Unsurprisingly, the Corona virus is dominating headlines and conversations at the moment. I hope you’re managing to walk the line between taking the concerns seriously, whilst not becoming unduly anxious.
It’s all too easy to become pre-occupied with our own affairs in these circumstances. It’s good that churches deliberate over matters such as the best way to administer Communion, but let’s be honest, there are bigger issues: keeping foodbanks stocked, how people will manage childcare in the event of closure, food for kids who have free school dinners, care for the most vulnerable…
Our local foodbanks have already put out a plea for help, indicating a 30% drop in incoming supplies, at a time when demand is anticipated to increase (please see inside for details of the goods they would like). The coming weeks will present a moment when we can show people what ‘Christian concern’ can really look like. God Bless.
Latest news about COVID-19
LAST UPDATED: 17/03/2020
Dear All
Following on from recent updates surrounding the coronavirus, the Archbishops have indicated that all public worship in the Church of England is to be put on hold until further notice.
This means that there will be no Sunday Services and I am recommending that our midweek groups also stop meeting for the time being.
Please pass this information on to those you know who are not on our email distribution list.
It's worth reading the letter that the Archbishops sent, as it raises some interesting thoughts about how this might reshape the church into the future. You can find the summary and full letter here: https://www.churchofengland.org/
I am waiting for more specific guidance from Southwark Diocese in light of this decision, and will pass on relevant details when they emerge.
As previously mentioned, I will have a detailed meeting with out Communications Team on Thursday for strategies moving forward. It's unlikely that we'll have much lined up for this weekend, but here's another link made by Churches Together in England for a call to prayer this Sunday:
www.cte.org.uk/Articles/569010/Home/News/Latest_news/Light_a_candle.aspx?redirected=1
My suggestion is that we set a reminder/alarm for our usual start time on Sunday, 10am (or 10:10am!) and collectively commit to pray about the things they mention. The lighting of a candle in our windows at 7pm would also be a nice touch.
In a similar vein, I will feed in details of how we are looking to serve our local community as this situation unfolds.
Please also continue to follow the latest government, Public Health England and NHS guidelines.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to be in touch.
With every blessing
Revd Jon Ward
Spreading Hope At Easter
The Churches across West Wickham are joining together in Holy Week to produce a produce a goodie bag to bless commuters as they head off to work on Maundy Thursday morning.
It was a venture that West Wickham & Shirley Baptist ran last year with success, so we are joining together to cast the net a bit wider. The idea is that we get a production line going on the morning of Tuesday 7 April to assemble the bags, which will contain a bottle of water, some chocolate eggs, an energy bar, and a booklet with some Easter reflections.
We’ll then distribute these in a very light touch fashion on Thursday morning, offering them to people with a simple ‘Have a Happy Easter’. If you are interested in being part of the ‘production team’, or available to help on Maundy Thursday morning (from 6:30am!), then please let Jon know as soon as possible. Thanks.
Saying Yes To Life
Yes, we’re doing a plug for more Lent resources.
‘Saying Yes to Life’ is the title of a book by Ruth Valerio and it’s the Archbishop
of Canterbury’s Lent book for 2020. Ruth Valerio is Global Advocacy and
Influencing Director at Tearfund, described as an environmentalist, theologian
and social activist.
It’s a book that you can read by yourself or is equally suitable for groups to
mull over together and be challenged by the issues it raises. It encourages us
all to lift our focus from natural, everyday concerns to issues that have an
impact on millions of lives around the world. It draws on some strong biblical
themes to help us all consider matters of environmental, ethical and social
concern.
In short, the golden thread is what it means to be human and a follower of
Jesus. Not a bad thing to contemplate during Lent.
Lent Dilemma
Dan writes:
At this time of year, I have a dilemma. Not being raised in a church tradition that “did Lent” the thought of giving something up still seems… odd; and I struggle to participate.
I see the biblical merits and good intentions. Sacrificing something of value to try and identify with Jesus in the desert. However, Luke 4 says “Jesus returned… in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.”
