“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’” (Psalm 91:1-2)
I thought I'd give you a brief update, and make some suggestions for how we might help and be helped.
Services
You may have seen that the archbishops have issued advice that all public services should be suspended until further notice; I am awaiting more detailed advice from the Bishop of St Albans. We should assume, however, that there will no services on Sunday (or any other day) until further notice.
Unfortunately, as we look to the next few weeks, I anticipate that this will include all of our additional Lent and Easter services. As soon as I have information about when this might end, I will pass it on (with much celebration).
On Sunday mornings, I am planning to live-stream a short reading, reflection, and prayer from the Vicar's Study. We might not be able to meet together physically, but we can meet together spiritually, please do join me. This will probably be via the church's Facebook page (no login or registration should be required).
For a daily resource, a friend of mine is putting a short reading and prayer video on YouTube each day, which I hope will be helpful to you.
Helping and being helped
As we start to self-isolate, or simply reduce our social contact, there is a danger that we start to lose contact with one another. I'd like to make sure that we still keep in touch, and are able to help one another, and to be helped where needed. We are able to support one another, whether that is a friendly word on the phone, or collecting food from the shops.
To do that I want to set up a network of people who are in phone contact with each other. I envisage groups of about 10 people keeping regularly in touch with each other, and one of them with me. In that way I hope that we can help one another where needed, and be helped. This does not need to be restricted to those within the church family: we should be a help to all those in our communities.
If this is something you would like to be part of, please would you contact me directly (chris@norcuff.com; 07446 516945), and we can begin to organise it.
As ever, if you do have any questions or suggestions, do please be in touch with me directly