19th July 2020

Trinity 6

Dear All,

How’s your Scots?

But, Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,

In proving foresight may be vain;

The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men Gang aft agley,

(But Mouse, you are not alone,

In proving foresight may be vain:

The best-laid schemes of mice and men Go often askew,)

In the bible, when Job demands that God explains the misfortune that has befallen him the answer he eventually receives doesn’t appear to directly address his complaint. Instead, God reminds Job how big the universe is, he shows him the startling complexity and diversity of creation and he helps Job to shift his perspective from a human centred view of the world to one that has humans as just one part of a much bigger and richer picture. And so, like the field-mouse in the poem, we make and remake our plans; and I have to accept that the world doesn’t revolve around me.   Phill Robert Burn’s words seem very apt as we enter what would usually be the holiday season, with people heading off on carefully planned and much anticipated trips. This summer my family and I have exchanged baseball and hotdogs in Chicago for a cottage in the Yorkshire Dales – almost the complete opposite type of  holiday to the one we had anticipated. The pandemic has been a salutary reminder that we humans are not completely in control of the world after all.

TODAY

10:00                   Morning Worship – telephone conference

Phone: 03300 945 940

Room number: 60527473 #

PIN: 2656 #

12:00                   Morning Worship – live on Facebook

Revd Barbara Abrey will repeat the reading, the sermon and lead some short prayers.  Go to our Facebook page ‘Wroughton and Wichelstowe Parish Church’

4pm                      Church at 4  via Zoom – join the Church at 4 group on our Facebook page for the meeting invite and password.

NEXT WEEK

Trinity 7

Sunday 26th July

10:00                   Morning Worship

Preacher:             Revd Phill Harrison

Intercessions:     Sheila Tubey

Reading:              Phil 4: 10-23

Reader:                Helena Thomas

12.00                   Morning Worship live on Facebook

Revd Phill Harrison will repeat the reading, the sermon and lead some short prayers.  Go to our Facebook page ‘Wroughton and Wichelstowe Parish Church’

4pm                      Church at 4

via Zoom – join the Church at 4 group on our Facebook page for the meeting invite and password.

10am service by telephone

Our Sunday morning service is an audio meeting that people can dial into using just their telephones – no computers involved! Follow these instructions to join:

  • To join the Sunday service first dial this number: 03300 945 940.
  • When prompted, enter the room number, followed by # on your telephone keypad: 60527473 #
  • Finally, enter the guest PIN: 2656 #
  • You may have to listen to some announcements, but you will then be automatically joined to the conference call. Join in with the responses in the liturgy as you would normally.

Please try and dial-in at 9:55, as it may take a little while for everyone to be connected to the conference. Calls to ‘03’ numbers are charged at the standard national rate and are included in your ‘free minutes’ if you have a call-plan. Service sheets are being delivered and dial-in instructions to a number of people that we know don’t use email, or for whom we have no email address. If you know someone who doesn’t have email and would like to be included please let us know so that he can drop something through their letterbox.

An opportunity for a cup of tea or coffee and a chat after the 10am service

One of the things that many of us enjoy doing after church is catching up with people and having a bit of a chat, it could be about the state of the weather, or the state of the vicar’s sermon. We also very much enjoy a slice of cake to go with our tea of coffee. It is hard to share a cake remotely; but perhaps we can still have that chat.

If you would like to join an informal conversation (about the state of the weather?) after the 10am telephone service on Sunday then choose your favourite treat and join one of our virtual meeting rooms. To access a meeting room you will need to dial the usual national rate telephone number:

03300 945 940 …followed by the room number and PIN.

Each meeting room has a pair of hosts, who will welcome you and hopefully help to get the conversation going. Just like in church, there is no obligation to stay for long, you can just pop in and say “hi” before rushing to the kitchen to think about lunch. Meeting rooms will be opened by their hosts after the 10am service and aim to close by 11:15 at the latest.

 

Your tasty treat… Room number PIN Room hosts
Date and Walnut 23905416 # 6076 # Helen and Helena
Lemon Drizzle 11620235 # 6880 # Karen and Peter
Victoria Sponge 86978612 # 1062 # Janet and John

 

Church building work update

We met with the contractors this week and they have told us that they plan to move the focus of their work from the outside of the building to the interior from Monday 20th. Plaster removal will make a big mess and create a lot of dust, so we have reluctantly decided that it simply won’t be practical for us to use the building whilst this work is going on. This means that we won’t be able to begin worshipping in it again until probably around Sunday 23rd August.

