Coronavirus updates

To receive email updates about changes to our services due to Coronavirus, or to sign up to receive general information about church events, please join our mailing list (this will take you to an external website run by MailChimp). To read our latest few emails, click here for the archive.

Below are some of our previous updates - this page is no longer being updated.

30th July 2020

Dear brothers and sisters
 
How has your week been? Mine has been a painful one as I tore a calf muscle on Sunday afternoon and haven’t been able to walk or drive. But it still feels strangely worth it as it was such a satisfying experience building batting partnerships with both Harry and Samuel before I was abruptly struck down. Maybe some parents and sportspeople will understand that. Anyway, I’ve had some good physio and am seeing some improvement already so I should be able to preach standing up on Sunday. Following my sermon about the little children coming to Jesus, some of us have been reflecting on how growing older can be like returning to childhood, and the spiritual lesson in that. Injury that weakens us can remind us of our dependence on our loving heavenly father and our gracious gentle brother and Lord Jesus. I love Psalm 147, which I have shared with others when they can’t walk:
10 His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
    nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;
11 the Lord delights in those who fear him,
    who put their hope in his unfailing love. [NIV]

• Please keep praying for an Intern to come and serve and train with us
• Do come to the prayer meeting in person in the Miller Room on Thursday at 7.30pm
• Church on Sunday is as always 10.45 on Zoom or on site.
• If coming in person, come for 10.15 coffee by the Barge if you can, and please bring a mask to church. If you don’t want to wear it, sit on the left, and consider kindly wearing it as you pass through the Mask Zone on the right. 

Blessings,
Jonty

14th July 2020

Dear brothers and sisters
 
The government’s agonising attempts to be positive about “freedom day” (July 19th) as Covid cases rise but we put legal restrictions behind us remind me of Galatians 5:13:

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.
 
It certainly has felt as though church services have been more restricted than most of us want, and we so look forward to singing together again, breathing easily and seeing each other’s whole faces. But we are also conscious of our responsibility to care for each other’s needs. For those whose immune systems are suppressed or are fearful of catching Covid for whatever reason, someone else’s freedom might feel like their imprisonment. We will be no longer legally obliged to wear masks in church, but we may still decide to out of love for others.
 
This coming Sunday is still on the masks-and-no-singing system, although without the need to book. Do come if you can for coffee at the Barge at 10.15 and the service in St N’s at 10.45. Or tune in on Zoom ID: 894 5345 2295. Then on 25th July we will include congregational singing. The PCC discussed this last week and decided to keep the green ticks in place for the time being to encourage social distancing. We will have a Mask Zone, on the right hand (South) side of the church, so that those who still need to wear a mask can be confident they are not close to someone who is not wearing one. The size of the zone can be adjusted one way or the other over time as it becomes clear how many people want it. People entering church and heading over to a seat in the non-mask zone will need to pass through Mask Zone sensitively: it would be kind to wear a mask for those few steps if you have one. Sidespeople will be able to remind and assist. Hand sanitiser will still be there at the entrance for everyone. Please reply to this email to give an idea of whether you expect to prefer to sit in the Mask Zone or the Non-Mask-Zone!
 
Ian Williams, PCC Secretary, has compiled a list of Key Points from the PCC meeting which I copy below for your information.
 
Another date for your diary: on Wednesday 15th September the CEEC Bath & Wells is meeting at 7.30pm on Zoom to allow not just a few representatives of parish churches but invite all church members to a special session with speaker Kate Wharton on ‘Building Biblically Inclusive Churches’. This is a really important topic for us all to address, to try and be more welcoming to all people from all kinds of backgrounds including people with a variety of views of their sexuality and gender identity. At the same time we can’t do this in the same way as non-Christian organisations might because we want to encourage everyone in the church to follow Jesus, trusting and obeying him. Please Zoom to it with me if you can and I look forward to discussing it afterwards. If you want to know more about the Church of England Evangelical Council, do look at its website including a really good 30-minute video “The beautiful story” on the home page. The Bath & Wells branch used to be called the Diocesan Evangelical Fellowship; you may remember we hosted a meeting a few years ago with Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali.
 
God bless you.
Jonty

29th June 2020

Dear brothers and sisters
 
It was remarkable how the rain defied the forecast and held off on Sunday morning and we had a good turnout for coffee by the canal and then for church inside and Junior Church outside. Thank God for that. From this coming Sunday we’re planning to welcome children into church for the first ten minutes as we always used to for a short all-age time, before they head out for their activities. Don’t forget to help us by booking your places – for adults and children – early.
 
This Thursday is PRAYER MEETING EVENING! Some of us are suffering chronic Zoom fatigue but we’re not sure that more than 6 are allowed to gather indoors for a prayer meeting so the plan I’ve agreed with the Wardens is to hold the meeting OUTSIDE! Hooray! In person with no masks and probably including singing a hymn. I don’t think we’ve ever had over 30 for a prayer meeting so please come and let’s make that limit a target! We’ve got a few garden chairs but it would help if a few people brought a deckchair.  We’ll be praying for our long-term mission partners as well as persecuted Christians as we move our focus for the coming two months to Open Doors, as well as concerns closer to home including our older folk, those who are not currently making it to church, our outreach including opportunities on the Canal, and the recruitment of a new Intern (we have not had any applications yet; please pray at home as well as in this meeting). The prayer meeting is just for an hour at 7.30pm outside the Vicarage, Bathampton Lane. If going up from the church you keep going up past all the speed humps and then see a bus stop on the right. The Vicarage is the next drive down between the big houses, into a lovely garden where the first thing you see is a trampoline; try and stay off that till the end of the prayer meeting. It’s fine to park on the grass so there is space for a few cars, but restricted turning space so some people prefer not to bring a car down. If the weather is looking dodgy, check your email. The wet weather plan is to revert to Zoom one more time. Hopefully by the August meeting we will be back in the Miller Room.
 
Finally, a ministry opportunity to consider: the Cleaning Rota has vacancies we would love to fill, both for cleaning the lovely old church and the lovely new extension. Could you join that and make a difference to our welcome? Please let me know.

God bless you

Jonty

21st June 2020

Dear brothers and sisters
 
I mentioned in church yesterday that on 4th July we will be returning to Matthew’s Gospel in our Sunday preaching series, having completed 1 Peter. We pick up with some uncomfortable words of Jesus in Matthew 19:1-12. As well as listening to the Lord Jesus and his good word to us, I want to listen to you and keep getting to know you better, and be better equipped to help you hear, understand, trust, love and obey him. The area of marriage and divorce is particularly painful for some of us, for several reasons. If you have something you would like me to hear in confidence, please do get in touch with me. You can email my direct address or use the “reply” to this email (which is not confidential) to ask me to contact you. It would help if we could chat this week to help me process thoughts in time for a week on Sunday.
 
Please book your seat for this coming Sunday as soon as you are able, and by the deadline of 2pm Thursday if at all possible. We are not in danger of running out of seats but we do need at this stage to keep a record for 3 weeks of who comes, and the booking system greatly helps the sidespeople. Come at 10.15am for free good coffee by the Barge together.
 
Finally, let me draw attention to an excellent opportunity to think through our attitude to the Bible, with help from the Bible and some high-quality teaching from outside our own church family but within our region. The morning described below is linked to MTC, the Ministry Training Course attended by Interns and others, provided by the South West Gospel Partnership:
Words of LIFE
The Christian's joy and confidence in Scripture
The MTC Study Day is an annual morning of Bible teaching accessible to all. This year it is on Thursday 15th July 2021, both in-person at St Bart's Bath and online via Zoom.
The theme this year is the doctrine of Scripture, and our aim is to work towards a deeper understanding of what Scripture is and how it functions in God's purposes, in order to bolster our confidence and joy that God has given us such a gift. We'll also look together at how Scripture answers some of the challenges of our culture's postmodern mind.
 
The timetable is:
10:00 Our Confidence in Scripture: God’s address of his Church (Tom Underhill)
11:00 Coffee Break
11:20 Our Joy in Scripture: Solid ground in a postmodern world (Ian Lewis)
12:00 Q&A
12:30 Finish
 
There is a suggested donation of £15 (£10 for SWGP Partners) for the whole morning.
 
Book via forms.swgp.org.uk/mtc-study-day
 
Do make the most of this opportunity for excellent use of a Thursday morning.
 
God bless you

Jonty

16th June 2020

Dear brothers and sisters
 
How are you? Some of us will be feeling quite discouraged by the government’s decision to delay the “reopening”, and/or by the growth in numbers of infections that caused it. Many of us feel invincible after being double-jabbed, but perhaps our confidence is shaken by news such as Becky and I received this morning: her father, having tested positive for Covid, was taken into hospital in the night. Thankfully he is doing well and on his way home again, grateful for his vaccination which may have stopped it being being much worse.
 
The repeated mentions of “suffering” in 1 Peter apply primarily to suffering for being a Christian, as we saw on Sunday, but much of its teaching has implications for our attitudes to any area of life where things are uncomfortable or not as we would like them to be. Let us keep it in perspective, which means seeing everything in the context of eternity. An extra four weeks’ wait for the lifting of restrictions may feel unbearable for some after the strain of the last 15 months, but surely for us it has to fit easily into the category of “a little while” in Peter’s blessing for those who stand firm in the faith:
 
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 5:10-11)
 
Watch this space for news of our July prayer meeting. I had hoped the lifting of all restrictions would make clear that we could hold it in person rather than on Zoom. Maybe an outdoor one is the way – I hear one homegroup had a lovely time in the Secret Garden yesterday! I hope by now you are aware that our 10.45am Sunday service is both onsite and online, and of the following points:
Come if you can. You will not be depriving anyone else of a place. We are still taking care with covid-safe precautions.
If coming on Zoom, we don’t want to get cut off from you. Please keep texting or emailing occasionally to give feedback and ideas, as well as to keep in touch and let me know how you are.
If coming in person, please book by Thursday 2pm and you will receive booking confirmation on Friday.
If you miss that deadline, it doesn’t mean you can’t come, it’s just a bit of a pain for Anna. Anna is very gracious about it so don’t take advantage of that unnecessarily. But if you get a last-minute opportunity to invite someone, it’s worth inviting them.
Booking is by email to stnicholasprayers@gmail.com. That is the address these Updates come from.
Please don’t wait for a reminder like this but do it earlier in the week if you can. 
On Sunday we come to Peter’s appeal to church leaders, whom he calls “elders”, “shepherds” and “overseers” (which is sometimes translated “bishops”. You may or may not see yourself as one of those, but it his helpful for all of us to see what they (we) are supposed to be doing, and to think about in what ways we do have a responsibility to lead, care for, and influence others. I know our preacher Nigel has been giving that some thought and I am looking forward to his sharing God’s word with us.
 
I have now, with help from the Wardens, completed drawing up a job description for our next Intern and am publishing adverts. Please do pray for the right person to apply.
 
Have a good week,

Jonty

9th June 2020

Dear brothers and sisters
 
It was a real joy to see Dan Mak again on Sunday when he helped us see in 1 Peter three exercises to keep us going in this final act of history: disciplined prayer, love, and keep serving.
 
Do please book in by 2pm tomorrow for this coming Sunday. It’s good to see a handful have not waited for this reminder. It’s always helpful to get your booking in sooner rather than later in the week, to this email address. Plan to come at 10.15am for coffee out around the towpath, from the Café on the Barge. Heni has kindly been giving us free cake as well as charging the church very little to supply free good coffee to everyone. There’s a lot of catching up to do with folk we haven’t spoken to  in church for a long time, or may not even have met yet. Then come on in for a prompt start at 10.45am. Those who can’t come onsite can Zoom in as usual for 10.45am. It’s good to see your faces, and you can talk to each other at the end of the service.
 
This morning I heard someone talking about his experience of becoming a Christian at university many years ago. At the time, he had thought he was committing his life to a narrower, more restricted life… but then he found it was the opposite. It was like entering the Tardis, which is bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside. Jesus gives us life in all its fullness and the joy we can receive now is greater than we imagined, and greater than any we may have tasted before. But that joy comes with struggles, and the fullness of glory is yet to come. In the pandemic, everyone’s experience has been different. Most of us are feeling weary, but in a variety of ways. Some will admit to having enjoyed it. In the Christian life, we can all find joy even though we can expect to suffer or be insulted because of the name of Christ. Peter tells us how, and we’ll be exploring that on Sunday.
 
If you have appreciated Adam Biggs’ long service playing the organ and piano so skilfully for our services, you may like to contribute to a gift of gratitude. Andy Lloyd-Williams is buying a gift. Donations – cheque marked on the back ADAM, payable to St Nicholas’ Church Bathampton, or bank transfer with reference ADAM to 60-02-05  5095 4121) received by Rita (contact treasurer@stnicholasbathampton.org.uk) by 20th June will be included in the total Rita gives to Andy.
 
I hope you are having a good week. God bless you
Jonty

1st June 2020

Dear brothers and sisters

We are taking great care to keep our church services safe and legal, so I hope you will feel confident to book in for Sunday. Please do it by reply to this email and Anna is kindly handling this address and bookings. I won’t be keeping up with my own email this week as we’re taking a family break for half term. Booking early is helpful; the nominal deadline is 2pm Thursday and you should receive a confirmation email on Friday.

A few people were away for half term and the congregation was smaller than last week, but we’re starting to get used to the hybrid onsite/online, in the room/on the Zoom model of services and I very much enjoyed it again on Sunday, including the coffee and the live music. Come at 10.15am again next Sunday for a free coffee or tea (if you want something more elaborate like a hot chocolate or cappuccino, you can pay for that) together and with others by the canal. It was a good chance to welcome someone who’s just moved into Bathampton; who knows who we’ll meet next week? One person we’re planning to see is a blast from the past: Dan Mak, who left as Intern (although we never called him that) four years ago and now serves in a church in Harpenden. Dan is still thinking about one day going back to live and serve the church in Hong Kong; I want us to pray for him.

Adam Biggs has been associated with St Nick’s for longer than most of us can remember. He first played the organ for our evening service back in 2003. Then for many years he played in the morning service, supplemented at times by a music group in the ebb and flow of church life, right up until lockdown last year. He is a very gifted jazz pianist, head of Jazz Studies at Bath Spa where he lectures, and an accomplished organist, as well as someone we have all enjoyed getting to know. Now that again we have church members able and willing to play various instruments including the organ (hopefully to accompany our congregational singing before long) every week, with limited funds it is no longer appropriate to pay an organist to come in and play. We thank Adam and wish him well, and of course he is always welcome at the church. Margaret White is now coordinating our musicians and liaising with service leaders over hymn choices to continue introducing us to new songs as well as maintaining a blend with the range of what we already know.

