months!

In the immediate aftermath of the announcement on Tuesday evening a number of you contacted me to ask “Does this mean church is locked down again?” The good news is the answer is NO! In his press conference on Wednesday, the Prime Minister specifically mentioned places of worship as being exceptions to the rule: so we can carry on meeting!

The government’s website has a comprehensive list of exceptions to the rule (ie a list of situations where groups can be larger than six people). At the time of writing, these include:

• where everyone lives together or is in the same support bubble, or to continue existing arrangements where children do not live in the same household as both their parents
• for work, and voluntary or charitable services
• for education, training, or registered childcare (including wraparound care)
• fulfilling legal obligations such as attending court or jury service
• providing emergency assistance, or providing support to a vulnerable person
• for you or someone else to avoid illness, injury or harm
• participate in children’s playgroups
• wedding and civil partnership ceremonies and receptions, or for other religious life-cycle ceremonies – where up to 30 people will be able to attend
• funerals – where up to 30 people will be able to attend
• organised indoor and outdoor sports, physical activity and exercise classes…
• youth groups or activities
• elite sporting competition or training
• protests and political activities organised in compliance with COVID-19 secure guidance and subject to strict risk assessments

Last weekend we finally restarted the Deep End Youth Group (a BBQ in the vicarage garden) and my wife Carol restarted the Welland toddler group, so I’m delighted to see that both Youth and Toddler activities are in the exception list!

You’ll note also that exceptions are allowed for voluntary and charitable services – which means that if our PCCs want to meet physically, they can. Other church business-type meetings can occur too. Though they must take place in a Covid-secure way, which typically means we have to abandon the comfort of a home and meet in a larger Covid-secure venue, wearing face masks. So, in some cases it may continue to be more helpful to meet electronically!

What is less clear are all the implications for Christmas. Thursday’s Daily Mail headline of “There goes Christmas” is over the top, but it’s clear that for many of us, Christmas may work very differently this year. For the last twenty years or so, I’ve gathered a group of 10-15 friends for a Christmas meal a week before Christmas, and unless the rules change before then, this year it won’t be happening.  But small gatherings of six are still possible: so Christmas is still coming, the goose just need not be quite so fat! And perhaps with less catering to do, and fewer parties to attend, it’ll prompt us all to look beyond the celebrations to Christ, our Saviour and the life and hope his birth brings.

Frustratingly our Christmas services will not be as they were last year. With the need to clean or quarantine buildings between services, and fewer service leaders than in the past, we can’t run all of the carol services and Christmas Eve / Christmas Day events we have in the past. I’m working with the service leaders and venue managers, to try to find a balanced and creative way through this.  The ongoing “no singing” rule, combined with restrictions on attendance, mean that it’s unlikely each church will have a carol services this year: but we’re exploring some creative alternatives and we’ll tell you more nearer to.

It isn’t just Christmas that will be different this year, Covid impacts our Remembrance Sunday activities too. Our church in Upton hosts the largest Remembrance Sunday service in the area, but this year, it won’t be in church (or we’d have to turn 300 people away). It’s likely an event will happen around the war memorial at the Pepperpot, but my brief initial discussions with the council  lead me to think that it’s scope will be limited. I’ll let you know more as soon as I know more!

Finally, changing tack a little, Clare our administrator is leaving us this weekend. We’re sad to see her go and very grateful for all the work she’s done, particularly during the confusion and uncertainty of the last six months, when she’s often been working from home, balancing childcare and work, and often during hours of the day that we didn’t contract her to work for. So thank-you Clare, we wish you all the best in your new role and pray that you’ll enjoy it, provide great support to your new employer, and continue to grow in the failth and love of Christ.

We advertised the post about a month ago now, and you’ll all be pleased to hear that we had a large number of very high quality applicants, We’ll be interviewing some of them next week. Please be praying for the candidates and the interviewers, as we seek to discern the right way forward.