My dilemma lies in our method, not the intention. Often, we go for a minor-substitution approach. A pseudo New Year’s resolution. Sugar for sweetener. Chocolate for fruit. Caffeine for decaff. TV for books. Smoking for vaping. Swearing for “Dag-nam-it!”
All great ideas, but do these types of substitution help draw us closer to God? Do we finish 40 days full of the Spirit? Does news about Jesus spread as a consequence?
This year, as we pursue God together, consider making a swap that answers with a resounding “Yes. Amen and Hallelujah!”.
The Lent Locker
The season of lent can offer a great storehouse of opportunities to ready ourselves for Easter. Here are a few things in the Lenten pipeline:
Ash Wednesday, 26th February, 8pm @ St John’s
Jesus Christ has died; Jesus Christ is risen; Jesus Christ will come again.’ The Prayer and Worship Teams invite you to mark the start of Lent with an evening of prayer and worship. If you can’t make this time, there is a Communion Service with ashing at St Francis at 10:45am.
Quiet Day, 7 March, 10:30am-3:30pm @ St John’s
Organised jointly by St Francis, St Mary's and St John's. It will focus on the “I am” sayings of Jesus. Please join us when you can.
New Teaching Series
Building on our ‘Pursuit of God’ series, we’ll flip the focus and start a new series called ‘God’s Pursuit of Us’, thinking about the extraordinary lengths to which God goes to bring us back to himself.
Vocations Explorations
Southwark Diocese are increasingly inviting people to explore different expressions of ‘lay ministry’. In March, there are a couple of opportunities to consider this in more detail:
i) Vocations Fair – 19 March, 6:30-8:30pm at St Mary’s Church, Lewisham High Street, SE13 6NX; and
ii) Vocations to Lay Ministry: Residential Conference – Friday 6 March – Sunday 8 March, Wychcroft Retreat Centre, Redhill, Surrey, RH1 4NE.
You can register for both of these at southwarkvocations.eventbrite.com
There are also details about ‘Lay Pioneer Ministry’ in the leaflet on the Welcomers’ Table, or via the Southwark Diocese Website.
Unity, Prayer & Mission
As we draw near to the end of our ‘Week of Prayer for Christian Unity’ it’s worth reminding ourselves that our ‘togetherness’ and the prayer that fuels it, isn’t just something that we pay lip service to in a programmed week of the year. The three components of the heading – unity, prayer and mission – are inextricably
connected. This is no better exemplified than by Jesus’ own prayer that his followers would be completely in step with one another so that the world would recognise that God sent Him for their sake:
“I am not just praying for these followers. I am also praying for everyone else who have faith because of what
my followers will say about me. I want all of them to be one with each other, just as I am one with you and you are one with me. I also want them to be one with us. Then the people of this world will believe that you sent me.” (John 17: 20-21)
Our Churches Together Service at Emmanuel on Saturday starts at 10am, with a focus on prayer – which seems to fit quite well with some things we’ve been talking about recently…
The Pursuit of God
If you don’t like being challenged then don’t pick up Tozer’s book, ‘The Pursuit
of God’ – the title of our current teaching series. He wasn’t one to mince his
words, but written in the late 1940s, many parts have a surprisingly
contemporary ring:
“We have been trying to apply
machine-age methods to our relations with God. We read our chapter, have our
short devotions and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy
by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story
told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar. The tragic results of
this spirit are all about us. Shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, the
preponderance of the element of fun in gospel meetings, the glorification of
men, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships,
salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the
Spirit: these and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and
serious malady of the soul.”
Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
New Year. New Teams
At the back end of 2019, we reshaped the look of our Teams and refined their
remit. Hopefully, that’s not too hazy a memory. We asked everyone to hold off initially
from indicating what Teams they might like to be involved with, and said we
would revisit the matter in earnest in the New Year.
That time has come!
Over the next few weeks we would like you to get in touch with the Team Leaders to
express (however tentatively) the possibility of getting stuck in with a Team.
Here’s the link for the Team profiles:
http://www.stjohnsww.com/blog/2019/11/25/new-team-profiles
or you can go to the website under the Blog section and look under ‘New Team
Profiles’. Remember, we’re encouraging people to limit their involvement to one
Team at this stage.