Don’t forget the church prayer meeting on Thursday at 7.30pm. Everyone is welcome to join together on Zoom and pray. You will have the opportunity to pray aloud but with no pressure if you’re not yet comfortable with that. Ian Williams will be leading the meeting and it’s on a different Zoom number from before.

Have a great week. God bless you,

Jonty

 

 

22nd December 2020

Dear brothers and sisters,
 
A big thank-you for all those who contributed to Sunday morning’s Nativity service with a difference: those who came and were part of it in church, those who recorded the parts of narrators, Quirinius, Joseph, Mary, wise people, Herod, shepherds, and last but not least the cow and sheep, as well as all of you who made an effort to sit down and take part in our corporate worship from home. It’s still available on catch-up, of course: https://youtu.be/7PMm4EIm5C4. At the start of that video is a slideshow of the Bathampton Christmas Story Window Trail. Thanks everyone who contributed a window, and Robin Donald for some super day and night photographs.
 
The organisation Faith in Kids provided ideas and resources (including the Nativity script) for that service. We were thinking about how in the birth of Jesus, God joined our bubble. To think a bit more about that, have a look (together with any children you may have to hand) at a delectable video they have made: https://youtu.be/s-BCtvo4ce0 . I wonder how many of us can identify with Joseph, who was “in meltdown… All his plans were wrecked… he was feeling super stressed… he was just about to snap…” and need to hear with him the message from God, “good news for a heart that was filled with fear. Good news of Immanuel: God come near.”
 
Video links can be a lovely way to share some love when used thoughtfully. It’s so easy to paste one into an email or whatsapp message. That’s about as far as I go with social media but some of you will be making the most of Twitface and all the others. Well done. Do you know someone who might appreciate one of the above two links, or the one I sent last week to “O come, all you unfaithful” https://youtu.be/C-QHbpYjuIg? Maybe in a separate message you might like to share https://youtu.be/OOtBV7QvyKU with someone who just needs a good laugh as well.
 
Don’t forget that some of our services are happening in person in church, so please do book early if you’d like to come. We haven’t had to turn anyone away yet, and it would be much better if we did (with some notice) than if all the people who wouldn’t mind being turned away just stayed away anyway. The routine is settling into a Thursday 2pm deadline (you can still ask after that but it’s much more helpful if you ask before) for the following Sunday, and we’ll confirm with you on the Friday (Saturday this week). For the 11pm Christmas Eve service, please ask by 2pm Wednesday. Thank you.
 
I’ll email again about the Christingle, and also about next Sunday’s service…
 
See you soon
Jonty

20th December 2020

Dear all

If you liked Jonty's paperchain that he made during the service and would like to make your own, then click here to download a printable version. All you need is a printer, some scissors, and a means of sticking. 
Enjoy!

Anna

17th December 2020

Dear brothers and sisters
 
It feels as though every Christmas I find one thing that particularly moves me about the message of Christmas in a new way – some different aspect of it each year. So the same old message is always fresh, which makes sense given that, the Word of God having become flesh and made his dwelling among us, Jesus is still a human being and is still very much alive.
 
This year my favourite carol is a new one. The title picks up on an old one, “O Come all you faithful”. That old favourite has a wonderful message to us who are trusting Christ the Lord, to come and worship him as he deserves. But what if we feel aware that we are not faithful? Not full of faith but with a small faith, struggling with doubt… not faithful to those we love, towards God, or to our own words and promises? O come all you unfaithful (click here for the video) is a beautiful reminder that Christ is born for people like us. The video, according to Sovereign Grace Music, contains people who are processing “O Come, All You Unfaithful,” most of them for the first time, in light of their own experiences. A stillborn child. A strained marriage. Feelings of shame. Legalism. Loss. Loneliness. Or simply having a heart that weeps with those who weep. Jesus wasn’t born for people who have it all together. He was born for those who have nothing.
 
“Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11.28–30, ESV)
 
“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1.21, ESV)
 
So come.
 
On the question of coming into church on Sundays, I am still hearing some people saying they are holding back from asking to book in because they don’t want to take someone else’s place. The truth is we have not yet reached capacity on Sundays, we don’t want the church to be more empty than it needs to be, and we would love you to come if you can. The most helpful thing you could do is ask by email to the address this mailing comes from (stnicholasprayers) early in the week – and by 2pm Thursday if at all possible and wait to hear back after that whether there is space for you or not.
 
This coming Sunday is an all-age service so we would love children to come and sit with the adults who bring them. We would also love adults coming without children to come. It is for all ages together, for the whole church family, not just for children. It will be shorter than usual.
 
Most of us are a little bit confused about the services over the next couple of weeks so here’s a round-up:

Every Sunday 10.45am: In church (book by 2pm Thursday if you can) and on YouTube
Sunday 20th December:
    10.45am All Age including watching the Nativity on-screen (in church and on YouTube)
    4.00pm Claverton Carol Service on the same YouTube channel only
    7.30pm St Nick’s Virtual Bus to London – on our YouTube channel –  Christmas Story – Join All Souls Orchestra, All Souls Choir and Massed     Virtual Choir for a special re-telling of the Christmas story, including timeless Christmas carols, orchestral favourites, readings from the     Nativity story unpacked by speaker Rico Tice. Special guests include Keith and Kristyn Getty, Sean Fletcher and Sir David Suchet CBE –    Bathampton Virtual mince pies follow on Zoom
Christmas Eve:
    4.30pm on Zoom only – CHRISTINGLE
    11.00pm Communion in church only (book by 2pm Tuesday)
Christmas Day:
    10.45am on YouTube only for all ages
 
May you know Christ’s peace and joy this Christmas. Thank you for your patience as not everything is how we would want it to be. We are aware of some communication difficulties in both our email systems and the church office phone (which is not currently answered live anyway, but there seems to be a problem on the line meaning that you can’t leave a message – or even worse, if you do, nobody can hear it) so please persevere and try a different method if you need to contact me or Hannah or the wardens.
Jonty

10th December 2020

Dear brothers and sisters
 
What a joy it was for those of us who were able to meet together for our 10.45 service last Sunday! I think the livestream quality was improved as well so it wasn’t too bad for those who had to watch from home.
 
The nature of things in the pandemic has made planning difficult in all kinds of areas of life for many different people. Why make arrangements when they are so likely to have to change? I have found that with planning church services, just working a few weeks ahead rather than in the four-month blocks we normally plan. We tend to become last-minute. And that tends to be the case with any decision to go out of the house, so it’s not surprising that although we ended up almost fully booked last week, most of the bookings came late in the week.
 
As a reminder, this email itself is hopelessly late because I want to ask you, please, to try and book for services in future by 2pm on the Thursday. Then we will send replies confirming places after that. If we are not full, others can still book later, but when we do fill up we will try and make sure anyone who has to miss one week gets a place the following week. So again, don’t hold back for fear of depriving someone else of a place. If you’d like to come, ask, and we’ll tell you if we need you to watch from home instead. Some people are kindly saying they wouldn’t mind being turned away; others might like to emphasise when it is particularly important to them to be able to come. So for this week, please reply by return, and in future weeks please book early in the week. Thank you.
 
Last Sunday was very special just to be together again. This next one (13th December) is a very special moment because we plan to share the Lord’s Supper together. For many of us this will be the first time for many months. The Lord Jesus gave his disciples bread and wine and said “Do this in remembrance of me”; in obedience to his command we want to draw near to him and “feed on him our hearts by faith with thanksgiving”, remembering that it is only through his body which was broken for us, and his blood which was shed for us, that we have forgiveness and eternal life. Eating and drinking reminds us that we rely on him as we rely on our food for life.
 
As the pandemic loomed, we were restricted to receiving Communion in “one kind”, that is the bread only. The reasons were understandable and necessary, but it went against the grain, after our forebears the Reformers gave so much to remove Roman error from the sacrament in the Church of England, including the withholding of the Cup from the people as if it were for “priests” only. We rejoice in the priesthood of all believers. (This is part of why I was not prepared to perform a “Communion” service on my own for spectators whilst we were livestreaming without a congregation.) I am pleased to say that the House of Bishops has now approved a covid-secure way of including wine in our Supper, which we used in Claverton this week. I will explain the details of the procedure carefully for those who come on Sunday, but essentially the bread and wine will remain covered whenever anyone is not wearing a mask, and we will all have masks on when it is uncovered, so nobody breathes over it. I will sanitise my hands and touch each wafer carefully to the surface of the wine, so that it absorbs a little, before dropping it into your sanitised hand. Anyone not comfortable with receiving this bread and wine – for whatever reason – can of course remain in their place or come up for a blessing.
 
Some may be watching at home, curious, or longing to be partaking together – and this longing, which all believers have experienced in our different ways through much of this year, is in itself a healthy sign – and others may prefer to switch off when the rest of the service has finished and we move to the Lord’s Table.
 
As Paul says in Romans 8:
²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
We are hoping and waiting for something much better. And
¹⁸ I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

Jonty

3rd December 2020

Dear brothers and sisters
 
What a joy to see light at the end of the tunnel with the vaccine starting to be rolled out as we come out of our second lockdown and into Tier 2. In many ways life is still very restricted but one very big change for us is that we are now allowed to meet as a church family for services again, and intend to do so on Sundays straight away. I am so looking forward to seeing many of you in person.
 
I do hope you will come if you can. There is something very special about being together in person, even in our socially-distanced way with masks and no singing. Come and see people you haven’t seen for months, who are your brothers and sisters in our local church. Come and encourage each other – not with a handshake or a hug but with a smile and a wave and by being together reinforcing our commitment to one another and to the Lord Jesus together. We can hear his word together and pray together and sing his praises silently in our hearts together. If you can’t come – children and Junior Church leaders, vulnerable people, anyone with symptoms or having to isolate – don’t worry, we’ll still be live on YouTube (God willing, and with a better, cheaper camera as we had this week) and able to remember one another in our prayers, as we look forward to the day now on the horizon when it will be safe for you too to be present in person. But if you would be happy to come and are just holding back for fear of taking someone else’s place, or because you’ve acquired a taste for church in pyjamas and aren’t sure you can be bothered to come out, or got the false impression from my weary notice last week that I didn’t particularly want you there, don’t let those things stop you! I’d love you there! We are operating a booking system but there doesn’t seem to be much danger of having to turn anyone away. We’ve done some careful planning of where people can safely sit and there’s higher capacity than I previously thought. Only ONE PERSON has emailed so far to book a place for Sunday and it would be great to get closer to thirty. Please email me by REPLY TO THIS EMAIL and that will be an efficient way to keep the bookings in one place. It doesn’t go straight to my inbox but I do have access to this stnicholasprayers address which is managed by Anna.
 
Thank you to the many people who have pulled out all the stops to get our Christmas cards and Gospel magazines delivered to homes in the parish this week. You’ve done a great job and most of them are out. There are still some left and I might update you once Hannah has counted them tomorrow, so if you’re up for doing more, get them from the church porch when you come to the 1045 or by arrangement with a keyholder some other time. If you were not able to take enough magazines when you picked up your cards, there are more magazines available. I shall be bringing at least a hundred back from Claverton on Sunday morning.
 
And finally… I hope to see you on Zoom this evening for our prayer meeting at 7.30pm. The details are the same as for Virtual Coffee. There is so much to give thanks to God for and so much – and so many – we need to ask his mercy, blessing, and help for. We can encourage one another to watch and pray, and be ready for his return, as we see each other on screen. Everybody is welcome to pray aloud but you don’t have to. You can just listen and say some Amens. If you’ve never been to a Zoom prayer meeting, or never been to a prayer meeting, come!
 
And thank God he didn’t socially distance. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” John 1:14.
Jonty

27th November

Dear brothers and sisters

Kathleen Williams lived with the sure and certain hope of going to be with the Lord Jesus for ever, and now she has fallen asleep in him to await, in peace, the glorious resurrection. As a dearly-loved member of the church she will be sadly missed but we give thanks for her life and her joy in Christ. Her funeral on 11th December will be for invited guests only in the crematorium and St Nicholas’, but will be available to watch on our YouTube channel. Do keep praying for Ian and Jan and the rest of the family at a time of multiple losses.

Not everyone has this hope in which Kathleen dwelt secure and, especially over the last nine months, hope has felt in short supply. It is especially important for us to be sharing the Good News of Jesus at this time, that others may know true hope as an anchor for the soul. I love the design of our Christmas card this year:

We have 800 of these to put through letterboxes and give one to every household in the parish. So far, people have volunteered for about half of the streets. We still need volunteers for a few streets; would you take on one or more? It would be great to get them out as soon as possible, not least because they advertise our Christmas Window Story Trail and various Christmas services. It’s a very worthwhile way to take our daily exercise. Since I invited offers of help last week (and thank you for all those responses) the challenge has grown in an exciting way. I decided to grab an opportunity we have been offered to increase the impact of that delivery by adding, for as many of the cards as we can manage, a special “Hope” magazine-format copy of John’s Gospel as a gift. These are supplied free of charge by “Good News for Everyone!”, the organisation formerly known as Gideons UK, for us to deliver. They look great (see photo) – and link well with the card.



I think many people will be really pleased to receive them. A few might be mildly annoyed but if they put it straight in the recycling, this is a very small negative compared to the benefit for those who open and read some of the words of hope and life. They are significantly heavier than a Christmas card, of course. Jane kindly offered help this week counting out the cards into bags ready for delivery – and ended up filling her house with bags bursting with magazines as well…

Some in our small army of brilliant volunteers delivering the cards (thank you all!) may decide it would be too much, as they had only offered to deliver cards, so I do not presume on them taking a mammoth load. My car was very weighed down by the magazines when I collected them for Bathampton and Claverton. We probably won’t get the magazines to every home, which is fine – “GNFE” are happy to take unused ones back if we don’t find other ways to use them – so let’s just do what we can, and not worry about what we can’t. Let’s aim to get all the cards out, plus as many magazines as we manage as a bonus. The above bags are no longer being guarded by Oscar Buckley but are in the church porch ready for covid-safe collection. So if you’d like to help, please come at a time when it can be unlocked. The best time is straight after the livestream on Sunday, between 11.45am and 12.30pm, when I shall be there to oversee the collection and pass a bag out of the open double doors to you. Collecting them, and delivering, are legitimate reasons to be out during lockdown – just don’t hang around and socialise or go within 2 metres of anyone. If you can’t come, get in touch and we’ll find a way to get them to you.

Last Sunday was Deidre Bryant’s 90th birthday. We are very grateful for all that Deirdre has done for the church over many years especially in the Banner Group and looking after church linen and things. Deidre has been attending the Methodist Church very close to her home in recent years as her restricted mobility made that so much easier than the journey to St Nick’s. A belated Happy Birthday to Deidre!