Part of the work that needs to be done this year is the removal of some patches of failing cement and gypsum based plaster inside the church. The church was originally plastered using lime, which allows the wall to ‘breathe’. The cement/gypsum is trapping moisture in the wall, leading to damp areas and causing the plaster to come away in places. Once this plaster has been removed we will need to allow the wall to dry out for 12 months before it can be re-plastered – we will therefore have areas of bare stone wall to look at for quite some time. The PCC recently decided to increase the scope of this plaster removal work. This decision was taken in view of the fact that further areas of plaster are likely to fail over the years ahead, the mess and disruption that plaster removal and re-plastering will cause, and the unsightly bare walls during drying out. Extending the scope of the work also gives us an opportunity to do some re-decorating once the plaster has been put back.

Opening the church building for private prayer

This Sunday (19th July) will be the last opportunity to go into the church building for a few weeks. The church will be open between 12:30 and 4pm and you are welcome to visit during this time. Please use the hand sanitiser located in the church porch before and after your visit, stay within the areas that have been clearly marked and remember to maintain a 2m distance from anyone else who might be there. You’ll find that much of the interior has been cordoned off – this is to make cleaning simpler and therefore help to keep everyone safe; the areas in use will be cleaned at 2pm and 4pm.

Church family news

We say a fond farewell to two families who are leaving Wroughton for pastures new.  Neil and Kath Slingsby are leaving Wroughton after many years, but won’t be far away when they move to be nearer to family in Rodbourne. Meanwhile, Ben and Anna Cooper and family are making a big move to Edinburgh, where Anna will start a postgraduate course in the autumn. We wish them all well in the changes that lie ahead and our prayers go with them.

Posting Giving Envelopes in the Church Hall
If you are posting envelopes in the church hall letterbox during the day and find the door open, please place your envelopes in the red Parish Office letterbox inside the porch on the right. This is emptied regularly.

Swindon Corona Choir

Since I last wrote about our Corona Choir, we have continued to make weekly recordings of music appropriate to each Sunday by recording our single voices on a phone and then stitching them together as a choir. This week’s offering, our 17th recording, is made specifically with our Wroughton 10.00am service in mind. In our service this Sunday we will be hearing Philippians Ch.4 which contains the well-known Prayer Book text: “Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say, rejoice.”  This text has been set to music by many composers over the years and we have recorded a setting by an anonymous composer of around 1560, just after the BCP was published. It can be heard (Audio only) at https://www.dropbox.com/s/y3sr1w1sv0fh62j/Rejoice%20in%20the%20Lord-Final.mp3?dl=0 or on Facebook (with Video) at https://www.facebook.com/angela.breakspear/videos/4607195692631224. 

Monday morning Bible Study

We have been continuing our bibles studies by phone conference calls during the lockdown, but will now break for the Summer and will resume in September, hopefully face to face by then. We have enjoyed following the sermon series through Acts and Philippians, looking at the set readings in more depth.

Bless Wroughton & Wichelstowe

Please join us to pray for our community next Tuesday 21st July. We’ll be meeting on Zoom at 7.30pm.

Join Zoom Meeting:

Bible Society

There is an opportunity for Bible Society supporters to join a Zoom meeting with Paul Woolley (deputy chief executive) and others working for the Bible Society, on Thursday, 23rd July at 4.00pm. This is one of the charities officially supported by our church. If you would like to join the meeting, please register at Bible www.society.org.uk so that they can send you the link. It will help us understand the wonderful work that the Bible Society is doing in challenging situations in many countries.

Hello from Westbury on Trym
Just a quick note to say thank you for all the prayers, good wishes, cards and messages I have received in the last two weeks. As you can imagine it has been a busy two weeks getting sorted, but the house is beginning to feel like a home. It is a lovely house and has been the curates house since the 1960s – so feel like I am following in footsteps, albeit my steps will be the first female curate ones! Last Sunday I was licensed as a lay worker via zoom on what would have been my Ordination date, it was very special and emotional service. We have been told that our Ordinations will now take place in October, we are waiting for the date to be confirmed – but once I know I will let you all know. My licensing service has made me realise how much this time is one of waiting for all of us, but one where God does continue to work, just perhaps not in the ways that we envisaged – something which I will hold onto in the coming months.  The link to my service The Licensing of Lay workers. July 2020. Bristol Archdeaconary.  With Every Blessing and prayers as always.  Cheryl 

Mission to Seafarers Knitting Project

My thanks to all those who have been busily knitting hats and scarves for the Mission to Seafarers. Please keep up the good work but please can you keep your finished items for the time being as the office staff at MtS are still working from home and the Port Chaplains are still unable to visit ships. They hope to resume in the autumn so please watch this space for further details. Thank you.  Any queries please call Janet Henderson 525856.

‘Sheila’s Garden’ taken by John Godfree

Taken by John Godfree