I wanted to let you know that we will be broadcasting our Sunday Service from St Swithun’s Martyr Worthy at 10am tomorrow.  The welcome address will begin at 9.30am and will give you an opportunity to print out or open a separate window for the service sheet and hymn sheet.  It would be good to settle down without distractions so that we call all engage with God together.

To access the service is very easy.  It will come up as a post on our website www.itchenvalleychurches.org.  You can either make a note in your diary to open up the website at that time and look for Recent Posts on the homepage and you will see it.  Or (what might work better) is to follow our website by putting your email address now into the field at the bottom right hand side of our home page underneath the recents posts where it says ‘join 147 other subscribers’.  In these extraordinary times you might find following our postings a real encouragement.

Please understand that I am not a professional broadcaster and so it all may seem a bit hick but it seems to me that seeing a face that you know might be an encouragement as we go through all of this together.

Also it strikes me that we are going to have to have a lot of self discipline to get through these times. One area of self discipline will be creating boundaries so that the days are different, one from another.  We must of course look after our bodies – good exercise etc and our minds – making sure that we are intellectually challenged beyond a daily diet of Netflix but also our spirit.  It might be a good idea for us each to identify one day a week – it makes sense for Christians to do this on Sundays –  when you seek to engage with God however you perceive him.  Joining with us on our on line services might be part of that engagement.

Tomorrow is Mothering Sunday and although the subject of our service will be the current crisis and the anxiety that we are all facing as a result, it would be good if we could all seek to speak over the telephone or FaceTime etc. with our mothers.

Also the Archbishop of Canterbury is leading the nation in a week of prayer starting tomorrow https://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/news/latest-news/coronavirus-archbishops-call-national-day-prayer-and-action

Please do take part by saying the Lord’s Prayer as you wash your hands and by lighting a candle in your window at 7pm tomorrow evening

If you do need to talk to me during the week – to talk over any spiritual issue then please do drop me an email and we can fix a time for a FaceTime conversation or a Skype or even a telephone call!

Many blessings to you at this difficult time.

Alex

Revd. Alex Pease