Bathampton Christmas Story Window Trail

Hannah has done a great job getting people organised to light up windows all over the village and there are now 32 stars on the map and rising. This booklet will be available in a box outside Pam Hawker’s house at the entrance to Hantone Hill and gives a guided tour of the windows, telling the story along the route, all the way to the finish at church where Jan Wilcock has done a lovely Nativity display. It all launches on Sunday evening, Advent Sunday, when the sun goes down. If you haven’t got a window decorated yet and would like to, it’s fine to join in after the start. If you email Hannah events@stnicholasbathampton.org.uk she’ll add a star to the virtual copy of the map, which is probably what more people will use, on their mobile phones, than the paper version which has now been printed.

This Sunday is Advent Sunday and the last in lockdown. We plan to welcome a congregation at 10.45am every Sunday from December onwards, with just one service a week and a need to book by emailing me. Services will still be livestreamed on YouTube as well for those who can’t or would rather not come physically. The non- Sunday services are:

Christmas Eve: Christingle on Zoom; 11pm Communion in church

Christmas Day: 10.45am on YouTube only

Jonty
 

20th November

Dear brothers and sisters
 
Generosity is a most beautiful and attractive Christian virtue. And yet how many of us Christians are known for our generosity? Are we more likely to be stingy than extravagantly generous? I often see generosity in my Christian brothers and sisters and I love it.
 
Over the next three Sundays we are going to start using a 6-session course called The Generosity Project. We’ll do the remaining three sessions in the new year. I’m quite excited about it. It’s produced by an excellent teaching team of Christian leaders from all over the world serving churches in the UK and in Australia. We’ll use a combination of video input and our own local preaching on the topics, starting this week with reflection on God’s generosity. It is amazing how he provides for us: he has created not just a universe that works, but a world that is astonishingly, unnecessarily beautiful. Sometimes when we are busy or weighed down by life’s pressures we can miss out on taking joy in that. My head was down at breakfast yesterday morning until this sight suddenly caught my eye out of the window:

Let’s look forward to lifting our eyes together to the one who hung up his bow in the clouds as we tune into YouTube for the livestream on Sunday.
 
If you’d like a taste from the Generosity Project of how the generosity of God changed someone’s life, click this link: Manoj’s story tells in 6 minutes how he had become very wealthy, lost it all in 2008, and ended up wanting to thank God for his generosity after he nearly lost his young son.
 
Would you be able to volunteer for some help please? There are several needs at the moment:

• Next weekend, or early in the week beginning Sunday 29th November, could you deliver some Christmas cards in the parish as a volunteer postperson? You may remember how we normally bundle them up into rounds of about 20 homes (some streets, or parts of streets, are longer or shorter). For your exercise one day, or maybe five consecutive days, could you take a round? If so please email office@stnicholasbathampton.org.uk ; Hannah will pick up the email on Friday and deliver the bundle(s) to you then.
• On Friday morning, Hannah could do with one volunteer to help count cards (Christmas cards; I’m not talking about casino fraud) and put rubber bands around them, for her to deliver to the volunteer postpeople. This would be with Hannah in church but socially distanced: probably in the Miller Room while she is in the Office. If you can offer help with this please contact Hannah directly or via me, not on the office email as she won’t be checking that till Friday.
• If you, or a child near you, would like a part in the Virtual Nativity which is being pre-recorded ahead of 20th December, please let me know. You’ll only be in one scene for which I’ll give you a script and you then record yourself, probably on Zoom with a virtual background which I’ll send you. The cast list comprises 2 narrators, a Governor, Joseph, Mary, 2 Wise Men, 3 Shepherds, Herod, a Cow and a Sheep.

Thank you for any help you are able to offer as we work together as one body to celebrate – and hold out to the world – the light, love, joy, peace, and hope of Christ.

Jonty

 

9th November

Dear brothers and sisters

I am sorry about the disappointing experience of the livestream service from church for Remembrance yesterday. A lot of work had gone into the preparation, from a good number of people, and we called the camera installer back again last week for more refinements, although the problems he solved may not have been noticed as they were overshadowed by the new problems caused by a drop in our internet upload speed, and the crashing of two laptops! We continue to work hard to try and get a more resilient and reliable system for a smoother viewing experience; please do pray for those working on it and bear with us as together with you we all do what we can to “gather” and encourage one another – Hebrews 10:24-25 seems a very apt Theme Verse again! Next Sunday we may well try a much simpler, shorter live service, to try and get back on track, depending on how tests and practice go early in the week. And then the aim is to have things working really well and book in a “studio congregation” as soon as lockdown is lifted.

It may be that one extra monitor screen – probably a TV, as long as it’s not too old to take inputs from a computer – would help things. If you have one you don’t need and would like to consider lending or donating it, please let me know.

I have mentioned on the last two Sundays an exciting outreach opportunity for the village this Christmas. Here is a message from the enthusiastic visionary organiser of Bathampton’s Christmas Window Trail, which needs a response THIS WEEK:

Dear Church Family,

As the seasons change and our year continues to be unchartered, we are looking towards Christmas. There is so much uncertainty, that I am constantly grateful for Jesus and his gracious and amazing promises that I know do not waver whatever future is thrown towards us.

Christmas is a time of celebration and traditions; through it all, in our house, we remember that Christmas is Baby Jesus' birthday and when it's HIS birthday we all get presents and celebrate!

Celebrating will probably be challenging for all of us this year and particularly the traditions. We are a church family with many lovely traditions; the ad-hoc nativity in which all generations take part and proffer props, carols by candlelight, welcoming the school to use our building for their Christmas carols and plays, midnight Communion and seeing our church bursting at the seams with two Christingle celebrations... none of these things will be just as usual this year.

Christmas is always an opportunity for outreach and sharing. Even in an increasingly secular 2020 people will pause to remember a little baby named Jesus born in a manger. 

The challenge of how to share this news this year has made us get our thinking caps on; building on the village show window decorating contest, we'd like to get people decorating and lighting up our windows during advent to spread our message of hope from a tiny helpless baby.

Our vision: A Christmas Window Trail

We'd love our church family to share the spirit of the Christmas message by hosting a Christmas window and for us to invite people to walk around the village viewing windows that are decorated. We are planning that a series of windows are decorated to show a scene from the Christmas story, e.g. Shepherds seeing the Angels. The trail starts on the first Sunday of Advent (29th November) with the complete outline story and we will encourage the village to join in by making their own carol themed windows which can be added to the trail during Advent. The windows will be marked on a map of the village – regularly updated – and displayed on our website.

Could you help?

We are looking for help in 3 ways:

• decorate your own window based on a scene from the Nativity story (you will be allocated a theme based on your location and its position relative to other locations in the trail)
• volunteer your window to display a Nativity story themed decoration made by someone else
• Make a decoration to go in someone else’s window

The best windows are visible from the street and can be upstairs or downstairs. They will need some kind of lighting – a lamp behind tissue paper decorations or in front of models can work well. To enable our planning, we need to know how many village windows we might have available! If you think that you have a window that would be visible from the street, some time to make a (simple) display or you'd like to know more before you offer then please get in touch with me – events@stnicholasbathampton.org.uk  or 07910 841785 before 15th November.

Once we have an idea of how many windows there will be and where, we can update you all as to what the trail will be.

Best Wishes

Hannah and Jonty

4th November

Dear brothers and sisters

It’s nice to see the sun shining today! Those of us who had a break at half term found it a bit of a gloomy one. We had a bit of a setback in our hopes for welcoming a congregation into St Nick’s for the Remembrance service and 10.45s from then on. As I’m sure you are aware, the Prime Minister announced a second national lockdown to start tomorrow, which includes churches not being allowed to meet for four weeks. Since then the clarifications have been in a state of flux and national church leaders are negotiating over the extent to which churches ought to be restricted, but it seems clear that we should not have a congregation in church on Sunday. So I’m sorry if you had emailed to book, or were planning to do so, but it will be just the leader, preacher, prayer-leader, reader, technical manager and one or two helpers that will be present on Sunday. But everyone is welcome to join us from home via YouTube in the usual way, and do invite others.

https://youtu.be/o7kU_4jTN-c – 8th November 10.45am Remembrance Livestream from St Nicholas’ Bathampton

St Mary’s Claverton have been meeting in church since July so this is more of a blow for them; their Remembrance service would have been at 10.50am rather than the usual 9.00am so we are making the YouTube service a combined Benefice service for Bathampton and Claverton.

Many people are finding hopes extinguished at this time. We celebrate a living hope into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. On Remembrance Sunday we hold onto the determination that those who gave their lives will not be forgotten, but the truth is that all human glory is like the glory of wild flowers: ultimately short-lived. Some statues of people previously celebrated have been removed as the inappropriateness of honouring despicable activity comes to light… we can’t rewrite history and the right way forward can be debated but is anything permanent? “The word of the Lord stands for ever” says Peter in Sunday’s reading, and it is this word that has brought us to new life, eternal life.

Many of us are getting excited about a book of the Bible we may not all have been so familiar with, as we are focusing on 1 Peter in our services and home groups at the moment. I’ve mentioned The Bible Project before with its graphic overviews of Bible books in short videos. I used a picture from it in the first 1 Peter sermon and one of the home groups watched all 8 minutes together on Zoom. Tim Laver, our preacher this last Sunday, also wants to recommend it so here is the link for everyone:

https://youtu.be/WhP7AZQlzCg – The Bible Project Overview of 1 Peter

God bless you

Jonty

 

30th September 2020

Dear friends

What a time of uncertainty we are in. We have thought more than once in the last 6 months about God’s word through James: “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.” (James 4:14a; see James 4:13-17 for the context). This was brought home to me again this week as I was about to lead Sunday evening’s Communion service at St Nick’s, and got a call saying one of our sons had apparent Covid symptoms and I needed to isolate. So I left church straight away for the protection of those present, leaving Anna to cope with Evening Prayer instead at the shortest possible notice, which she did very well. Becky managed to book a test in Wales that evening so I took Harry; we didn’t hear anyone say “yerwig” but it was all very efficient and within two days the result came back negative and we were all out on parole. Whatever we are planning to do has the potential to be scuppered by this virus. It was ever thus. Just before the Annual Meeting last year (18 months ago) I was on my way to a lunch I never ate because breakneck speed turned out to be very slow. Four weeks ago my father’s “muscle spasm” turned out to be a far-more-serious ruptured “AAA” and he found himself recovering from major emergency surgery in the unfamiliar surroundings of a hospital where nobody that knew him was allowed to visit. We are so thankful that he has now made it home where Mum is adjusting to life as his carer. I know this echoes the stories of many in the church and your families in different ways. We are not in full control of our lives, but above it all the Sovereign Lord is. Let us never forget our reliance on him.

The way we express that reliance is prayer. Our monthly prayer meeting has come around very quickly, being on the 1st of a month that follows a 30-day month, but I hope you have tomorrow evening in your diary. You don’t need to come out in the rain – just Zoom in on your computer for an hour at 7.30pm. The meeting number is the same as a Sunday Virtual Coffee. There is no password, so if you find yourself in the waiting room please either be patient until I spot you, or – probably better – send me an impatient text and I’ll let you in.

We are making arrangements to start sending our 10.45am livestream from church rather than from the Vicarage starting on 18th October, and once that is running smoothly to start inviting a small congregation to be physically present each week in a socially-distanced way. It’s an exciting new development but don’t expect it to be “back to normal”. Much better to think of it as moving forward to a new phase and pray for the Lord to work in and through us in a new way, though we naturally feel sad about the restrictions and limitations. I had an encouraging time with the Wardens and an AV consultant this afternoon arranging some new technical kit that will enable us to do what we never have before.

Meanwhile, if you’re using the NHS Covid 19 app for Track & Trace, we are putting up QR codes for when you enter the venue; if you’re not apped-up there are paper forms you’re invited to fill in for the same purpose.

Do pray on for the election of PCC and Deanery Synod members, and for our churchwarden candidates Anna and Paul, and please get in touch if you’re thinking of being willing to stand.

God bless you,

Jonty

25th September 2020

Dear brothers and sisters

As the uncertainty of the pandemic continues, and things seem to be going up in the air again, I was encouraged today by the words of David in Psalm 3:

Lord, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
Many are saying of me,
"God will not deliver him."
But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
I call out to the Lord,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.
I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side.

Whatever our enemies in this life, we know that God works for the good of those who love him, and he is powerful to keep us safe eternally, through whatever we face here and now.

This week we're continuing our sermon series in Matthew 18, with our live stream service at 10:45 and with our monthly Communion Service in the church at 6 pm. As with the last two services, we will need to keep 2 m distance from those outside our households, and masks must be worn, in line with government and Church of England guidance. The service will be short, following the Book of Common Prayer, and with no singing. Communion will be 'in one kind' (i.e. bread but no wine).

Hope to see lots of you on Sunday

God bless

Anna

3rd September 2020

Dear brothers and sisters

Do you believe God answers prayer? I do. But I’ve prayed about some things and not seen the answer I was hoping for. And I believe God has a purpose in that too. We probably all have struggles with unanswered prayers. I was quite struck by a newspaper interview on this recently: https://www.e-n.org.uk/2020/09/features/the-church-is-less-honest-than-the-bible-about-unanswered-prayer/ with Pete Greig, who has written a book on the subject called “God on Mute”, after he had recently founded the 24/7 Prayer movement and then his wife was seriously ill and his prayers seemed to stop working. He found that the church was less honest than the Bible about unanswered prayer.

However confident you are feeling that God will give us what we ask, come and pray together this evening in the knowledge that he hears and is able and willing to answer in the way that he knows best. It helps us to keep going in prayer, as we know Jesus wants us to, if we pray together. Our monthly prayer meeting is this evening on Zoom at 7.30pm. The Zoom number is the same as Sunday Virtual Coffee.

I hope to see you there, and then in the livestream on Sunday when we will be hearing from some eyewitnesses about a remarkable moment of revelation.

Jonty

28th August 2020

Dear friends at St Nicholas’

How have you been over the last few weeks? I’m looking forward to being back LIVE on YouTube on Sunday after the last few have been recordings (which our family have enjoyed watching together). Do text in and keep the sense of meeting together, as well as sending in the photos and captions Anna has suggested. On Sunday we’ll be looking at the continuation of a very significant conversation the Lord Jesus had with Peter, started last week, which sheds a lot of light on what it means for us to be Christians.

