News  »  Monkhill Chapel weekly newsletter 5th September 2020

Dear All,

Hope you've all remembered that we resume services at Chapel tomorrow, Sunday 6 September at 10.30am. Please remember to wear your face covering as you enter the building and for the duration of the service. You will be required to enter by the disabled door into the porch and leave afterwards by the school-room door. You will be given a hymn book as you go in and allocated a pew where you may sit on your own or with others in your "bubble group". The hymn book should be left in your pew for your use next week. Glynis will be leading our service tomorrow which will last approx.30 mins.

For those of you, like me, who tried to listen to Mark and Christina Attwood's Welcome Service on Facebook last Tuesday, alas Facebook was not working, However I have just checked again on the Circuit Facebook page and it is still possible to see/listen to it on-line so well worth a listen.

Also taken from the North Cumbria Methodist Circuit Facebook page are the following snippets:

Last Sunday at 6:30 our Zoom worship came from Thurstonfield Methodist Chapel led by Rev Rachel Williams. Rachel managed to get the technology working for Zoom users and lead the service for the congregation in the building. We had a combined congregation (on Zoom and the building) of roughly 30. It is planned to be repeated in this format so there is the option to join Thurstonfield on a Sunday evening in person, or watch the service live on-line, or at a later time to suit you.

The Revd Richard Teal, our Methodist President and Carolyn Lawrence, Vice-President, will take part in an online healing service with Love Feast from Methodist Central Hall, Westminster this Sunday evening (tomorrow) at 6pm. You can join the service on www. MCHW.live (Presumably posted by David Newlove)

I found this yesterday. It was written by my College Principal Rev Dr Henry McKeating in 1974. Its as true today as it was then.

And when our tide comes in, and the overflowing flood passes through, our little edifices will not stand, and our little channels, dug whether by catholic or charismatic, will not contain God’s grace. We should not be busying ourselves, as most of us are, devising ways to build a better sandcastle. We should be learning…to swim. So that when the tide sweeps through we are not among those who can only see God’s work as destruction, but are borne up by that flood.

The church, then, must live in hope, and she can hope, but it is hope that is the very antithesis of shallow optimism. It is the hope of rebirth, and there’s nothing very comfortable about being born.

So please don’t imagine that I am saying ‘Cheer up! There’s life in the old church yet.’ Or, ‘God will see us through if we only sit tight.’ That’s not the message.

The message is: the opportunity is there, the pearl of great price is before us, if we’re prepared to throw everything away in order to get it. The church can be raised to life; if it is prepared to die. This is the message, that things will get worse for the church; and when they get worse, rejoice, because you know that your deliverance is at hand.

Wow - what a message!

Hope to see you tomorrow morning,

Good night and God Bless,

Lynne

PS. All being well, I plan to continue to send out these weekly Chapel News instead of the Weekly Notice Sheets that were printed and distributed at the start of the Sunday service. However if there are any urgent or late notices, details will be read out for your information during the service. The Chapel News is also posted onto the Parish Website so potentially reaches a wider audience.