Here’s what else is happening this week:

1) Services – Sunday 13 September

IN-PERSON:

• 8am Holy Communion @ Hanley Castle
• 9:30am Holy Communion @ Upton
• 11am            Holy Communion @ Earls Croome
• 11am            Morning Worship @ Ripple
• 11am            Morning Worship @ Welland

VIDEO (online and CD/DVD)

• Sunday Service (traditional hymn version) – watch anytime from midnight onwards (also available through our Youtube channel).
• Church Family (modern music version) – watch anytime from midnight onwards at www.hopechurchfamily.org/virtual or through our Youtube channel or join the live Facebook Premiere at 9:30am.

• Daily Prayer. A new initiative. Alison Martin is producing a weekly “daily prayer” service, which can be used on any day of the week. Updated on a Wednesday or Thursday, you can access it at hopechurchfamily.org/virtual or through our Youtube channel.

2) Next Weekend (Sunday 20 September)

IN-PERSON

• 9:30am Breakfast Church @ Upton
• 9:30am Holy Communion @ Hanley Swan
• 11am            Morning Worship @ The Hook

VIDEO (online and CD/DVD)

• Service of the Word (traditional) –available from midnight

3) New Regular Pattern of services

Now that most of our buildings are open again for worship, the service leaders, church wardens and I have agreed a new pattern of services, which the service leaders and wardens think is sustainable for the foreseeable future.

Inevitably there will be occasional deviations from it due to things like Harvest festivals and special events, and we’ll also need to cancel the occasional service so that buildings can be quarantined after weddings, or when service leaders are unavailable. Please keep an eye on www.hopechurchfamily.org/calendar for the most up to date information.

4) Church finances – you can make a difference!

Like all small charities, your local church is suffering a significant financial shortfall as a result of lost income from collections and special fundraising events we’d have run through the summer.

If you are in a position to give an additional gift at this time, it would make a huge difference. To make this simpler, we’ve set up a new GIVING page on our website (https://hopechurchfamily.org/giving), with all the information you’ll need to give a one-off, or regular gift to any of our churches.

5) Services on DVDs and CDs

Every week I produce the services on DVD and CD for a small number of folk across the area who don’t have internet access. It’s been a lovely way for them to stay in touch. If you know of anyone else who would be helped by this ministry, please let me know.

6) What Covid-safe church will be like.

We’re mostly getting used to this by now, but just in case you need a refresher, here’s a reminder of the basic common-sense, ground rules for a Covid-safe church service.

• If you are experiencing any Covid-19 symptoms (high temperature, new continuous cough, loss/change to your sense of smell or taste) please seek medical advice and do not attend services. We are continuing to provide services online.
• We will need to take contact details from you when you arrive.
• When you enter and leave the building, please use the hand-sanitiser provided.
• The social distancing rule is 2 metres.
• Please only sit in the seat(s) you are assigned. It helps us increase capacity if family groups/bubbles sit together.
• Congregational singing is not yet allowed (either inside or outside)!
• Children are the responsibility of their parents/guardian during the service.
• Please exit the building as soon as the service ends.
• Holy Communion will be served in “one-kind” only (bread) as the common cup is seen as a greater infection risk.
• Giving. If you value what we do and would like to support it, please consider setting up a standing order or using the Parish Giving Scheme (where possible) to support our work. You can find out details relating your parish church here.
• Please observe any directions the stewards give you.

I’m grateful to you all for your continued patience as we work to keep everyone safe. Please continue praying for everyone involved in managing the Covid-safe regime in our buildings, and also for our service leaders as they try to think of innovative ways of being church within the rules!

7) Churches Open For Individual Prayer.

Thanks to the ongoing hard work of our volunteer cleaners and organisers we’re able to open three of our churches for a short period each week for individual prayer. You can visit to pray at the following times:

• Mondays                10am-noon         St James’ Welland
• Tuesdays               10am-noon         St Gabriel’s, Hanley Swan
• Wednesdays          10am-noon         St Mary’s, Hanley Castle
• Thursdays              10am-noon         St James’, Welland
• Fridays                   5pm-7pm            St Gabriel’s, Hanley Swan
• Saturdays              10am-noon         St Mary’s, Hanley Castle

To help keep you safe, the buildings are being cleaned before and after each opening period, and the three-day gap between each building opening will act as an additional “safety buffer” in which the scientists tell us any virus particles that the cleaners have missed will die.