The PCC (church council) will be meeting on September 16th and discussing, amongst other things, how to develop our combination of physical and virtual meetings as we continue to cope with the restrictions imposed in response to the pandemic, aim to keep one another safe, and follow the exhortation of the Scriptures not to give up meeting together, but to encourage one another… and all the more as we see the Day approaching. Our second real live communion service is at 6.00pm on Sunday, so if you’d like to come to that as well as the livestream one at 10.45, you’ll be very welcome. We’ll be wearing face masks and observing the 2m social distance again. We didn’t have to turn anyone away last time!

The way forward for us may involve having a similar service to what we have been having from the vicarage, but from inside church instead, with a small invited subset of the congregation physically present. To start with this could be just those involved in readings, prayers, leading, preaching, music and the technology, but could potentially be gradually increased whilst continuing online as an alternative. As we work out the different practical, technical and relational requirements of filming and streaming from in church, it would be a helpful moment to hear feedback about your experience of our YouTube services. Comments on what has been helpful or difficult are welcome. Have there been any difficulties in finding the services, seeing the picture or hearing the sound clearly? Have you had freezing/buffering? Have the pictures generally been in time with the words?!

As we work towards reopening the church and starting to use the Miller Room again ourselves and for external bookings under new restrictions, there will be an extra cleaning requirement. This comes at a time when David Warboys, who has done a fine job – with lots of help from Rita – of keeping the Extension immaculate for many years, is experiencing health problems and not able to clean. Would you be able to join the cleaning rota and take a share of this workload? If we don’t have new volunteers we may have to look at using contract cleaners. I want to say a big thank you to David for looking after the extension, and for the part he has played in leading our smaller 8am and weekday services. We will express gratitude for that in the Annual Church Meeting on 11th October.  Please put that date in your diary now. The plan is to hold that meeting on Zoom at 4.00pm.

It has been sad for us in the last few weeks to lose some loved ones. Hilary Salmon went to be with the Lord just over a week ago. There is so much to be thankful for in her life and her part in our community. The funeral will be on Friday 18th September at 1.30pm at St Nicholas’, but sadly numbers are of course very restricted. When we know how many places Hilary’s family require and therefore how many are available to us, I will let you know how to request a booking.

With love,

Jonty

22nd August 2020

Dear brothers and sisters

We continue our series in Matthew's gospel this Sunday with a sermon from Wallace Benn (retired Bishop of Lewes and vice-president of the Church Society). There will be Junior Church (before) and coffee (after) on Zoom as usual.

At the moment, we're working on updating the church website and the boards in the porch. We'd love to have a few more pictures of members of the church family to put up so that people can see all the different types of people that make up our congregation. To that end, we'd love it if you could send in a selfie of you, your family, or whoever comes to church with you. Along with the selfie, please can you finish one (or both) of the following sentences: "I am a Christian because...", or "I/we started coming to St Nicholas' because/when...". Here's an example from Jonty (neck brace optional):



"I am a Christian because Jesus stopped me kidding myself that I'm OK without him"
"See" you on Sunday
God bless

Anna

14th August 2020

Dear brothers and sisters

This week's live stream service will be led by Ian Williams, and Margaret White will be preaching on Matthew 15-16. We'll have Zoom coffee after the service on the usual number. Junior Church will also be meeting on Zoom from 10:00-10:45 as usual (reply to this email if you would like to join us and you don't have the details).

Continuing our theme of weakness (see last week's video from J. I. Packer), I have been reading Hebrews recently, which I always find an encouragement because the writer gives us so many reasons why Jesus is better than anything/one else we might turn to. As he moves towards summing up his book, the writer concludes:

"...let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:2-3

For those of you who prefer poems, here is one based on those verses:

I stand
With legs of jelly

I hold on
With sweating palms

I run
With cramping calves

Falling, slipping, failing
Weak

I look up
He went before

He stood
No shaking knees

He held on
Nails driven through

He ran
And finished

Author, pioneer, perfector
Strong

He sat down
At the finish

Work: accomplished
Sin: defeated
Heaven: opened
Prize: collected

And he
Calls me brother
Shows me in
Shares his prize

God bless
Anna
Anna Young
Churchwarden, St Nicholas' Bathampton

7th August 2020

Dear brothers and sisters

As you'll be aware, Jonty is away for the next 3 Sundays taking a well-earned break. We'll be continuing with the live-streamed services at 10:45 (there may not be an opportunity to text in each week), and with Zoom coffee after the service on the usual number. Junior Church will also be meeting on Zoom from 10:00-10:45 as usual (reply to this email if you would like to join us and you don't have the details).

In Jonty's sermon last week, he quoted from Knowing God by J. I. Packer (who died recently). If you've not read it, I'd highly recommend it, especially the chapters on how Christians are adopted as God's children - you can buy it here: https://www.10ofthose.com/uk/products/1782/knowing-god (other bookshops are available). For an encouraging little snippet of Packer talking about feeling weak, watch this short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seBsfKi-v2w&feature=youtu.be

God bless and see you on Sunday

Anna
Anna Young, Churchwarden

1st August 2020

Dear brothers and sisters

Here is a message for you from Vilma Clifford’s family:

"John, Ian and Julia Clifford would like to heartily thank all the people who supported and prayed for Vilma during her last weeks.  She passed away peacefully at home on Sunday 26th July, surrounded by family.  We would also like to thank the staff of Dorothy House for the care given to Vilma and family during her latter days.
Thank you all once again
John Clifford

Any donations for Vilma’s life can be made to her chosen charity, Cancer Research.  A Justgiving page has been set up in her memory https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Julia-Clifford5
Please note that the Funeral Service at the Crematorium on Wednesday 12th August is family only.  Due to Covid restrictions on numbers at public worship, the Celebration of Vilma’s life at St Nicholas on Thursday 13th August is by invitation only.”

We continue to pray for them, and also for Tony Stickler’s family as his funeral, also of course with restricted numbers, is on Monday.

 

After Tony’s funeral I am having a holiday with Becky and the boys. I am leading tomorrow’s livestream and leading next week’s by a recording on YouTube (which you should be able to reach in the normal way at the normal time, as our family will!) but then you won’t see me for the following two Sundays, except probably on Zoom at Virtual Coffee!  

 

Do please come if you can to the church prayer meeting on Zoom on Thursday 6th August at 7.30pm for an hour led by Phil Edge. The Zoom meeting number for this is the same as Virtual Coffee each week.

I’ve seen some of the Virtually Keswick Convention talks in the last few days and they have been very encouraging. I’d recommend taking a look at the things for adults and children at https://vkc.keswickministries.org/ – especially  the Bible Readings (talks opening up the Bible) on Hope in Jesus – if  you scroll down to “What’s on” the recordings are still available to watch.

“See” you tomorrow. God bless,

Jonty

24th July 2020

Dear brothers and sisters

Some of us are looking forward to our first St Nick’s physical service for 4 months, on Sunday evening at 6.00pm. It will be a quiet service with no hymns (although Adam will play the organ before and after the service, and during the distribution of Communion).

If you can’t come or would rather not, please don’t feel under pressure. Our main gathering for the whole church family is still happening at 10.45 on YouTube so please come to that. This is an optional extra to take advantage of the fact that we are now allowed to meet physically, and to share Communion, albeit with serious restrictions. For those of us that are able to come, the places to sit will be marked with books: please go only in one of those places and leave the books tidily in the same place at the end. If you come as a couple from the same household, please sit together and share a book. Then everybody can be 2m distant from others. We will keep the doors open for ventilation and to help with social distancing as people enter and leave. The disabled toilet will be available for anyone who needs it, but the Ladies’ and Gents’ will be closed. We ask everyone to use hand sanitiser on arrival and at the end.

I look forward to the special moment gathered there to share the Lord’s Supper together. Special hygiene measures will of course have to be observed. I will distribute the wafers – and no wine – in silence (apart from some lovely organ music) to avoid speaking over uncovered food, and we will have a one-way system for approaching the rail and remain standing to receive. In line with the latest guidance, face coverings are strongly encouraged. If, like me, you hate face coverings, let me encourage you to read this article:  https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/4-reasons-wear-mask/. Written in an America, its introduction is too tied to that context to be obviously relevant to us, but the four main points are definitely worth considering. I plan to be wearing a mask.

We are not taking bookings for services at this stage. In the unlikely event that too many people come (I think we have space for about 15-20 depending on how many come as couples from the same household), we will sadly have to turn some away, taking names to reserve a place at the next service, and inviting everyone to watch the livestream 10.45 St Nicholas’ service on “catch-up” or listen to Dial-a-service.

May this weekend be a time of encouragement for us all. Yours in Christ,

Jonty

10th July 2020

Dear friends at St Nicholas’

One of the things choirs, churches, and many others are missing at the moment is singing together. More research is being done to investigate the effects of different types of singing in different environments on the spread of Covid-19, but there seems to be evidence of some churches elsewhere in the world being spreaders where singing together has happened. Do you want to sing? I hope so. Are you singing in your heart? I hope so. I received an email this morning from Keith & Kirstyn Getty (advertising their “Sing!” conference) which contained this link to a wonderful 6-minute video: https://youtu.be/KBpbOT8EzXc

It is a sermon clip in which John Piper reflects on a story from Acts 16 with piercing honesty: too often we do not sing during our trials. We grumble instead. And yet our sighs can be transformed into songs, for the same power that fuelled Paul and Silas’s hymn in the night is at work in us: the power of the resurrection of Christ. Because Christ is risen, we are never alone. Because Christ lives, our suffering for the gospel is never in vain. Because Christ conquered the grave, we can look ahead in confidence and know that we too will rise. That is why millions of believers around the globe continue to sing, even amidst the deepest trials. We have tasted the power of the resurrection.

The story in Acts 16 comes from Philippi and is the background to our current sermon series on the letter to the church that was founded through the preaching of the Gospel in it.

Thank you for your input into our assessment of how the church is feeling about meeting physically. The PCC decided last night that we should continue our livestreamed 10.45 service in its current form at least until September. Singing is one of the big reasons. Another is the restriction on our ability to accommodate children, as well as the number of people who would need to stay away for reasons of fear or vulnerability. The congregation would be limited to about 25 (depending on the number and size of household-groups) to maintain 2 m social distancing in our building, whereas the livestream is unlimited! It’s not the same as being together though and so we have made plans for a physical service for a few, to supplement the livestream for all.

We also decided to hold a short monthly said Sunday communion service at St Nicholas’ at 6.00pm. The first will be on Sunday 26th July, and another on Sunday 30th August. I look forward to that special moment of seeing a few of you there to share the Lord’s Supper together. Social distancing and special hygiene measures will of course have to be observed. I will distribute the wafers – and no wine – in silence to avoid speaking over uncovered food. This is what we will also be doing this coming Sunday at St Mary’s Claverton at 9.00am, where the congregation size is even more limited but there may be space for a few St Nicholas’ members. In the unlikely event that too many people come, we will sadly have to turn some away, taking names to reserve a place at the next service, and inviting everyone to follow the livestream 10.45 service.

St Nicholas’ building will continue to open for private individual prayer on Sunday afternoons (2-5) and Thursday mornings (9.30-12.30). Jane Buckley is kindly putting together a rota of church members happy to help with unlocking/locking and/or spend a regular hour or more there keeping an eye on things: please let her or me know if you would be happy to take part in that. It may be unattended for some of the time, as the signage and system have been judged safe enough in the current environment; this is more of a welcoming hospitality outreach initiative than a hygiene security one.

God bless you

Jonty 

3rd July 2020

Dear friends at St Nicholas’

Things are changing fast in terms of what we are allowed to do as we ease out of lockdown, and what the central Church of England and diocesan authorities are advising. The bishops are advising us not to rush into things but to proceed with caution having thought and planned carefully. As you have probably heard, churches are already allowed to open for individual private prayer and, from 4th July, for public worship in certain very restricted circumstances.

The PCC will be reviewing these matters next Thursday but for now, we intend to open the church for individual private prayer twice a week: on a Sunday afternoon and a Thursday morning. This allows 72 hours for any virus to die before opening again so we can keep people safe without the need for extra anti-viral cleaning. To start with we are saying Sunday 5th July 2-5pm and Thursday 9th July 9.30am-12.30pm.

If you would like to come in and pray individually, you are very welcome. The main South door will be hooked open. Please follow the signs, observe 2-metre social distance from anybody else present, and sanitise your hands as you enter and leave. If you come in to pray, you will be asked to pick up a church Bible, even if you don’t intend to use it, and leave it in the seat you use as a marker so that nobody else sits there. At the end of the session, bibles that have been touched will be collected up and kept for over 72 hours before anyone else touches them.

This is not just for us but something we offer to members of the public who may be passing by or live in our community, who might value a place of prayer and we want to help them seek God’s peace and hope. (1) If you would like to volunteer to help with locking and unlocking, keeping an eye on things, and/or being available in a totally non-pushy way to chat outside or be asked to pray for (not with, at this stage) somebody, please let me know. Offers of help will be much appreciated.

In addition to (1) above, I would also like to hear everybody’s answers to 3 questions. Please send a quick response by reply to this email:

(2) If we started real physical services soon, would you come?
(3) Have you been making use of the livestreamed 10.45am service?
(4) Is your general feeling one of caution, or of wanting to get back to normal as soon as possible out of lockdown including church services?

Many of us would love to get together for physical services. But we need to understand that it cannot be back to normal yet. Singing is not allowed. We have to keep 2 metres away from each other. Many people will have to, or judge it wiser to, stay at home rather than come to church and risk getting the virus or giving it to a vulnerable person. Children’s groups, which have been happening at 10.00am via Zoom before the Sunday service, will almost certainly not be able to happen during the service, especially if some families are able to come to church and others need to stay at home. At the same time as all these negatives, there have been some wonderful things to thank God for in our church life in the last few months. Junior Church has been going well and even incorporated some new members. That the livestream services have been able to happen at all feels like a miracle, and that they bring together everybody, young and old, healthy and vulnerable, and from all three Sunday congregations, is a wonderful expression of unity in Christ to be treasured. It is not the same as actually being together, but I rejoice that it is a bit like the first Sunday of the month every week: one service together, not separated out into different styles but one church family in Christ Jesus. And some people who wouldn’t normally come have been looking in. If we go back into the building too soon, I think we will inevitably lose much of that.

St Mary’s Claverton is starting to meet again at 9am on Sundays from 12th July. It is slightly more straightforward there with a much smaller church having a clear majority wanting physical services again, and no children’s work. Sadly some will need to stay away. Even though the 9am livestream will stop, we hope they will be able to watch or listen to a recorded service afterwards, or join the St Nick’s livestream at 10.45. St Nick’s members, likewise, that can’t wait to go to physical church, are welcome to join us at St Mary’s.