Happy Christmas and a Peaceful Rest of 2019
You might be seeing
this a little early, but the message for the coming days is a simple one:
HAPPY
CHRISTMAS
&
A
PEACEFUL REST
OF 2019
Working Those Kneelers...
It’s been amusing to witness some of the baffled responses to the invitation to grab a kneeler from the church and take it home…‘Does Jon want us to bring them back next week?’…‘Is this his way of getting rid of the kneelers on the sly?’… ‘will the pews for the log burning stove be next?’
It really is as simple as encouraging you to press into prayer this advent.
It’s surprising how a physical, visual prompt can be more helpful than we might imagine. Some people have said they put it in their bedroom and it’s caused them to kickstart the day in prayer.
Fix it to your wall, put it in your fridge, use it as your bed pillow – however it will best serve as a disruption to your everyday. The power is not in the kneeler, but in engagement with the One who longs to break into our every waking moment. Happy praying.
Christmas Charities
We like to give you advance notice of some of the charities we will be looking to support over the Christmas season. They will be as follows:
Christingles Services – As always, we’ll be taking a collection for the Children’s Society, which seems particularly poignant this year in light of some of the political ‘discussions’ over the true level of child poverty and homelessness in our country.
Carol, Midnight & Christmas Day Services – (i) The Bromley Homeless Shelter support the homeless by providing a Winter Night Shelter. Further information can be found on www.bromleyshelter.org.uk. (ii) ‘There is Hope Malawi’, an organisation who work with refugees in Malawi, where it is particularly hard to be in that desperate situation.
Please pray for all these organisations and the people they are trying to help.
Christmas Services
There are a number of services and events happening this Christmas and we’d would love for you to come along. Here are all the details you will need!
All the services and events are happening at the church and are free to attend (unless indicated). This year we will be taking collections for the Children’s Society and other charities.
Messy Christmas
Saturday 14th December | 10:30am | £2 per child
Fun for all the family with food, Christmassy crafts and a story. It’s sure to put a smile on kids and parents faces.
Carols by Candlelight
Sunday 15th December | 7pm
Carols sung by candlelight, led by an amazing choir and orchestra. It is always a hit and will get you fully in the nostalgic traditional Christmas mood. Come early to grab a seat, this service is always full to the brim!
Christingle Services
Christmas Eve | 3pm & 5pm
Another family favourite on Christmas Eve. We have two Christingle services to choose from and they are always full of joy… And you can see if you remember what all those bits of the Christingle represent.
Midnight Communion
Christmas Eve | 11:15pm
A chance to quietly welcome in Christmas Day, with worship and communion together to remember the saving grace only found through Jesus Christ.
Holy Communion
Christmas Day | 8am
An opportunity to come to church on Christmas morning and share communion to remember the birth, life and death of our Saviour.
All Together at Christmas
Christmas Day | 10am
Christmas isn’t Christmas without loved ones! All Together is our way of joining as the family of Christ and celebrating the remarkable way God has come to rescue us.
And…
If we don’t get to see you,
may God bless you this Christmas time and we wish you a very
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Follow Up ...
TEAMS
We hope that you’ve had some space to pray and reflect on the things that were raised at our time in the Assembly Rooms last week. Take the opportunity in the coming weeks to open conversations with our new Team Leaders as to what possible involvement in a Team might look like.
If you were unable to make it last week, then head to the website for the Team Profiles (which includes contact details for the leaders). They will give you a good start, but nothing quite replaces a face to face chat to get a feel for what we are trying to achieve.
CHURCHSUITE
Last Sunday, we also launched ChurchSuite, our new church communication tool. Please remember to create a login password if you received an email invitation so to do. If you didn’t receive an invitation, please check your junk or spam folders in case it is there. Otherwise please contact Margaret in the Parish Office (parishadmin@stjohnsww.com) for a GDPR form or download one from our website under ‘About/ Forms’. There is an information sheet on the parish website under ‘Blog’ which gives more information.
New Team Profiles
We have new teams!
Our fresh Team structure was showcased at our meeting at the Assembly Rooms yesterday.
We have some new leaders and each team shared their vision for what they think is ahead!