It’s possible that we may need to close one of the buildings occasionally for a funeral, or other service, or because we haven’t been able to maintain cleaning safety. We’ll do our best to inform you of this.

__________

We long for the day when we can all gather together again, but in the meantime, stay safe, stay prayerful, and God bless!

Rev’d Barry Unwin

Dear Friends,

It’s quiet here at last! For the first time in nearly six months, all the children are at school (or work), and life suddenly seems a bit more like it used to be!

But I know for many the return to school is something to be afraid of. Having sat through a number of governor presentations on Covid-risk in the last few months, I am very confident that our schools are going to do as much as is humanly possible to protect their communities from Covid.

Earlier this week I encountered an interesting article about the likely risk of getting Covid. Tim Harford, the economist who presents the BBC Radio 4 statistics programme More or Less suggested we have a “44 in one million” chance of catching Covid every day (for those who like to round things down that’s 1 in 22727 chance)! That works out as a one in two million chance of dying, and a one in a million chance of hospitalisation.

And those figures assume that Covid is distributed evenly across the UK, which of course it isn’t. Malvern Hills district currently has an infection rate of 3 per 100,000 people, compared to a UK average of 8: so if my maths is correct, your chance of catching Covid in any one day in the Malvern Hills area is more like one in 60,000! All of which is to say that in our corner of Worcestershire, you’d have to try really quite hard to catch Covid-19 at the moment! And whilst that shouldn’t cause us to be careless, it should remind us that with common sense and a bit of self-discipline about things like hand washing and face masks, we don’t need to be afraid!

St Paul speaks about fear in his letter to a young church leader called Timothy. He says, “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”(2Tim 1:7) and whilst the fear Timothy felt was more to do with physical persecution and church politics, than disease, the same Holy Spirit can still help us to face our fear of Covid.

So rather than living in fear of life getting back to normal, let’s invite the Lord to make us brave (and self-disciplined), so that we can move forward confidently in these challenging times.

Here’s an update on what’s going on this week

1) Services – Sunday 6 September

This is the first Sunday of our new regular “post-covid” service pattern.

IN-PERSON:           

• 9:30am  Holy Communion –@ Hanley Swan.
• 11am Holy Communion @ The Hook
• 6:30pm Evensong @ Hanley Castle

VIDEO (online and CD/DVD)

• Sunday Service (traditional hymn version) – watch anytime from midnight onwards (also available through our Youtube channel).
• Church Family (modern music version) – watch anytime from midnight onwards at www.hopechurchfamily.org/virtual or through our Youtube channel or join the live Facebook Premiere at 9:30am.

• Service of Spiritual Communion – WEDNESDAY 9 September, 6pm Click this link to join in.

2) Next Weekend (Sunday 13 September)

IN-PERSON

• 8am Holy Communion @ Hanley Castle
• 9:30am Holy Communion @ Upton
• 11am            Holy Communion @ Earls Croome
• 11am            Morning Worship @ Ripple
• 11am            Morning Worship @ Welland

VIDEO (online and CD/DVD)

• Service of the Word (traditional) –available from midnight
• Church Family (contemporary)– Facebook Premiere at 9:30am and PRERECORDED available from midnight.

3) New Pattern of services from September

Now that most of our buildings are open again for worship, the service leaders, church wardens and I have agreed a new pattern of services, which we think is sustainable for the foreseeable future.

We don’t have as many service leaders as we had before the Covid outbreak, and we also have concerns about over-working some of our team, so there is no way at the moment to return to the pattern and frequency of services prior to Covid. Instead we’ve taken the opportunity to try to fairly allocate services between our various congregations, and to provide service times that are complementary where churches have a history of worshipping together (for example Upton and the Hook, or Hanley Swan and Welland). Sadly this means some churches will lose services, and others will have long-established patterns disrupted. However given most of us have had no “in-person” church service for four months, this represents an ideal time for a new beginning!