In some situations, such as public transport or wherever 2m social distance is not feasible, we all need face coverings. Margaret Askew is making rather good ones. She says:  They are washable, outer and lining made of cotton fabric with an inner layer of non-woven bonded interfacing.  They have soft elastic for the ear loops.  There are options for a hidden piece of pipe-cleaner that can be moulded across the bridge of the nose – good for spec wearers; and for a neck loop so that the mask can be lowered without being totally removed.  I am making them for £2.50 each – 50p for costs and donating £2 to Water Aid so that others can have clean water for washing hands. If you’re interested, please email Margaret and say that you’re a member of the church.

“See” you on Sunday!

Jonty

24th June 2020

Dear friends at St Nicholas’ Bathampton and St Mary’s Claverton

Things seem to be changing quickly – not quickly enough for some and worryingly or confusingly fast for others. Do let me know how you’re feeling about things generally and whether you’re optimistic or worried about the future. I have been encouraged by some words of the apostle Peter:

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility towards one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble.’ 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen. [1 Peter 5:5-11]
The original readers were probably suffering because of empire-wide persecution of Christian believers rather than because of a pandemic, but we can still heed the instruction as applying to us.

The Government announcement about easing of restrictions yesterday may have raised questions for you about the re-opening of churches. I had a message last night saying that it had taken the bishops by surprise and that they would be meeting today and then communicating, so we shouldn’t ask questions until then. I haven’t heard any more yet so I thought I would let you know the situation.

I and both PCCs had anticipated churches being allowed to start services in some form soon, with the likelihood that they would have to be without singing, with social distance, and that a significant number of our congregations would have to stay away. So we have been expecting to continue livestreamed services from the Vicarage for some time beyond when they are first allowed in church. At some point (not as soon as possible) we expect to start streaming from St Nicholas’ with a congregation that will be a “studio audience” because many members would be watching from home, and probably no children’s groups during the service. I don’t think streaming from St Mary’s building will be possible because there is no broadband there, so starting to meet in church again might exclude some members who are currently able to tune into the live stream or phone in for the recording. So for the next few weeks at least, both services will continue to come from the Vicarage. It’s all under regular review, and I’ll try and keep you in the picture.

As regards private prayer for individuals in the churches, I am very pleased to say St Mary’s (Thanks Stella, Margaret, Harry and Ray) is all set for opening in this way just once a week, on Sundays at 11.00am for 90 minutes. If you would like to drop in and pray there individually, you are more than welcome. Do follow the signs and be careful about hand sanitiser and keeping a distance from others. Conversation with others should be outdoors. St Nicholas’ is still in the process of sorting out a risk-assessed plan but it looks as though we will also be able to open there for limited times fairly soon. Part of the building (the vestry) is presently being dried out after the heavy rain caused some ingress leading to damp and mould.

Take care and God bless you

Jonty

12th June 2020

Dear friends at St Nick’s and St Mary’s

You may have heard news that the Government has announced that as from Monday it will no longer be illegal for churches to allow people in for private prayer (not for tourism). Of course this does not mean that many churches must or will necessarily open soon. There are serious questions of public liability and risk assessments, of the need for daily deep cleaning and supervision to ensure social distancing, together with protection of volunteers, which mean that for some time into the future we won’t be able to open St Mary’s or St Nicholas’. We do of course want to help and encourage those who are looking for a place to pray and feel the impulse to come into the church. We need to try and provide help to everyone to pray at home or outside, on a walk or perhaps particularly in the churchyard, and to spread the reassurance and understanding that God hears our prayers wherever we are, whether we are in a special church building or not. So we will look at giving more guidance on the website and, for those who turn up at the church door, a physical sign giving encouragement and ideas for praying outside the church.  

I expect that before long it will become legal again for churches to allow some kind of corporate worship to take place in the building as well. But it will be very restricted. Many people, especially those over the age of 70 or vulnerable for other reasons, will need to stay away. Social distancing will have to be observed. Numbers will be seriously restricted. Nobody will touch a Bible, hymn book or notice sheet. And perhaps one of the most serious restrictions is that singing together will be forbidden for a long time to come. So again, we won’t jump to do as much as is allowed as soon as is allowed. Livestreaming in the kind of way that we have been doing since March will need to continue. Why is singing such an important part of our getting together as church? That’s a question I’m going to begin my sermon with on Sunday, because I’ve been finding that Isaiah 25 gives some answers…

Looking forward to “seeing” you in the livestream then, with something to sing about. God bless,

Jonty

5th June 2020

Dear church family,

I've set up a phone line where you can listen to the most recent recordings from St Nicholas or St Mary's: 01225 697200. 

You can choose between the whole service or just the sermon (with the reading). It costs whatever it would for you to call a Bath landline - so free for most. When you call you first select the option you want by keying in the right number, and then there's a wait of around 30 seconds before the recording starts. I recommend listening on speaker-phone to avoid arm ache!

Sadly it isn't live. It will be updated sometime after the service stream has finished. NB: You can't pause it once it's started, and if you end the call and ring again then you'll have to start from the beginning, so find a time where you'll be free from distraction. As a result, you'd be much better off going to our youtube channel, but this is for those without the internet!

That means it's most useful for people who won't be reading this email. We need to get the word out to them. Please think about who you could call to let them know about it - that's a good excuse to ring for a catch up anyway!

With love in Christ to you all,

Hugh

4th June 2020

Dear friends at St Nick’s

I hope you are well. Three things to say in this Update:

Church prayer meeting this evening on Zoom is for everyone who considers themself a member of St Nicholas’, and we welcome anyone from St Mary’s Claverton who would like to come as well. It’s at 7.30pm for an hour, on Zoom. Please do come along and pray together. That doesn’t mean you have to pray out loud; if you’re not comfortable with that you can listen to others’ prayers and join in in your heart. An Amen from everyone at the end is a big encouragement. If you have difficulty using Zoom, give Hugh a call; his number is below.
Live stream services every Sunday at 10.45 are a great way to connect with the church family and with the Lord Jesus together. Do keep coming – we’re easy to find from the church website or on YouTube itself – and do keep texting in which really helps the sense of meeting together as church rather than watching a TV programme. We’re concerned for those who don’t have access to the internet and have now developed a way for anyone to phone in with a normal phone and hear a recording of the last service or sermon (unfortunately it can’t be live). Details of that, including the number to call,  will follow in – I hope – the next Update tomorrow. The difficulty of course is communicating the availability of this service to those who don’t use email. Do please be thinking of whom you could share this opportunity with.
Thank you to those who have participated already in a local recording of the Creed together. Hugh has refined the instructions to make it even simpler so let’s get everybody’s face on here! The main improvement is that the words come up on the screen with the original video that you’re keeping in time with, so you don’t have to worry about memory or reading them from somewhere else. Here are Hugh’s instructions:
The aim is to get a video like this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY4CW5pte98 but with us saying the creed rather than singing. You’ll record a video of you saying the creed but it has to be in time with Jonty’s. It’s important to get them in sync so follow the steps:

• Look in this shared Google drive folder
• Open up the video template by double clicking on it. This now gives you the words to read and the sound to keep in time with.
• Insert headphones (maybe just have one in one ear) so that you can hear the template while you record your own version. It must be headphones rather than out loud so that your recording doesn’t pick up the template audio for a second time.
• On your camera app, start recording yourself. Don’t worry about a few seconds’ blank recording at the start – I will edit that out.
• Then press play on the video template and try and keep in time and smile as you say the words (no need to be perfectionist but it’s easy to get it wrong so do a retake if you need, I took 4!)
• Stop recording
• Upload your video into the sub-folder named “upload video here”. To do this you open the folder and either drag & drop your video file there or click the “+ New” button. Or send it to me by email if that’s easier for you.
• Thanks for helping! Let me know if you need help, Hugh - 07580 159714, hughcornes@gmail.com

I hope to “see” you this evening!

Jonty

28th May 2020

Dear friends at St Nicholas’

I hope you liked yesterday’s idea of recording the creed together from our homes, and are giving it a go. In yesterday’s email, I promised another one about giving money by text. Kay and Ray have done a lot of work on this and set up a wonderfully simple system. If you’d like to make a one-off gift and don’t want to do a bank transfer, it is still possible to claim Gift Aid when you give by text.

Giving to our church by text

Text '3STNICHOLAS' to 70470 to donate £3
Text '10STNICHOLAS' to 70470 to donate £10
Text "20STNICHOLAS" to 70470 to donate £20
Giving to our mission focus by text (Gideons UK until Saturday 30th May; Bread of Life Society from Sunday 31st May)

Text ‘3Mission' to 70470 to donate £3
Text '10Mission' to 70470 to donate £10
Text "20Mission" to 70470 to donate £20
The gift is paid via your mobile phone bill. A standard rate message charge may be added. A 5% fee is deducted, Gift aid is possible.

To save that 5% fee, it is better still to give by bank transfer or Standing Order.

Acc: St Nicholas Church Bathampton
Sort Code: 60-02-05
Acc. Number: 5095 4121
For GiftAid use ref: your name + “GA Donation”

Please understand and accept my apologies if this email is not appropriate for you. Many members already give to the church by standing order but might find the text giving to mission helpful. Others might find their circumstances mean they have to reduce their giving. We are very grateful for all giving, of large and small amounts (remembering Jesus’ teaching about the poor widow’s tiny gift being precious).

If you change or cancel a Standing Order, please inform Judith Book, our Planned Giving Secretary (see the Address List Kay has sent you for contact details, and if you haven’t received the Address List from Kay, ask her to put you on it! office@stnicholasbathampton.org.uk ).

God bless you

Jonty

27th May 2020

Dear friends at St Nick’s and St Mary’s

I’m aware that my Update communication has been less frequent recently but I now have a couple of things I want to say without putting too much in one email, so I’m going to save one for tomorrow, which is how to give to your church or to mission by SMS text. For today I would like to invite you to participate in an exciting little project that is Hugh’s initiative.

When we say the Creed every Sunday in “virtual church” we could have more of a sense of saying it together in solidarity with other Christians if we could see and hear more of each other as we used to when we gathered in one building, and will again one day but not as soon as we would like. Hugh is trying to get us all saying it together in one recording, a bit like the virtual choirs you may have seen and heard singing. I love the idea and can’t wait to see us all in it. Here are his instructions.

The Creed Instructions
The aim is to get a video like this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY4CW5pte98 but with us saying the creed rather than singing. You’ll record a video of you saying the creed but it has to be in time with Jonty’s. It’s important to get them in sync so follow the steps

• Look in the shared Google drive folder
• Watch Jonty’s video version to get a feel for it
• Download Jonty’s audio template
• Insert headphones (maybe just have one in one ear) so that you can hear Jonty while you record your own version. It must be headphones rather than out loud so that your recording doesn’t pick up Jonty’s audio for a second time.
• Set your video camera on a stable surface
• Have these words ready to read along:
• I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
• Start recording first
• Then press play on Jonty’s audio version and try and keep in time!
• Retake the video until you’ve got one where you’re in time (no need to be perfectionist but it’s easy to get it badly wrong!)
• Upload the video into the folder named “upload video here” or send it to me by email if that’s easier for you
• I’ll then piece them all together etc. and create a finished product which others can be added to as more recordings come in

Thanks for helping! Let me know if you need help,

Hugh
07580 159714
hughcornes@gmail.com

One thing I’d like to add to that is that the video camera (whether smartphone or laptop webcam) has been described as an energy-sucking device: you should look straight at it but it tends to flatten your voice and face. So it’s good to make a conscious effort to smile (You may disagree and think my smiling looks like Ed Milliband eating a bacon sandwich). Why not mark the three points in the creed that most make you smile, and then smile as you get to them?

Another thing is to highlight Hugh’s offer of help. If you feel technologically challenged and can’t think how to “start recording first”, there’s no shame in giving him a call. He’ll be delighted you’re giving it a go. We don’t want this only to be the church geeks and exclude the over-35s.  As many faces as possible please, representing the whole church family!

God bless you

Jonty

21st May 2020

Dear friends at St Nick’s

Greetings on Ascension Day!

I stumbled upon a Christian youth website called www.fervr.net  (have you noticed how omitting vowels is all the rage?) and an Ascension Day article by Dave Buckley which I thought looked rather good. You can read it here:

https://fervr.net/bible/what-is-ascension-day

Amen to that! God bless you,

Jonty

18th May 2020

Dear friends at St Nick’s

Here are two links I’ve enjoyed this week, both from America (and there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that!).

First, an article from The Gospel Coalition for church congregations about relating to one another in the next phase of our response to Covid-19. People differ greatly in their attitude to risk, for many reasons, and that range of responses will be within the church as well. We need to apply the principles we’ve been learning from the last few chapters of Romans as we bear with one another in love, and don’t let Coronavirus divide you!

Secondly, this one brought tears to my eyes in celebrating the exaltation of Jesus. Handel’s Messiah always moves me; this was a fun lockdown visual performance to go with it.

I hope you enjoy them too.

Jonty

7th May 2020

Dear friends at St Nicholas

“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” (James 4:10)

As we look back with thankfulness for our nation’s (and the world’s) remarkable deliverance from a terrible evil a lifetime ago, we are again more than ever reminded of our reliance on God. We are not in control of our own destiny and we need him to save us.

What better way to express this than to come together as a church family to pray? Today is that special day, the first Thursday in the month, when we have our church prayer meeting. Everyone is welcome, and indeed more than welcome: I urge all members of the church to come. This month, like last month, we can’t physically gather, but we have been blessed with technology that means we can pray together whilst socially distancing. Our prayer meeting starts at 7.30pm this evening on Zoom. It has the same Zoom meeting number as Virtual Coffee on a Sunday after livestream church. So if you have been to that and have Zoom installed on your device, you should find that same device remembers the detail and you can click on it from the list of meetings to JOIN. Otherwise simply type in the number, with no password required. Any problems: ask Clever Young Hugh for help on 07580 159714.

Do arrive 10 minutes early for the prayer meeting if you can. We will be joined by our mission partner Mike staying up late in his home in the Middle East, and there will be a chance to chat with him before we start. Then in the meeting he will give us some prayer requests and pray with us before leaving at 8 to go to bed, at which point we will take a 5-minute break to go outside our front doors and express our appreciation for the NHS and all those who are selflessly working to support those in need and battle our current viral enemy. The whole prayer meeting will finish by 8.45pm.

God bless you

2nd May 2020

Dear friends at St Nicholas’

I hope you’ve had a good week. There is always a mixture of joy and sadness in this life. I have just heard that a dearly-loved member of St Nicholas’, Janet Trevelyan, died yesterday. We have been missing her for over a year as she left Bathampton to live in a home near Bournemouth last year. We thank the Lord for her life and for the knowledge that she has gone to be with the Lord. And similarly, we have been with Denys Clarke missing Margaret who has been in Larkhall Springs and died three weeks ago; she was another dear member of the church and in the choir for many years. It is sad that so many will have to stay away from these funerals.