So if you want to get involved with the prayer, worship, missions or caring teams have a read of the new team profiles and prayerfully consider how you might serve in the life of the church.
Advent Approaches
I’m sure none of you need any reminding that Christmas looms on the horizon!
You might require more of a nudge to register that the season of advent begins next Sunday. And I wonder what message you would expect to hear from ‘your vicar’ about advent and what it represents? I equally wonder, if you’re really honest, how impervious to that message you might be, and why?
I’m not going to give you any leads as to what engagement with advent might offer – but I encourage you to reflect on those questions, and see if God might be calling you to approach the run to Christmas differently this year.
Next Sunday, we’ll start an advent series called ‘Christmas Playlist’, looking at some of the most popular songs of Christmas – ‘Last Christmas’, ‘All I want for Christmas’, etc – to see what nostalgia and desires they tap into, and compare that with what the nature of God’s promises to us.
Getting Started with ChurchSuite
WHY ARE WE USING CHURCHSUITE AND WHAT DOES IT DO?
At St John's we are updating to use a new tool called ChurchSuite to help our church life run more smoothly and effectively!
This will help us manage our activities and admin from one central location and will include a church calendar, better communications, contact details and event information at your fingertips, rotas in one place... and much more as time goes by.
You just need to follow the 3 easy steps below to get started!
SIGN UP
You will get a ChurchSuite invitation email from us. Follow the instructions in the email to set up your login details and password. You can also install the app on your phone or tablet.
LOG IN
On Computer or Browser
Click here to go to: stjohnsww.churchsuite.com
Enter your login and password... that’s it, you are all set!
Using the app
Download the ChurchSuite app from your App Store.
Once installed, launch the app.
Search for stjohnsww in the ‘Church’ field
Enter your login details and get started.
USE IT!
Hopefully this is pretty obvious… but please make use of ChurchSuite. We will be working to keep it up to date and make it your first stop for church life information!
FAQs
Is my data safe?
Yes, all data on ChurchSuite is safely stored using industry standard encryption and is fully GDPR compliant.
I haven’t received an email - what shall I do?
If you haven’t received an email it might be worth checking your SPAM or JUNK folder.
If you still haven’t got the invitation email it means we don’t have your correct details OR we don’t have the correct consent allowing us to contact you!
Please come and speak to us.
Does it cost anything to use ChurchSuite?
No it is completely free for you to use ChurchSuite, and that includes the mobile app. No charges will be made to you personally.
I don’t have an email address, can I still use ChurchSuite?
No, unfortunately an email address is required to create a ChurchSuite login.
I have a shared email address, can we both use ChurchSuite?
Yes, hopefully you should receive 2 (or more) email invitations - addressed to each of you individually. Just use the sign up link in each on to set up your own login.
Please Note: Your password will need to be different to the other person who shares your email address!!
Will we still get our regular emails from the church?
Yes, email communications have been central to the life of St John’s for a long time, and will continue to be. Some might look a little different than usual, and depending on your email provider may come though slightly differently. But the emails will keep coming!
Can I opt-out?
Yes, you have complete control over what data we can store and access, how we can contact you and what other people in our church can see too. All you need to do is login and amend your preferences.
If that doesn’t work for you, please let us know and we will work with you to keep you in control of your data.
A Couple of Opportunities
Below are some positions in two different organisations, both of whom are doing great work:
Amber CPC are looking to appoint someone as a Centre Administrator for one day a week (7.5 hours), starting in the next couple of months, on an initial 18 month contract. Please see the Job Description on the Welcomers’ Table for further details, and contact Susannah Davis at susannah@amberpregnancy.com to make enquiries, or apply.
St Christopher’s Croydon Community Project is looking for volunteers to join the team. Once trained, volunteers help empower Croydon communities to hold important conversations around dying and bereavement, and offer support around those discussions. For more information contact Carol Trower, the project lead, on c.trower@stchristophers.org.uk or begin the application proceed with this link: https://www.stchristophers.org.uk/volunteer_role/creating-conversations-volunteer/
Remembrance Sunday
Some things stand the test of time for good reason and ‘The Fallen’ is one such example’:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
They mingle not with laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.
But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.