The new pattern will begin in September. Inevitably there will be deviations from it due to festivals and special events, and we’ll need to cancel the occasional service so that buildings can be quarantined after weddings, or when service leaders are unavailable. Please keep an eye on www.hopechurchfamily.org/calendar for the most up to date information.

4) Church finances – you can make a difference!

Like all small charities, your local church is suffering a significant financial shortfall as a result of lost income from collections and special fundraising events we’d have run through the summer.

If you are in a position to give an additional gift at this time, it would make a huge difference. To make this simpler, we’ve set up a new GIVING page on our website (https://hopechurchfamily.org/giving), with all the information you’ll need to give a one-off, or regular gift to any of our churches.

5) Services on DVDs and CDs

Every week I produce the services on DVD and CD for a small number of folk across the area who don’t have internet access. It’s been a lovely way for them to stay in touch. If you know of anyone else who would be helped by this ministry, please let me know.

6) Think you can sort out our administration?

We have a vacancy in the parish office, from mid-September. If you (or someone you know) would be interested in a part-time administrative role, 14 hours a week, then you can download a job description from our website: www.hopechurchfamily.org/administrator. We’ll be interviewing in September.

7) What Covid-safe church will be like.

We’re mostly getting used to this by now, but just in case you need a refresher, here’s a reminder of the basic common-sense, ground rules for a Covid-safe church service.

• If you are experiencing any Covid-19 symptoms (high temperature, new continuous cough, loss/change to your sense of smell or taste) please seek medical advice and do not attend services. We are continuing to provide services online.
• We will need to take contact details from you when you arrive.
• When you enter and leave the building, please use the hand-sanitiser provided.
• The social distancing rule is 2 metres.
• Please only sit in the seat(s) you are assigned. It helps us increase capacity if family groups/bubbles sit together.
• Congregational singing is not yet allowed (either inside or outside)!
• Children are the responsibility of their parents/guardian during the service.
• Please exit the building as soon as the service ends.
• Holy Communion will be served in “one-kind” only (bread) as the common cup is seen as a greater infection risk.
• Giving. If you value what we do and would like to support it, please consider setting up a standing order or using the Parish Giving Scheme (where possible) to support our work. You can find out details relating your parish church here.
• Please observe any directions the stewards give you.

I’m grateful to you all for your continued patience as we work to keep everyone safe. Please continue praying for everyone involved in managing the Covid-safe regime in our buildings, and also for our service leaders as they try to think of innovative ways of being church within the rules!

8) Churches Open For Individual Prayer.

Thanks to the hard work of our volunteer cleaners and organisers we’re able to open three of our churches for a short period each week for individual prayer. You can visit to pray at the following times:

• Mondays                10am-noon         St James’ Welland
• Tuesdays               10am-noon         St Gabriel’s, Hanley Swan
• Wednesdays          10am-noon         St Mary’s, Hanley Castle
• Thursdays              10am-noon         St James’, Welland
• Fridays                   5pm-7pm            St Gabriel’s, Hanley Swan
• Saturdays              10am-noon         St Mary’s, Hanley Castle

To help keep you safe, the buildings are being cleaned before and after each opening period, and the three-day gap between each building opening will act as an additional “safety buffer” in which the scientists tell us any virus particles that the cleaners have missed will die.

It’s possible that we may need to close one of the buildings occasionally for a funeral, or other service, or because we haven’t been able to maintain cleaning safety. We’ll do our best to inform you of this.

9) Deanery Plan – Consultation

As part of its plan to restructure and streamline things, the Diocese of Worcester is planning to reorganise its deanery structures. Our parishes currently form part of the Deanery of Upton, which is among the smallest deaneries in the country, and not considered viable at this size. Two options have been considered – merging us with a larger rural deanery (Pershore and Evesham), or with the more local Malvern deanery. Personally I think Malvern makes a lot more sense, but you may feel differently about it. You can download the full details here, and if you have any comments please send them to the address in the consultation letter.
We long for the day when we can all gather together again, but in the meantime, stay safe, stay prayerful, and God bless!