I’m looking forward to the 10.45 livestream on Sunday, with Junior church at 10.00am on Zoom and Virtual Coffee afterwards. There are two new features in our service this week.

I’d like to do a regular interview slot with different members of the church family, to help us get to know one another better and have an insight into lockdown life for someone different each week. The first one is someone who has lived all her life in the area but moved into Bathampton with her husband (whom we will also see) and joined the church only 23 years ago, by which time they had already been married 34 years…
It won’t be Communion, of course, but the first Sunday in the month is normally a special communion for all the St Nicholas’ congregations together. The Church of England has produced some guidance on Spiritual Communion:
The term ‘Spiritual Communion’ has been used historically to describe how a person, prevented for some serious reason from sharing in a celebration of the Eucharist, nonetheless shares in the communion of Jesus Christ. The form of prayer we will use offers Christians an opportunity to give thanks for their communion with him, particularly at times when they would ordinarily be present at the Eucharist.

The Book of Common Prayer instructs us that if we offer ourselves in penitence and faith, giving thanks for the redemption won by Christ crucified, we may truly ‘eat and drink the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ’, although we cannot receive the sacrament physically in ourselves. Making a Spiritual Communion is particularly fitting for those who cannot receive the sacrament at the great feasts of the Church, and it fulfils the duty of receiving Holy Communion ‘regularly, and especially at the festivals of Christmas, Easter and Whitsun or Pentecost’ (Canon B 15).

The Church of which we are members is not defined by the walls of a building but by the Body of Christ of which we are members. In making our communion spiritually, we are joining with Christians everywhere to be nourished by the one who tells us, ‘I am the Bread of Life’.

I do hope you will tune in and invite/remind/help others to as well!

God bless you

Jonty

23rd April 2020

Dear friends at St Nick’s

I hope you are keeping well. Let’s remember one another in this time of loneliness for some, and different mixtures of frustration, boredom, stress, over-busyness, bereavement, fear, peace and other things for different people.

Another church in Bath has produced a tremendous new resource in the form of a website https://www.hopeinitiative.co.uk/. It’s from St Bart’s in Oldfield Park and they have offered it to serve other churches as well. Do take a look around and be reminded of hope in this time of unprecedented need.

Our brothers and sisters in East Africa are facing unprecedented need on a scale that swamps our crisis. David and Heather Sharland, the St Nicholas’ mission partners in the West Nile region of northern Uganda, specialising in agriculture and community healthcare respectively, are appealing for urgent prayer about the double whammy of covid-19 and swarms of locusts which seem to be heading Westward from the areas where they have devastated crops and animal feed. The recent rains have brought new growth and there is so much promise of a harvest, now threatened by the impending shadow of breeding locusts. We pray for a miracle to protect local farming communities and refugee settlements from hunger, which threatens to make Covid-19 so much more devastating.

I mentioned in the livestreams on Sunday that despite not being able to pass a collection bag or plate around, we need not be deprived of the joy of giving. Thankfully many of our members give by bank standing order, which is very much the most helpful method but not everyone finds it their preferred way. If you would have liked to give by cash or cheque in an envelope or loose on the plate, your donation is still valued, appreciated, and used in God’s Kingdom. If you would rather not set up a standing order but can do a bank transfer, the details are: 60-02-05; 5095 4121. If you are a taxpayer and happy for us to claim Gift Aid on your donation, please make the reference your name and “GA Donation”. Cheques payable to St Nicholas’ Church, Bathampton are also welcome: please post to our Treasurer, Rita Warboys, at 5 The Chestertons, Bathampton, Bath, BA2 6UJ, and Rita will then quarantine the envelope for 3 days and gratefully receive the cheque! If you have not yet made a signed Gift Aid declaration, which would cover all donations to the church, you can download the form from our website by clicking the link right at the bottom of our “welcome” page – under “giving” it’s the “response form”.

Whether or not we give regularly by Standing order, our mission giving is normally done through envelopes in the collection. We are currently supporting Gideons UK, so if you would like to give to them in this period, you can use either of the above two methods and please mark your gift with the reference: “GideonsUK”. To claim Gift Aid on that is slightly more complicated: Rita would need a signed declaration from you saying: “I would like to enhance my donation through Gift Aid. I am a UK taxpayer and understand that if I pay less Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax than the amount of Gift Aid claimed on all my donations, it is my responsibility to pay any difference.”, which Rita can send on to GideonsUK with our total after the end of May, because they are the ones who claim the tax back. Thank you so much.

Services by livestream have certain advantages. Some people are enjoying the anonymity, church in pyjamas, and the comfort of home. You can turn the own volume up or down. But it isn’t what church is supposed to be. I hope our longing to be together again is growing. Meanwhile, one of the things that people are appreciating is seeing and hearing other members of the church reading the Scriptures and leading us in prayer. We normally have a rota for readings. Some of the regular readers have been willing and able to send in recordings; others have not. It would be great to have more volunteers. If you’d be willing to try recording a reading or some prayers, please email me. You don’t need advanced technical knowledge or kit. A smartphone or computer should be enough, with some coaching and remote assistance from Hugh. Audio recordings are fine; video recordings are even better. Also, whether or not you’re offering to read or pray, please send a photo of yourself that you’d be happy to be shown. It’s nice to have a slideshow looping through lots of photos of church members before the start of the service, contributing to the feeling of arriving and seeing each other for the shared experience.

God bless you

Jonty

17th April 2020

Dear friends at St Nicholas'

I wonder how your week has been? I've felt a mix of hopefulness about the curve 'flattening' and cases going down and wondering whether anything will ever really go back to normal. It's nice to know that there are various 'Herculean' efforts going on, but who's to say they'll be enough. At the same time I've been reflecting on the Easter message and on Jesus' certain victory over death and sin. While reflecting on these two things, I wrote this poem:

Vera says we'll meet again
I'm not sure how she knows
For now, at least, we're all locked in
On islands of our own

They say we're bending down the curve
But some will still be gone
They say a vaccine's in the works
But when will it be done?

Who's to say this new normal
Won't become normal?
Who's to say we'll win the war
Against the microscopic beast?

Jesus said we'll meet again
To his disciples twelve
"They'll kill me, then after 3 days
I'll rise up from the grave"

He banished hell and conquered sin
In death he paid the price
He rose again and proved to us
His victory over all

He says to us we'll meet again
He's coming on the clouds
And every eye and every heart
Will see in awe or dread

He says to us we'll meet again
Be welcomed as his bride
To join him there as heirs and sons
Or forever stay outside.

(For anyone too young to know who Vera is, click here)

On a practical note, Kay has been taking advantage of the slower pace of church office life to update the contacts list. Please email whatever you'd like to include (e.g. your name, phone number, address, email address) to office@stnicholasbathampton.org.uk to have your details included (the list will be circulated to everyone on the list, but won't be publicly available).

We'll be having YouTube church and Zoom coffee as normal this Sunday, so I look forward to seeing you there.

Anna Young (churchwarden)

15th April 2020

Dear friends at St Nicholas'

While Jonty takes a break this week, here's a churchwardenly thought for the day. Whilst reflecting once again on the Easter story, I was struck by the way that the events of Holy Week fit into the big picture of God's plans for the whole of creation. The first believers came to understand the death and resurrection of Jesus within the framework of Exodus and Passover, which were so much a part of their own history and tradition. Jesus had fulfilled within himself everything to which these had pointed, bringing forgiveness of sins, once and for all. As Jonty reminded us in his Easter sermon, Jesus' last words on the cross were 'It is finished!'

Soon enough it was realised that this was good news for everyone, not just those of Jewish heritage. Writing to "gentile" Christians in the region of Ephesus, Paul praised God for all the blessings they had received in Christ (Ephesians 1:3-14 is chockfull of them) and the inheritance which was theirs (and ours!) in Christ, in whom all things in heaven and on earth will be brought into unity in the fullness of time within God's great plan since before the creation of the world. The prospect is breathtaking! And every individual story of one person's faith in Christ, and of their living in obedience and hope, is set within the larger story, as God intends for each of us within his great purpose.

Every person is valuable in God's sight. One aspect of days through which we are now living is that we are learning to appreciate how valuable is the work done by so many people in our society, which is generally not reflected by how much they are paid. It is good to value one another appropriately, not just what for a person does but for who they are, and what they may become in Christ. So let's 'consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together (virtually!), as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another — and all the more as we see the Day approaching.'

Ian Williams (churchwarden)

13th April 2020

Dear friends in the Benefice (Bathampton & Claverton)

I mentioned in the services yesterday two suggestions of useful ways to spend time during the lockdown. One was reading a Christian book, and I recommended “Where is God in a Coronavirus World?” by John Lennox, available as a paper or eBook from The Good Book Company.

The other was Christianity Explored. Many of you have done this course already, but for those who haven’t, here is a fine opportunity to try it. Perhaps more significantly, maybe you have a friend or family member that you would love to discuss the Christian faith with, you think there’s a chance they might be interested, but inviting them to come to a course seemed just too big a step. This is a much easier thing, to share an invitation by email or whatever social media you use. If they are not interested you’ve lost nothing but a percentage of those receiving this invitation from a friend will “attend” the first virtual session and give it a try.

Immediately after this email will come another one from “St Nicholas Bathampton” – they’re coming like buses again today. It will simply be the invitation to the course. Please accept that as an invitation to you, and forward it to as many people as you like. You can copy and paste it into facebook, whatsapp, twitter or whatever you use, or you can simply forward the email to someone by email. That’s why I’m sending it as a separate email to this one, to make it easier for the technologically-challenged to forward without all the covering info from me! Of course you might like to add covering info from you, such as what a charming young man Hugh is or how you might like to attend the virtual course with your friend.

You won’t hear as much from me for the rest of this week as I’m trying to take a staycation and make up for lost family time over the busyness of the last few weeks. See you on Sunday.

God bless you

Jonty

(Email which followed: Do you have questions about the Christian faith? Would you like to use some time during Lockdown to investigate the claims of Jesus Christ? Jonty (our Minister) and Hugh (our Intern and Bathampton's favourite lollipop man) will be running a Christianity Explored course for a group on Zoom, on 7 Monday afternoons starting 20th April at 3.30pm. No prior knowledge, faith, or church connection assumed and you can ask any question. Email rector@stnicholasbathampton.org.uk for more details and to ask for a Zoom invitation.)

11th April 2020

Dear friends at St Nicholas’

Whether you receive this in the evening of Easter Eve, or on Easter Day itself, let me wish you joy and peace in the Risen Lord Jesus this Easter time.

I do hope you will tune into YouTube on the St Nicholas’ Bathampton Channel or by clicking the link on the St Nick’s website. We plan (God willing; on Good Friday it looked doubtful as we had a power cut, but the power came back on in time) to be streaming from 10.30am ready for the service starting at 10.45am with the Easter greeting “Alleluia, Christ is risen. He is risen indeed, Alleluia!”

After the service we have Virtual Coffee in the Miller Zoom again. For Easter Day this will include a brief Virtual Easter Egg Hunt run by all the adults for all the children, so I hope you will get involved in that before we break into “breakout rooms” for “coffee” in bigger groups than last week. I’ve got some new questions as optional conversation-starters to help adjust to the slightly unfamiliar dynamic. It’s the same meeting number as Palm Sunday so if you Zoomed then or on Good Friday, it should be in your list of meetings (click JOIN, then click in the box instead of typing in a number, to pull down a list).

I have said a number of times: please don’t suffer in silence, and haven’t heard much noise about suffering, so I hope that means you are mainly coping well in this challenging time. Two particular areas I’d like to emphasise is that Hugh and I need to hear if people are experiencing technical difficulties with the livestream, whether with picture or sound problems or with knowing how to connect in the first place, and with the Zoom thing. There is no shame in finding it difficult. There may be things we can do to make it easier that would help not only you but others. So we need feedback and don’t want you to miss the services whilst we can’t be physically in the St Nicholas’ building. Text me on 07905 883075 (not my home phone) if you’d like me to read out a message to the rest of the church, or phone Hugh on 07580 159714 for instant technical assistance!

Happy Easter! With love,

Jonty 

9th April 2020

Dear friends at St Nicholas’ and St Mary’s

On Maundy Thursday we remember the Lord’s Last Supper with his disciples before his arrest and trial. It is hard for us not to be gathering for communion today, and especially on Sunday, but our separation gives us a taste of the separation Jesus endured for us – friends abandoning, betraying, denying him; and ultimately God forsaking him so that we might experience full communion with God and his people.

For those interested in poetry, do have a look at this video of a Good Friday poem “A funny thing happened on the way to the execution” which is a deep reflection in a modern style by Glen Scrivener. Please share it with others who might appreciate thinking more – even if they may not agree. It includes the provocative lines:

Heaven came preaching; earth would not hear.
We said “Shut the hell up!” – which was his whole idea.
The Hour at the Cross is a further opportunity for meditative reflection. Normally held at St Mary’s and often with guests from St Nicholas’, of course all are welcome tomorrow afternoon at 2.00pm.

Children from both parishes in the Benefice may find the 10.45am Good Friday service more accessible. Adults are always welcome too; it is an All Age service, not a children’s service.

Though Jesus’ death on the cross is the ultimate depth in his self-giving love, it is not the end of the story. Therefore God has exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow… Philippians 2:9. We celebrate that on Easter Day with both churches at our usual times of 9.00am for St Mary’s Morning Prayer and 10.45am for St Nicholas’ All-Age church time.

May God bless you richly in your home over this special weekend.

Jonty

8th April 2020

Dear friends at St Nicholas’ and St Mary’s

As we’re in what is known as Holy Week, will you manage to take a bit of time to reflect on that extraordinary week in history, from Palm Sunday to Easter Day, and perhaps read through that part of one of the Gospels? I’m looking at John. John devotes very nearly half of his book (chapters 12-21) to this one week.

We are staying at home to protect the NHS and save lives. One of the reasons coronavirus is having such a big effect on us all over the world is our fear of death. We don’t like to think about or even mention the word.  But Holy Week helps us to face up to what Covid 19 is forcing us to consider. Jesus says in John 12:24 I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if itdies, it produces many seeds. This principle works on multiple levels. The primary meaning is about his own death. By it he will save many lives. But then it also applies to his followers. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. As we give up on our own way, turn to Jesus and put our life in his hands, we find life multiplied to us like the sunflower seeds we’re burying in the garden turning, we trust, into huge flowers full of seeds. And the kind of “death” to our own way of life that we experience to receive Jesus’ life, puts into perspective (in the light of his resurrection) our future physical death. We don’t know how soon it will come, but if we’re following Jesus we can be confident that death’s “gloomy portal” is but “the gate to life immortal”! May this calm our trembling breath, as the great Easter hymn puts it, because Jesus lives.

