Coronavirus - Community updates from the Revd Neil Short Wed 3 February 2021 - n
ST MICHAEL’S COMMUNITY UPDATE No 54: 3.2.21
INTRODUCTION
LOCKDOWN UPDATE
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
ST MICHAEL’S HIGH SCHOOL UPDATE As you are aware schools are currently closed to most pupils. At St Michael’s we currently have 78 pupils attending face to face lessons in school and the rest are being taught via live lessons remotely.
Before the Christmas break we were able to bring a ray of light to some of our elderly community. Our Choir (socially distanced) were able to perform 2 carol concerts at College Green Care home, Crosby and Formby Manor Care centre.
GLADYS AYLWARD POSTSCRIPT On Sunday 24th Jan I talked about Gladys Aylward an amazing missionary to China. Soon afterwards I received the following from Wendy Fairburn: I’ve just been watching the Sunday Service and was smiling at a memory from the past. In about 1968 I was a young teacher in Bradford. One of the older teachers announced that she would be going that evening to hear Gladys Aylward speak at the Mechanics Institute. She’d bought a new hat for the occasion. The next day, we asked her what it had been like and did she get a chance to speak to the great lady. ‘No,’ she said, ‘but she spoke to me’. ‘What did she say?’ We asked, in some awe. ‘She looked me straight in the eye, through the crowd, and said, “God won’t be interested in what kind of hat you’re wearing,”’ she replied. Happy days. Wendy
FOODBANK UPDATE by Lucy Faulkner South Sefton Food Bank is especially busy at the moment, and in particular are looking for the following: instant mash potatoes, tinned rice pudding, instant coffee, shampoo, shower gel and men’s deodorant. Please consider popping a few of these items into your online order or shopping trolley. Lucy will still be leaving a crate by the front gate at 3 St Michael’s Road on MONDAY MORNINGS between 10-12. Cheques can be put through the letterbox, payable to St Leonard’s Youth and Community Centre. We managed 1 shopping cart full of food and £120 in donations for January. Let’s try and double it for February!
QUIZ - Submitted by Michael Stone 1. In which century was the Doomsday Book written?
The last ten months have felt very much like that: we have wanted to sit down and weep as we have seen the images of our overcrowded hospitals, looked at the graphs of rising rates of cases and deaths and lost loved ones. We have wept when we remember when we could worship in fullness in our churches. We have wept with loneliness and boredom. We haven’t even been allowed to sing to the Lord. Truly we are in exile. Yet the prophet Jeremiah, who remained in the ruins of Jerusalem, writes to them on God’s behalf, telling them they should integrate with the populous of Babylon, settle themselves into the situation and pray for peace. How hard is that?? They are to stay there for a period until God’s word of comfort come to them and they can return.. Stop for a moment and think what it must be like to be a refugee in another country, with a different religion, when you are trying to be integrated, and when you long for your home country. I would be amazed if you did not know the words which God speaks through Jeremiah to the people in Exile. “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” We have seen it on bookmarks and fridge magnets, on cushions and shopping bags, on key rings and wall hangings. It is usually taken as a personal message which comes from Jeremiah, 29 v 11, which is fine and encouraging to each of us. However it is part of a letter from Jeremiah in Jerusalem to the people in Exile and it is not intended for the individual but for the whole nation. Perhaps it is in that way which we should read it at the present time. How are we to live in this new strange world in which we find ourselves? . Do we look after Number One or do we settle ourselves into the situation, pray for the restitution of peace and understand that God has plans which extend outside of our own “bubble” into the whole community, the whole nation, in fact the whole world? As we get our vaccines but continue to live in exile in this strange land, we mustn’t sit down and weep but get on with our lives corporately as best we can, giving thanks that humanity has a hope and a future. Rather than thinking smugly that we are alright (as those who remained in Jerusalem no doubt did) we remember those around the world who, are in exile now, who will never have the vaccine or who weep today for financial and personal loss. How can we make music in this strange land?
TALKS For those who missed our Sunday talks you will find them here: https://youtu.be/CbVB0yZCr_M If you are new to accessing YouTube clips and need some help, just give Margaret or I a ring on 0151 378 0332 and we will help.
QUIZ ANSWERS 1. 11th 2. Andes 3. Walter Scott 4. Ice Hockey 5. Rough Silk 6. Piano 7. 617 8. Cider 9. Blackbird 10. Sweet 11. Hercule Poirot 12. 1642 13. Opera 14. 1955 15. Ruddigore 16. 128 17. Busy Lizzie 18. 1917 19. The ear 20. Ville-Marie
ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE
Together we will get through this. 3.2.21 |