Dear Friends,

It’s quiet here! For the first time in nearly six months, all the children are at school (or work), and life suddenly seems a bit more like it used to be!

But I know for many the return to school is something to be afraid of. Having sat through a number of governor presentations on Covid-risk in the last few months, I am very confident that our schools are going to do as much as is humanly possible to protect their communities from Covid.

Earlier this week I encountered an interesting article about the likely risk of getting Covid. Tim Harford, the economist who presents the BBC Radio 4 statistics programme More or Less suggested we have a “44 in one million” chance of catching Covid every day (for those who like to round things down that’s 1 in 22727 chance)! That works out as a one in two million chance of dying, and a one in a million chance of hospitalisation. That means you are as likely to die of Covid-19 as you are to die from taking a bath.

And those figures assume that Covid is distributed evenly across the UK, which of course it isn’t. Malvern Hills district currently has an infection rate of 3 per 100,000 people, compared to a UK average of 8: so if my maths is correct, your chance of catching Covid in any one day in the Malvern Hills area is more like one in 60,000! All of which is to say that in our corner of Worcestershire, you’d have to try really quite hard to catch Covid-19 at the moment! And whilst that shouldn’t cause us to be careless, it should remind us that with common sense and a bit of self-discipline about things like hand washing and face masks, we don’t need to be afraid!

St Paul speaks about fear in his letter to a young church leader called Timothy. He says, “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”(2Tim 1:7) and whilst the fear Timothy felt was more to do with physical persecution and church politics, than disease, the same Holy Spirit can still help us to face our fear of Covid.

So rather than living in fear of life getting back to normal, let’s invite the Lord to make us brave (and self-disciplined), so that we can move forward confidently in these challenging times.

Here’s an update on what’s going on this week

1) Services – Sunday 6 September

This is the first Sunday of our new regular “post-covid” service pattern.

IN-PERSON:           

• 9:30am  Holy Communion –@ Hanley Swan.
• 11am Holy Communion @ The Hook
• 6:30pm Evensong @ Hanley Castle

VIDEO (online and CD/DVD)

• Sunday Service (traditional hymn version) – watch anytime from midnight onwards (also available through our Youtube channel).
• Church Family (modern music version) – watch anytime from midnight onwards at www.hopechurchfamily.org/virtual or through our Youtube channel or join the live Facebook Premiere at 9:30am.

• Service of Spiritual Communion – WEDNESDAY 9 September, 6pm Click this link to join in.

2) Next Weekend (Sunday 13 September)

IN-PERSON

• 8am Holy Communion @ Hanley Castle
• 9:30am Holy Communion @ Upton
• 11am            Holy Communion @ Earls Croome
• 11am            Morning Worship @ Ripple
• 11am            Morning Worship @ Welland

VIDEO (online and CD/DVD)

• Service of the Word (traditional) –available from midnight
• Church Family (contemporary)– Facebook Premiere at 9:30am and PRERECORDED available from midnight.

3) New Pattern of services from September

Now that most of our buildings are open again for worship, the service leaders, church wardens and I have agreed a new pattern of services, which we think is sustainable for the foreseeable future.

We don’t have as many service leaders as we had before the Covid outbreak, and we also have concerns about over-working some of our team, so there is no way at the moment to return to the pattern and frequency of services prior to Covid. Instead we’ve taken the opportunity to try to fairly allocate services between our various congregations, and to provide service times that are complementary where churches have a history of worshipping together (for example Upton and the Hook, or Hanley Swan and Welland). Sadly this means some churches will lose services, and others will have long-established patterns disrupted. However given most of us have had no “in-person” church service for four months, this represents an ideal time for a new beginning!

The new pattern will begin in September. Inevitably there will be deviations from it due to festivals and special events, and we’ll need to cancel the occasional service so that buildings can be quarantined after weddings, or when service leaders are unavailable. Please keep an eye on www.hopechurchfamily.org/calendar for the most up to date information.

4) Church finances – you can make a difference!

Like all small charities, your local church is suffering a significant financial shortfall as a result of lost income from collections and special fundraising events we’d have run through the summer.