Two bits of news passed on to me by members of St Nicholas’, which St Mary’s members will also be interested in:

Friederike draws attention to the struggle Food Banks are having at this time of great need, with their usual streams of donations drying up. She forwarded this in an email from Genesis Trust Bath:

"There are two ways that you can  donate to the foodbank at the moment:
Donate online via our Virgin Giving Page. This would be especially useful at this time as the Bath foodbank is looking into options for buying in bulk from stores directly, rather than having to rely on donated items. The link can also be found under the ‘supporters’ section on this page of the website.
When you are next shopping, you can buy some extra and drop in the supermarket bins. We are very short of the following items:

Tinned tomatoes
Tinned meat
Tinned fish
Tinned vegetarian – vegetable curry/chilli/bolognaise etc
UHT milk
Tinned fruit
Chocolate
Long life juice
Instant mash
Sponge pudding

Thanks for your support!"

Anna is an Engineering lecturer and has been involved in some interesting work I asked her to tell us about so we can pray for the success of the team’s efforts and so many others doing similar things. See the attached photos. She writes:

"One thing engineers are good at is working out how to make/do something and then making/doing it. Just before the lockdown, one of my colleagues at the University suggested that we might be able to help the doctors at the RUH with the challenge they are now facing treating a large number of coronavirus patients. The hospital identified 3 challenges with which we might be able to help:

Fitting doors to the equipment trolleys in A&E (to keep viruses out and save cleaning time)
Understanding whether two patients can safely share one ventilator
Manufacturing face shields as their supplier couldn't provide any

There's a team of about 40 of us working on one aspect of this or another. The most obvious output is the face shields, which aren't pretty but they work, and we can make 1500 a day of them working in shifts with 4 people at a time nicely spread out in the undergrad lab. We've also developed eye protection for pharmacists and GPs, who don't need the full face shield but are now being told to cover their eyes."

And finally, just to clarify the timings of live streamed services for Easter weekend:

Good Friday

10.45am St Nicholas’ All-Age Reflection
2.00pm St Mary’s An Hour at the Cross

Easter Day

9.00am St Mary’s Morning Prayer
10.45am St Nicholas’ All Age Celebration with Zoom virtual coffee to follow

These are two days when we often have mutual exchange within congregations. Of course Claverton people and Bathampton people alike are welcome at any or all of the four services.

God bless you

Jonty

4th April 2020

Dear friends at St Nicholas’

It’s good to be out of individual isolation and back with my family in our lockdown. It makes me realise how sad and frustrating it is not to be with church family, and how I’m looking forward to the day when we can get together again.

That is likely to be a long way off, though. Meanwhile let’s keep tuning in to the live stream at 10.45am on Sunday mornings and sending one another various messages. Tomorrow – Palm Sunday – in the children’s spot we’re (any children and adults who would like to) going to be making Palm Crosses as we can’t hand out crosses or fronds. So if you’d like to be ready for that, and perhaps get ahead to make it easier to keep up, have a piece of A4 paper and a pair of scissors, pencil, ruler, and Sellotape with you. The first thing we’ll do is cut two identical long strips of paper about 1.5cm – 2cm wide. That’s all you need the pencil, ruler and scissors for.

Families should all have heard that Junior Church on Zoom is going to be 10.00-10.45am rather than 11.00-11.45am. If you haven’t got the Zoom link or number for that, contact Becky or Hugh. Then we start the all-age part of our service at 10.45 as usual, but when the children leave us for the adult part of the service, they might just watch a video or something so adults can stay focused on the Lord together.

Virtual Coffee on Zoom was a great success last week and we’re building on that. Two things are going to be different:

Because of security concerns we are not posting the Virtual Coffee link on the website or YouTube, and there is a new link so you can’t re-use last week’s or click the link in the Zoom instructions. If you didn't get the email with the link, please contact Hugh

Meeting ID will be repeated during the livestream.

We’re going to try “breakout rooms” which means everyone will get the chance to talk to a little group of about half a dozen. They may be a mixture of people you know and don’t yet know, so a good opportunity to get to know each other. I’m going to suggest these conversation-starters in the slightly unfamiliar environment:

1. Who lives in your house?
2. has anyone been ill or vulnerable?
3. how are you finding lockdown - one thing you struggle with and can you say one positive?
4. How did you first link up with St Nick's?

Keep safe and well

Jonty

31st March 2020

Dear friends at St Nicholas’

We got through our second livestream service! As predicted, there were some technical hitches but it was good to meet together in Jesus’ name and encourage one another. Home groups are meeting by Zoom this week. If you like the idea of a home group but aren’t in one and would like to give it a try, please do say.

We are also working on an address list to enable church members to contact one another more easily. This has been an ongoing project for some time now and was slightly slowed by concerns over GDPR. Many members have already given consent for details to be on a church list circulated to everyone on the list (but not published); if you have, you should soon receive a copy of it and if you don’t receive that by the end of this week, please email Kay office@stnicholasbathampton.org.uk to ask to be added to the second edition of the list next Monday giving:

Names of everyone in your household that wants to be included, plus as much as you are happy with of:

postal address
phone number
mobile number
email address

This Thursday, being the first Thursday in the month, is our church prayer meeting at 7.30pm and as I always say, if you consider yourself to belong to St Nicholas’ you are more than welcome and should really be there if you possibly can. Everybody has the opportunity to pray out loud but nobody is obliged to. Where? Not in the Miller Room this month, of course! It’s happening in a Zoom chatroom, which you can attend from the comfort of your own home. Those on our email list have received the invitation. If you didn't get the email and you'd like to come, please get in touch for the details.

See you there!

Jonty

28th March 2020

Dear friend at St Nicholas’

We’re gearing up for another Sunday Livestream. Last Sunday came across as slicker than most people were expecting, with a surprisingly “professional” feel for such a small bunch of amateurs as us. I think we were blessed with a bit of “beginners’ luck.” Brace yourself this week for a bit more clunkiness, for 3 reasons:

1. Issues that happened not to arise last week might arise this week.
2. Copyright is an issue. Last Sunday we played some videos from YouTube for the songs in a way that was in breach of YouTube’s policy and so Hugh has been working hard all week to find alternative ways to accompany our singing legitimately. This is a bit more difficult than the shortcuts we took in the rush last week.
3. Last Sunday I had a member of my family in my study with me, pressing all the right buttons at the right times.  Now that I am “unclean”, I’m on my own (humanly speaking). Bear with me as I try to strike a balance between on the one hand “being present”, looking at you (i.e. the camera) and trying to say the right things, and on the other hand making sure you can see and hear what you need to. Multitasking is never my strong suit, so pray for me.

Never has James 4:13-15 resonated so much for us, in so many ways:

13 Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’

Anna Young wrote a powerful poem yesterday evening that expresses those thoughts eloquently. I look forward to sharing it with you soon.

Don’t forget that our clocks go forward one hour this Saturday night, and be up bright and early for the 10.45 BST livestream at 09.45 GMT! After the service everyone is invited into a Zoom chat room for Virtual Coffee. Even if you don’t like real coffee, you might like Virtual Coffee. Nigel S is running a short quiz at it, which promises to be entertaining. Do follow Hugh’s instructions from the links on the website to get Zoom set up in advance in your home. We especially want non-tekkie people (the older the better) to join in! If you have difficulty with that or with getting on the Live Stream, call Hugh on 07580 159714.

We have a special children’s spot coming up from far away, which I’m hoping the adults will appreciate too. One of the characteristic joys of a St Nicholas’ 10.45 service in more normal times is the enthusiasm with which some of our senior members enter into that moment before the younger ones go out to Junior church. I hope that will be recreated in some way. And then children will need a separate device from their grownups for Live Junior Church during the service, which again is on Zoom so parents, please contact Hugh if you haven’t already heard from him, to get something to print for the children and check you’re au fait de la Zoom.

The important thing is not smoothness of communication, but connecting with one another, speaking the truth in love, and growing in Christ (Ephesians 4:15).

Jonty

26th March 2020

Dear folks 

What a beautiful day! I hope your spirits are keeping up. Lots of people feel lifted by the sunshine; others will be feeling lonely, trapped, and low already, and knowing that our lockdown has only just started. We have great celebrations in the vicarage about managing to book a supermarket delivery slot. Perhaps you’re worrying about how to get enough food, how to collect medicines (if the pharmacy can supply them; we have inhalers for asthma but can’t get spares*), or whether the lovely postman’s delivery could be a biological missile coming through the letterbox.

As I said before, please don’t suffer, or struggle, in silence. Hugh is coordinating offers of, and requests for, help. So far he has had lots of offers and not many requests! We’re grateful for that and we know it’s going to get worse before it gets better, but he’d love to hear from you if you need a prescription or some shopping collecting, a letter posting or an errand running. Or if you’d just like to say “good morning” to your friendly out-of-a-job Lollipop Man.

Do you know the book of Lamentations? Written in a time of terrible national disaster for Judah, with the destruction of Jerusalem and the cruelty of the Babylonians making Covid 19 a mild inconvenience by comparison, it felt as though God had abandoned his people, or he had been defeated. But he gave this comforting song:

Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
Lamentations 3:22-24

As I write, at this exact moment Harry has just brought to me a massive portion of apple crumble. The last of the garden apples 2019 had to come out of the freezer to make room for the supermarket delivery. What brilliant sons I’m blessed with, who will make a crumble when their parents are both self-isolating! I’m happy as Larry with my portion. And it came just as I was wondering how to say something about the LORD being our portion. There we are. We may not always have apple crumble. We may not have family tending to our needs (although don’t forget church family are here for you). We may not (indeed will not) always have breath. But if we see the LORD as our portion, and take our joy in him, that can never be taken from us.

God bless you

Jonty

PS *NB we have enough at this stage and are not worried; I mention it only to help connect with the possible fearful positions of others we don’t know about.

24th March 2020

Dear friends at St Mary’s and St Nicholas’ (again I am sending the same email to both lists)

Many of us are starting to imagine how God may be using this terribly difficult, challenging and no doubt increasingly painful for many, time to work for good in our lives, our churches, and perhaps even our churches and world.

As I write, YouTube tells me yesterday’s streamed services had 38 views (St Mary’s) and 135 views (St Nick’s). I don’t know what that means. Some of those are other churches looking at what one another have done to see what we can learn from each other. Some are probably people just having a laugh at what a mess I made of the first 30 seconds of the 10.45 service (all to prove it was live, and give the opportunity for some Public Health education, you understand). But we had a good number tuning in live, comparable to a typical Sunday congregation, or more, if some of the devices had whole families gathered around. It’s an opportunity for those who wouldn’t normally come, to take a look anonymously. Perhaps you might join me in praying that some of the scattered seeds of God’s word might take root. If you struggle with the technology to watch the livestream, don’t hesitate to phone Hugh for help: 07580 159714. He, Anna, Ian, Samuel, Harry and Jane all worked hard to make those services what they were.

It’s an opportunity for those of us who live with our families to spend more time with them, for those who live alone to connect with others more by phone and other remote means, and for all of us to be thoughtful and caring towards our neighbours who may be in need, and for the love of our church family to grow. Could the Lord be using this virus to grow those things in us?

And it’s an opportunity to slow down and reflect. The Government’s shockingly strong (but no doubt appropriate) action last night had a striking effect this morning. I haven’t been out and about, of course, but I opened the window this morning when I realised how little traffic there was on the dual carriageway. “It sounds like it’s snowed,” said Barnaby. We listened to the sound of silence in harmony with more birdsong than one expects on a snowy day. “Be still and know that I am God,” says the Lord (Psalm 46:10). I’m sorry that I said “more tomorrow” on Sunday evening when the better thing for me to do was to take some rest on Monday morning after the big push to get livestreaming going. The admin keeps piling in, as well as the dear communication with people, but as Becky has just reminded me, I need sleep

Good night!

22nd March 2020

Dear friends at St Mary’s and St Nicholas’

Thank you all who joined us for the live stream this morning, and the many who texted in, which really helped to make it a point of connection with a sense of carrying on being church. If you missed it, you can still watch it on “catch-up” by clicking the link on our website or searching for it on YouTube.

One thing I meant to say in the notices but forgot: in response to the call for a national Day of Prayer today, we are asked particularly to pause at 7.00pm and pray. Sorry this is short notice then and many of you won’t get it in time, but you can still pray later. The Archbishops say:

May the wisdom of God lead the doctors, nurses and researchers, that they may know God’s protection; and that God will guide the leaders of the nations into the ways of justice and peace. And that the love of Christ will surround us and take away our anxiety and give us His peace. May He hear us and heal us.

With the hope that you will find, then act. Where someone is ill, encourage them. Where someone dies, remember that, as the foundation of our faith for over two thousand years, we have believed that God shared the pains and fears of our lives in Jesus Christ, that He faced death, but overcame it. And He is with the bereaved.

Pray too for the suppliers of food and medical essentials, delivery drivers, those working in public sanitation (recycling, refuse, sewage, etc), and I’m sure you can extend the list with imagination.

It has been suggested that everyone should put a candle in their window to let people know we are praying for them. If enough people do that I suppose word could get around and it could be a powerful symbol (even if not many people are out and about to see).

More tomorrow. With love

21st March 2020

Dear friends at St Nick’s

How are you doing? Are you coping, keeping away from everybody else but managing to get a bit of exercise, getting food and so on? Please give me or Hugh a call just to stay in touch, or especially if you get ill or need any help. We’ve got quite a few people who’ve offered to try and fetch or deliver things. Don’t suffer in silence. I heard today that the pharmacists at Batheaston had major problems so if you’re expecting to get something from there, check first.

Our household’s isolation is getting a little tougher as Becky has had a fever since Thursday evening so it’s looking likely that she has caught “it” – although we can’t imagine from where as we’ve all been so scrupulous with the handwashing and everything. But with A-levels and GCSEs cancelled I’ve got two extra pairs of strong hands to help with looking after her and the others.

