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St Thomas à Becket

Parish Weekly News Sheet

 

Sunday 28th February 2021

Second Sunday of Lent

 

10.30 am             Morning Zoom Service

 

 

THE BUILDING IS ALSO OPEN FOR PRIVATE PRAYER

We are open on Sundays 12.00 noon – 4.00pm

and Wednesdays 10.00am – 12.00 noon

 

 

Collect

Almighty God,

by the prayer and discipline of Lent

may we enter into the mystery of Christ’s sufferings,

and by following in his Way

come to share in his glory;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

 

Please pray for those who are ill

 

Darren Harris

Karen Goodall Brown

Bob Hancock

 

We remember those whom we know,

who are suffering in sickness or adversity,

and those who especially need our prayers at this time.

 

Also the families of those who have died.

 

Mavis Hewin

 

 

 

St Thomas à Becket Weekly Calendar

 

Sunday 28th February

 

10.30 am                     Morning Zoom Service

 

Tuesday 2nd March

4.00 pm                         Zoom Tea with the Vicar – YES 4pm

 

Wednesday 3rd March

10.30 am                      Holy Communion

 

Thursday 4th March

9.45am                           Holy Communion at Colerne                         

Facebook Live:             Mid week thought for the day (and on to You Tube)

4 pm                               Zoom Tea with the Vicar

 

 

Sunday 7th March

 

10.30 am                    Holy Communion

6 pm                             Zoom Compline

 

 

Our church building is open for Private Prayer

 

Whenever you come to our church building, for private prayer or a service these are the things we need you to do to keep safe and within the guidelines.

 

  • Sanitize your hands on entering the building and wear a face covering unless you are medically exempt.

 

  • Go straight to a place which is marked for sitting and stay there until you leave the building.

 

  • Observe 2m social distancing at all times from those who are not in your household.

 

  • Please use the slip of paper to record your presence at the service for test and trace, details will be given on the slip and in the notices

 

  • Enter the building through the South Door and leave the building via the West door.

 

  • Follow instructions on the distribution of communion, stay in your seat.

 

  • When you leave the building don’t block the exit door and other people’s paths (maintain the 2m social distancing). Do not pause in the church or the churchyard to speak to people, or take part in any other form of ‘mingling’.

 

 

Tea with the Vicar! TUESDAY is at 4 pm

 

There will be two ZOOM ‘Tea with the Vicar’ slots next week, Tuesday 2nd at 4pm and Thursday 4th at 4 pm. This has been organised in response to the current “lockdown”, and is an opportunity to catch up with Janet and friends.

 

 

Pause to Pray

 

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York are asking people to pause, pray and reflect on the enormity of the pandemic

  • to reflect on the lives lost and to pray for consolation of all those  who have been bereaved
  • to thank God for the NHS and other services that have sustained our nation during this time
  • to continue to support and uphold each other in prayer.
  • They suggest that people pause, pray and reflect at 6pm each day.

 

Please see the Church of England’s website for further information:  churchofengland.org

 

 

 

Sisters of the Community of the Church

The Sisters of the Church have had to close 82 Ashley Road for the time being.  Sister Teresa has recently contracted Covid and is slowly recovering.   They are also very sorry to inform us that one of their key daily volunteers died a short while ago after contracting the disease.  For this reason, they are currently unable to accept any deliveries of food or bedding, although they are managing to make food available to those in need.

 

All being well, they hope to re-open on Monday 12 April.  There will be no Easter Appeal this year, but if people wish to donate Easter Eggs, they will be happy to accept them after that date so that they can be given out during Eastertide.

 

Please note that their email address has now changed tobristoladmin@sistersofthechurch.org.   Emails are being accessed remotely and will be answered in due course.

 

The Sisters want to thank you all for your continuing support.

 

James Symons is planning to take any Easter Eggs donated to the Sisters on 12th April. It would be lovely to be able to spread some Easter cheer!

 

 

Laurie’s Climb to Everest

 

Home schooling has a lot to answer for. The P.E session for the day offered the suggestion of “climbing” a local landmark using your stairs. Whilst I was encouraged by Laurie’s enthusiasm, I now have major concerns over his grasp on geography, as he requested to scale that well-known local hill, Mount Everest. What else do you do during a lockdown when you can’t travel? We discussed how this was an opportunity to fundraise and Laurie immediately said that he wanted “to raise money for people that didn’t have enough to eat”. In his mind this was the homeless, but, also, we had discussed the impact of Covid on families and the increase in the use of food banks, such as the Sisters. We decided on The Trussell Trust.

 

Climbing Everest in stairs equates to 33,792 stairs.

 

That was a mental feat for a 5-year-old, so we visited some landmarks along the way – Empire State Building, Snowdon, Kilimanjaro to name a few and we made Laurie’s bedroom into Base Camp with a tent, 10m of bunting (demanded at 5pm on the Sunday that we reached that height), trail mix and all.

 

The climb has made us fitter, given us time together, provoked discussions surrounding mental health, The Octonauts, homelessness and those who have less than us. It has provided countless (no pun intended) opportunities for maths and it has been a wonderful experience, all whilst raising money for The Trussell Trust.

 

If you have been inspired by Laurie’s climb his Just Giving page is still open:

 

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/home-symons