If you are in a position to give an additional gift at this time, it would make a huge difference. To make this simpler, we’ve set up a new GIVING page on our website (https://hopechurchfamily.org/giving), with all the information you’ll need to give a one-off, or regular gift to any of our churches.

5) Services on DVDs and CDs

Every week I produce the services on DVD and CD for a small number of folk across the area who don’t have internet access. It’s been a lovely way for them to stay in touch. If you know of anyone else who would be helped by this ministry, please let me know.

6) Think you can sort out our administration?

We have a vacancy in the parish office, from mid-September. If you (or someone you know) would be interested in a part-time administrative role, 14 hours a week, then you can download a job description from our website: www.hopechurchfamily.org/administrator. We’ll be interviewing in September.

7) What Covid-safe church will be like.

We’re mostly getting used to this by now, but just in case you need a refresher, here’s a reminder of the basic common-sense, ground rules for a Covid-safe church service.

• If you are experiencing any Covid-19 symptoms (high temperature, new continuous cough, loss/change to your sense of smell or taste) please seek medical advice and do not attend services. We are continuing to provide services online.
• We will need to take contact details from you when you arrive.
• When you enter and leave the building, please use the hand-sanitiser provided.
• The social distancing rule is 2 metres.
• Please only sit in the seat(s) you are assigned. It helps us increase capacity if family groups/bubbles sit together.
• Congregational singing is not yet allowed (either inside or outside)!
• Children are the responsibility of their parents/guardian during the service.
• Please exit the building as soon as the service ends.
• Holy Communion will be served in “one-kind” only (bread) as the common cup is seen as a greater infection risk.
• Giving. If you value what we do and would like to support it, please consider setting up a standing order or using the Parish Giving Scheme (where possible) to support our work. You can find out details relating your parish church here.
• Please observe any directions the stewards give you.

I’m grateful to you all for your continued patience as we work to keep everyone safe. Please continue praying for everyone involved in managing the Covid-safe regime in our buildings, and also for our service leaders as they try to think of innovative ways of being church within the rules!

8) Churches Open For Individual Prayer.

Thanks to the hard work of our volunteer cleaners and organisers we’re able to open three of our churches for a short period each week for individual prayer. You can visit to pray at the following times:

• Mondays                10am-noon         St James’ Welland
• Tuesdays               10am-noon         St Gabriel’s, Hanley Swan
• Wednesdays          10am-noon         St Mary’s, Hanley Castle
• Thursdays              10am-noon         St James’, Welland
• Fridays                   5pm-7pm            St Gabriel’s, Hanley Swan
• Saturdays              10am-noon         St Mary’s, Hanley Castle

To help keep you safe, the buildings are being cleaned before and after each opening period, and the three-day gap between each building opening will act as an additional “safety buffer” in which the scientists tell us any virus particles that the cleaners have missed will die.

It’s possible that we may need to close one of the buildings occasionally for a funeral, or other service, or because we haven’t been able to maintain cleaning safety. We’ll do our best to inform you of this.

9) Deanery Plan – Consultation

As part of its plan to restructure and streamline things, the Diocese of Worcester is planning to reorganise its deanery structures. Our parishes currently form part of the Deanery of Upton, which is among the smallest deaneries in the country, and not considered viable at this size. Two options have been considered – merging us with a larger rural deanery (Pershore and Evesham), or with the more local Malvern deanery. Personally I think Malvern makes a lot more sense, but you may feel differently about it. You can download the full details here, and if you have any comments please send them to the address in the consultation letter.
We long for the day when we can all gather together again, but in the meantime, stay safe, stay prayerful, and God bless!

Dear Friends,

By now you’ve probably heard the joke about Education Secretary Gavin Williamson setting up an ABBA tribute band called BCCD, (so you can guess what this email will be about.)

First of all, I’d like to say congratulations to all who have managed to get exam grades over the last week or so. My oldest son James is among their number, and off to the University of Brighton in the Autumn to read Sports Science. We give thanks to God for how all of this has worked out for him and others, all the while remembering those who have had a more complex and frustrating or disappointing time. Do please be praying for them all.