In case you've lost track of the days, Sunday is now TOMORROW! Below are some detailed instructions which some of you will find patronising, but others of you who find technology as hard as I do (probably born before 1975) might appreciate an “idiot’s guide” (no offence). To get ready for our St Nicholas’ Mothering Sunday 10.45 With A Difference:

1. Please pray for the Lord’s blessing on our time “together”, for the smooth working of technology, for me as I lead and Ian Williams’ sermon, for the streaming going out, for church members to be able to connect and participate in it, and for others who wouldn’t normally come to church to look in and give it a try.
2. Have a look at the homepage today, and you should see a link to where the live stream is going to be.
3. Click the appropriate link (St Mary’s 9.00am or St Nicholas’ 10.45am). It’s not playing yet but that is where you will watch it tomorrow. You can watch from a smartphone, smart TV, tablet, laptop or PC. It needs to be a device that can connect to the internet (better to use home broadband rather than mobile data) and can play sound.
4. Why not email me to let me know you’re planning to virtually attend? If you have children who could be watching, email me and we’ll send you something to help make it all age-appropriate.
5. If there are others in your household who don’t normally come, let them know what you’re doing. They may want to keep away, or it would be lovely if they’d like to join you.
6. On Sunday morning, at the time that you would normally be heading out to church, put the kettle on and make yourself comfortable. It would be good to have your own Bible with you.
7. Around 10.30am try clicking on the “play” button of the livestream screen. Some music should start playing as you wait for the service to start. That will give a chance to set your volume control to a comfortable level.
8. Make it “full screen” by clicking on the symbol for that in the bottom right of the picture.
9. If you are having technical difficulties, give Hugh a call on 07580 159714 and he’ll be pleased to try and help.
10. Don’t phone me (Jonty) at this point because I’ll be leading the service, but send me an SMS text to 07905 883075 and let me know you’re coming and I might read it out at the end of the service.
11. At 10.45am you should start to see my face beamed to you from the vicarage, and we’ll start the service.

There will be some words of prayers, just like a normal Sunday, up on the screen, and the words of hymns with the sound of others singing. But unlike being in church, nobody will see or hear whether or not you join in out loud with saying anything or singing the hymns. Why not join in heartily? If you sing out of tune, you can sing as loud as you like! But if it feels a bit awkward, it’s fine to keep quiet and listen. God hears your heart whether or not you speak or sing out.

The reading and sermon and the prayers have been pre-recorded this week by St Nicholas’ members.

At the end, I’d love you to text or email me and give some feedback. We’re learning as we go along and will be wanting to improve it for next week. In particular, would you be interested in a more interactive format than Youtube livestream? Something like Zoom might enable us to have virtual coffee time together at the end, and to do the “children’s spot” for adults and children more like the way we tend to when we can all see each other.

See you tomorrow!

Jonty

20th March 2020

Dear friends in St Nicholas’

Today seems to be the first day in a while with no new rules on how to keep ourselves and each other safe, and no new big announcements. There's not much to add in terms of practicalities for church or village life, but Jonty has asked me to share this poem. I wrote it a few years ago, but it seems apt at the moment:

Life is scary
Its ups and downs
Can't be tamed
By woman or man

Life is fragile
Like grains of sand
Slip through your fingers
And out of your hands

Life is empty
Meaningless, void
Mistakes everywhere
Failures abound

Christ is life
Forgiveness, joy
Peace in abundance
Not fading, not fake

Christ is strong
Unbreakable, true
Holding the world
From splitting in two

Christ is purpose
Meaning is found
Identity written
On the palm of his hand

Whatever happens
Broken or fixed
The future is certain
Christ sits on his throne

Keep looking out for one another and looking up to the Lord Jesus

Anna
Anna Young
Churchwarden, St Nicholas' Bathampton

19th March 2020: Coronavirus

Dear friends in St Nicholas’

The thing that made it hit home to me emotionally today was reading that official guidance issued to NHS hospitals says that dying patients should be encouraged to say goodbye to their families over Skype during the outbreak. Up until then, to be honest, I hadn’t shed a tear over this crisis, but I have now. Hugh and I have been positively getting on with urgently learning to use new technology and preparing for the livestream services on Sunday for St Mary’s and St Nicholas’. The activity and opportunity is stimulating. Others have been talking about watching the news when it was in distant countries with a detachment that makes it feel almost like entertainment. But the utter heartbreak – which I knew about theoretically – suddenly becomes more real when you picture those thousands of scenes of lonely distress. I’m sorry if you find this too distressing a message in your inbox. But we should prepare ourselves for this to come close to home. Remember that The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18. Jesus wept when his friend died (John 11:35) but he also demonstrated his resurrection power over death.

Our family are now officially in isolation after talking to the GP by phone about young Digby’s symptoms. He had a cold and a slight fever on Sunday so we isolated him in accordance with the then guidance; he got over the fever quickly but has a slight cough so with the new guidance, that keeps all six of us locked down for two weeks even though we’re presently all feeling fairly well.  There is plenty to be busy with via the computer and phone. Let’s pray for our GPs specifically as we go on praying for all who are working in the NHS. Ours was pleased to exchange promises of prayer as he talked about a present sense of calm before the storm.

As you keep receiving these updates from an automated sender, it is increasingly likely that your computer or your email system might identify them as SPAM and start filtering them out. To prevent this, please add the sender “Nicholas Bathampton” stnicholasprayers@gmail.com to your address book / “contacts” and it will then know that you trust these emails.

You are probably aware that Steps in Faith, MiniClub, and just about everything have now stopped meeting. Home groups are developing electronic ways of being together and keeping encouraging one another. If you’re not in one and would like to link up, let me know. For those on PCC (church council), look out for an invitation this Friday to next Thursday’s meeting which will take place on Zoom (via videolink)! The APCM (Annual Meeting) scheduled for 26th April will, I think, be postponed. Legal advice on that is filtering down to the parishes, as well as details on how weddings and funerals are affected.

God bless you

Jonty

18th March 2020: Coronavirus

Dear friends at St Nicholas’

I said things were changing fast yesterday. Then today we had a letter from the Archbishops hitting the national headlines. Churches are halting public worship in an unprecedented move. They said:

Public worship will have to stop for a season. Our usual pattern of Sunday services and other mid-week gatherings must be put on hold. But this does not mean that the Church of England has shut up shop. Far from it…

Being a part of the Church of England is going to look very different in the days ahead. Our life is going to be less characterised by attendance at church on Sunday, and more characterised by the prayer and service we offer each day. We may not be able to pray with people in the ways that we are used to, but we can certainly pray for people. And we can certainly offer practical care and support. Please do carry on supporting the local foodbank and buy extra provisions for it. Ensure the night shelters wherever possible are kept open. There are many very encouraging schemes happening right across our country in communities to focus on caring for the most vulnerable, so do continue to play your part in those.

Then by our service, and by our love, Jesus Christ will be made known, and the hope of the gospel – a hope that will counter fear and isolation - will spread across our land.

So our Sunday, Thursday, and Friday services will not be happening in St Nicholas’. We considered keeping the building open for prayer but felt the infection risk, and the burden on those who unlock, lock, clean and disinfect (some of whom are already self-isolating) to be out of proportion to the priority this should be given. Public worship needs to move out of the building and so does private prayer.

As well as a challenging time and potentially a tragic time of loss for many, this is an exciting opportunity. Church will move into hundreds of thousands of homes via live streaming. We will be able to engage with God in worship, experiencing in a new way that it is not just about what we do in church but, as we read the other day in Romans 12:1, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. We had been hoping to live stream from St Nick’s at 10.45am on Sunday, with most of the congregation present and only some watching from home, but now it will come from elsewhere, probably the Vicarage. All you’ll have to do is get on your computer, smartphone or whatever device you see the Internet through, and go to the St Nicholas’ web page. It would be a good idea to have your own bible with you, and maybe a cup of coffee, and invite other members of your household to give it a try. I’ll lead the service and Ian Williams will preach. It’ll be Mothering Sunday of course, but a very different one from usual. The churches are calling for a national day of prayer and we’ll take part in that. There will be hymns and songs: music and words, so a bit like a cross between being at St Nick’s and watching Songs of Praise. If you’re on your own, you can just listen or you can turn the volume up, join in out loud, and sing your heart out: nobody else need know if you sing out of tune. But God hears and will be delighted if it’s from the heart. I’ll also give out my mobile number and invite you to text in by SMS… then I’ll read out some of the incoming messages, prayer requests  and greetings to the rest of the congregation to give more of a sense of being together as St Nick’s even though we can’t be together in Bathampton.

Do please give me a call or send me an email, especially if you are stuck at home on your own. And keep taking the precautions against spreading infection – handwashing, etc, etc. And grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

17th March 2020: Coronavirus

Dear friends at St Nicholas’

Things are changing fast. But God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea (Psalm 46:1-2)!

Many more people are needing to self-isolate. Communities are pulling together in a beautiful way. The church is, or should be, at the heart of that, so:

• Don’t suffer in silence. Solitary confinement can be a horrible thing; do phone or email me or someone else in the church if you need practical help or just a chat. Several people have offered help with collecting and delivering shopping, or in other ways, so do ask if you need help. Hugh Cornes is the point of contact: hughcornes@gmail.com 07580 159714.
• If you can help, please do! It doesn’t all have to be coordinated centrally – you can of course quietly get on with helping a church member you know or a neighbour – but if you’re available to help where there’s a need beyond that (maybe with delivering shopping, phoning someone twice a week to check they are OK, or something else, please contact Hugh: hughcornes@gmail.com 07580 159714.

Many of us have been struggling to get supermarket delivery slots and some are, or soon will be, unable to get out to the shops. It’s worth knowing, then, about a couple of other initiatives that you might find helpful.
Deliveries from Larkhall shops. I found this via the Nextdoor Bathampton website: Some of the local Larkhall shops are currently doing a joint delivery service to BA1 and BA2 postcodes.  You simply have to call the shop(s) you want to purchase from to place your order, and it will be delivered the next day.  Phone numbers for the shops are as follows:

Larkhall Butchers - 01225 313987
Larkhall Farm Shop - 01225 319968
Goodies Delicatessen - 01225 336033
Larkhall Deli - 01225 444634
Ma Cuisine - 01225 312959

COOK (who produce frozen, home-cooked style quite expensive meals) say: Our shops are all open and doing everything they can to serve our local communities (our Click & Collect service may be helpful at this time).  As a small way of seeking to help vulnerable people we’re putting aside some meals in COOK shops* for those in need. So, if you have an elderly or infirm neighbour who you’re worried about, please mention it at the till in your local COOK shop and we’ll happily give you some meals for them, free of charge. (T’s & C’s apply. The nearest shops are in Bristol and Wells but they do free delivery on a £30 order.)
Andy LW mentioned to me, and I haven’t checked this yet with Kay from Number 25 Café on Holcombe Lane, that Number 25 are going to do a delivery service of meals for those isolated in their houses. I think there’s a big batch of spag bol being cooked for tomorrow.

The Government announcement this afternoon means that many more people will have to stay at home as this crisis deepens. All social gatherings are to stop. Schools are considered essential and are to carry on. I don’t think churches have been mentioned. Which category are we closer to? We await directives from the Diocese but it looks as though most people should not come to services for some time from now on. We are working hard to get live streaming of the 10.45 going. Whether that is from St Nick’s building, and with how many people physically present, or from somewhere else like the Vicarage, will be decided later. All other St Nicholas’ services apart from the 10.45 are cancelled until further notice. So please plan to join us – probably via the Internet – at 10.45 on Sunday morning.

Grace and peace be with you

Jonty

16th March 2020: Coronavirus

Dear friends

We were very thin on the ground at St Nick’s this week as many people – if they weren’t running the Bath Half – took the sensible decision to stay at home, whether for their own sake or for others’. (Please do keep doing that if either you feel unwell – especially with a cough and high temperature – or you are worried about catching the virus because of particular vulnerability). But the Lord was certainly with us.

People were very good about traipsing out to the loos to wash hands in lovely hot soapy water. I didn’t see any handshaking, of course. And we realised that we each need to take all paper (noticesheet and service sheet) that we have touched home for recycling rather than leaving it in church to be touched by multiple hands. Junior Church happened in a scaled-down way and we shared the Lord’s Supper “in one kind” (just the bread – or wafer – and no wine) after re-gelling our hands.

I was very encouraged by Margaret’s sermon on Romans 13:8-14. Our new identity as God’s adopted children leads to a life of love, fulfilling his law. We’re looking forward to the sunrise and it’s just about dawn so get up and get dressed! Intrigued? Navigate to the Sermons page to hear or watch it. It’s a learning experience and I hope that by next Sunday we might be able to have more of the service available, perhaps even livestreamed so that people stuck at home can be more nearly with us as we meet. Please let us know if you’re not coming.

Men’s group is off on Monday evening (16th), and so is Tuesday Home Group. Wednesday Home Group will make a decision soon.

Keep in touch, keep encouraging one another, take care and God bless.

Precautions we are taking in light of Coronavirus

Following Government and Church of England advice we are continuing with the normal pattern of services at both churches, but things are rather different.
If you are feeling unwell, even with a cold, and especially if you have the main symptoms of cough, high temperature and shortness of breath, please, for the sake of others, stay at home.
If you or another member of your household are vulnerable because of other health conditions, or are worried about the possibility of catching coronavirus, especially if you are an older person, please stay at home.
We normally want to encourage you to come, and our theme verse urges us to keep meeting together, but in these circumstances we have to find other ways to encourage one another. Phone calls and emails between congregation members are important in this. Please let me know if you’re staying away, it helps me to pray for you and it encourages me to know that you would otherwise want to be with us.
For those of us who do come to church:

• Please wash hands just before you leave home and again on arrival, with warm water and soap. We may start a minute or two late to facilitate that. If you can’t get through to the loos for handwashing, you will be offered sanitising hand gel at the door as you arrive. Please use it.
• Do not shake hands with anyone, and try to avoid all direct physical contact. It’s normally good to squash up and share a pew with others rather than scatter, but at this time let’s spread out more. Try to stay a metre apart.
• Please bring tissues and if you cough or sneeze, follow NHS advice to catch it, bin it, kill it – so clean your hands again.
• We will not have a collection so if you would have given that way, please use the plate at the door on your way in.
• Our services tomorrow are Communion services and following Church of England advice we will be receiving the sacrament in one kind only, that is the bread and not sharing a cup. In fact we’ll use wafers rather than normal bread.
• On your way up to the rail, sanitise your hands so that you’re not putting germs on the wafer that goes in your own mouth.
• Please stand at the rail rather than kneeling. This is because many people can’t get up from kneeling without putting their hands on the rail, which would make it a transmission risk. If we all do the same it’s more encouraging to them.
• Please take all paper (service cards, notice sheets, song word sheets) home with you and recycle them if you no longer need them, we will not be collecting them back in.

It does need a change of mindset and let’s remind each other and be patient and gracious with one another. Remember especially those who are housebound or in nursing homes where they can’t have visitors. And keeping our distance could be a lonely thing for others too. Look out for one another and keep in touch in appropriate ways.
God bless,
Jonty