Please also be praying for our Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, who I’m sure wouldn’t object to me saying hasn’t had the easiest of fortnights. But before we all pile in and tell him what he should have done, let’s remember that it’s very easy to be wise after the event. Philosopher Friedrich Von Schlegel said, “The historian is a prophet looking backwards” and I think that rather neatly defines the problem anyone taking policy decisions in these uniquely uncertain times faces.

Attempting to chart a course through the uncharted waters of Covid-19 is in a sense, a “prophetic task”. We’ve never faced a global pandemic before; there’s no historical road map to fall back on and so it’s down to our elected officials to build the road. And when you’re out breaking ground in new territory, it’s inevitable you are going to get some things horribly wrong. That’s why it’s always much easier to play the role of historian than prophet. Well all have the gift of hindsight, we all can say, “I would have done it better”. But few of us actually have the courage or the gifting to get up and do it.

I say all this with half an eye on one of this weekend’s bible readings, from the 12^th chapter of St Paul’s letter to the Romans (you can see it below), where Paul talks about what true worship is. You see, in the Bible, true worship isn’t you enjoying your favourite church music, nor is it Book of Common Prayer, instead it’s something far more radical. It’s everyone who knows Jesus offering themselves to God as living sacrifices, saying “not my will but yours be done”, and being ready to use whatever gifts God has given us as he would have us use them. That’s true worship.

Here’s how Paul concludes his thoughts on true worship, “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.”

So what’s your gift? And how will you use it in worship?

Here’s an update on what’s going on this week

1) Services in church, this Sunday 23 August

• 9:30am          Holy Communion  @  Upton
• 11am             Holy Communion @   Hanley Castle
• 11am             Morning Worship @  The Hook
• 11am             Holy Communion @ Welland

2) Online Services

Click the links on the list below to take you direct to the event at the appropriate time.

w/c Sunday 23 August
Video (available through Facebook, YOutube, through our website, or on DVD/CD)

• Sunday Service (traditional hymn version) – watch anytime from midnight onwards (also available through our Youtube channel).
• Church Family (modern music version) – watch anytime from midnight onwards at www.hopechurchfamily.org/virtual or through our Youtube channel or join the live Facebook Premiere at 9:30am.
• Wednesday 26^th. Service of Spiritual Communion on Zoom @6:30pm. Click here to join in. You can download the liturgy from the calendar page.

3) Next Weekend (Sunday 30 August)

It’s the fifth Sunday of the month next weekend, so we’re carrying on our tradition of all coming together in one of our larger venues.
IN-PERSON:           

• 9:30am  Morning Service – all our churches together @ Hanley Swan.

VIDEO (online and CD/DVD)

• Service of the Word (traditional) –available from midnight
• Church Family (contemporary)– Facebook Premiere at 9:30am and PRERECORDED available from midnight.

4) New Pattern of services from September

Now that most of our buildings are open again for worship, the service leaders, church wardens and I have agreed a new pattern of services, which we think is sustainable for the foreseeable future.

We don’t have as many service leaders as we had before the Covid outbreak, and we also have concerns about over-working some of our team, so there is no way at the moment to return to the pattern and frequency of services prior to Covid. Instead we’ve taken the opportunity to try to fairly allocate services between our various congregations, and to provide service times that are complementary where churches have a history of worshipping together (for example Upton and the Hook, or Hanley Swan and Welland). Sadly this means some churches will lose services, and others will have long-established patterns disrupted. However given most of us have had no “in-person” church service for four months, this represents an ideal time for a new beginning!

The new pattern will begin in September. Inevitably there will be deviations from it due to festivals and special events, and we’ll need to cancel the occasional service so that buildings can be quarantined after a wedding. Please keep an eye on www.hopechurchfamily.org/calendar for the most up to date information.

5) Church finances – you can make a difference!

Like all small charities, your local church is suffering a significant financial shortfall as a result of lost income from collections and special fundraising events we’d have run through the summer.

If you are in a position to give an additional gift at this time, it would make a huge difference. To make this simpler, we’ve set up a new GIVING page on our website (https://hopechurchfamily.org/giving), with all the information you’ll need to give a one-off, or regular gift to any of our churches.

6) Services on DVDs and CDs

Every week I produce the services on DVD and CD for a small number of folk across the area who don’t have internet access. It’s been a lovely way for them to stay in touch. If you know of anyone else who would be helped by this ministry, please let me know.

7) Think you can sort out our administration?

We have a vacancy in the parish office, from mid-September. If you (or someone you know) would be interested in a part-time administrative role, 14 hours a week, then you can download a job description from our website: www.hopechurchfamily.org/administrator. We’ll be interviewing in September.

8) What Covid-safe church will be like.

We’re mostly getting used to this by now, but just in case you need a refresher, here’s a reminder of the basic common-sense, ground rules for a Covid-safe church service.

• If you are experiencing any Covid-19 symptoms (high temperature, new continuous cough, loss/change to your sense of smell or taste) please seek medical advice and do not attend services. We are continuing to provide services online.
• We will need to take contact details from you when you arrive.
• Face coverings are now mandatory. Please wear one for the sake of the other people present. Note that service leaders, and anyone speaking in the service are exempt when speaking, as long as social-distancing is possible.
• When you enter and leave the building, please use the hand-sanitiser provided.
• Please take your service sheet away with you after the service.
• The social distancing rule is 2 metres.
• Please only sit in the seat(s) you are assigned. It helps us increase capacity if family groups/bubbles sit together.
• Come early to guarantee a seat!.
• Due to the risk of virus transmission posed by energetic singing, congregational singing is not yet allowed (either inside or out)!
• Family groups and bubbles are discouraged from interacting with each other in the building or in the church grounds.
• Children are the responsibility of their parents/guardian during the service.
• Please exit the building as soon as the service ends.
• We aren’t yet allowed to serve refreshments after the service
• Holy Communion will be served in “one-kind” only (bread) as the common cup is seen as a greater infection risk.
• Giving. To keep you safe we aren’t passing a collection plate. If you value what we do and would like to support it, please consider setting up a standing order or using the Parish Giving Scheme (where possible) to support our work. You can find out details relating your parish church here.
• Please observe all directions the stewards give you.

I’m grateful to you all for your continued patience as we work to keep everyone safe. Please continue praying for everyone involved in managing the Covid-safe regime in our buildings, and also for our service leaders as they try to think of innovative ways of being church within the rules!

9) Churches Open For Individual Prayer.

Thanks to the hard work of our volunteer cleaners and organisers we’re able to open three of our churches for a short period each week for individual prayer. You can visit to pray at the following times:

• Mondays                10am-noon         St James’ Welland
• Tuesdays               10am-noon         St Gabriel’s, Hanley Swan
• Wednesdays          10am-noon         St Mary’s, Hanley Castle
• Thursdays              10am-noon         St James’, Welland
• Fridays                   5pm-7pm            St Gabriel’s, Hanley Swan
• Saturdays              10am-noon         St Mary’s, Hanley Castle

To help keep you safe, the buildings are being cleaned before and after each opening period, and the three-day gap between each building opening will act as an additional “safety buffer” in which the scientists tell us any virus particles that the cleaners have missed will die.

It’s possible that we may need to close one of the buildings occasionally for a funeral, or other service, or because we haven’t been able to maintain cleaning safety. We’ll do our best to inform you of this.

10) Deanery Plan – Consultation

As part of its plan to restructure and streamline things, the Diocese of Worcester is planning to reorganise its deanery structures. Our parishes currently form part of the Deanery of Upton, which is among the smallest deaneries in the country, and not considered viable at this size. Two options have been considered – merging us with a larger rural deanery (Pershore and Evesham), or with the more local Malvern deanery. Personally I think Malvern makes a lot more sense, but you may feel differently about it. You can download the full details here, and if you have any comments please send them to the address in the consultation letter.

We long for the day when we can all gather together again, but in the meantime, stay safe, stay prayerful, and God bless!

Reverend Barry Unwin
Vicar, Hope Church Family