Weeknight Worship returns - but different! Weeknight Worship is changing days! With effect from this week, the North Cheshire Circuit Service will now be held on Sunday evenings at 7pm beginning on 30th August. This week Rev'd David Bintliff will be reflecting on Romans 12: 9-21. Please join us on the Circuit YouTube channel as we worship together.
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Many of us have enjoyed watching the services streamed on YouTube by Rev'd. Andrew Emison every Sunday morning at 10am. It looks as though these are set to continue for the foreseeable future.
Of course, not everyone has the right means to access this online service at home. So throughout the current crisis, our Frodsham preachers have been producing a short printed act of worship each week, which has been delivered to about 15 people. We are very grateful for the time and effort they have all put in to this. If you had not heard about the printed service, but would like to receive one, please get in touch with Elizabeth Holmes, on enquiries (@) frodshammethodist.org Covid 19 and our response as a Church by the Church Leadership Team
The Church Council met on 17th July 2020 (by Zoom) and recommitted itself to worship, study and prayer. We agreed to continue to pray for each other and seek discernment and wisdom at this time. Whilst the Church Council retains legal responsibility for the reopening of the church, it delegated the task of making and executing decisions regarding the phased reopening of the church to the Church Leadership Team. During the whole of the Covid-19 the Church Leadership Team has met together every three weeks online via Zoom to pray and carefully consider/plan how as a church we can continue to worship and grow as disciples, love and support each other, and how we can serve our wider community. We are reminded that through this difficult time we remain a community who love and care for each other. We have agreed to continue the online service via YouTube every Sunday morning at 10am for at least several more months. We also have a separate printed service sheet issued every week to those who can’t access the online service. We have taken the decision to not open or start Sunday services with people attending church in September – due to all of the restrictions we would need to impose, it would be very strange and different to what we remember as normal. There would be no singing, we would need to wear masks, seats would need to be booked, lots of people would not be able to attend, there could be no refreshments or social time after the service, and we may only be able to get up to 20/30 people safely in church. We are therefore considering and setting out a plan to get us from September to the New Year – this plan can be amended, speeded up, or slowed down to reflect changing local restrictions and government direction/legislation. Regular updates on the gradual reopening of church will be provided as we continue to react to the swift changing situation and national and local guidance, including guidance from the Methodist Church. We welcome any views on these proposals via email to leadership.team (@) frodshammethodist.org, via your pastoral visitor or to one of the Church Leadership team. Every activity/event which we propose and which eventually starts will be the subject of a detailed Covid-19 risk assessment, with the wider effect and risk assessment of the church and any collateral impact from one event/activity on another also assessed. We have noted that for some of these events and activities to take place, zoning of the whole of the Church premises including the hall, annexe etc. would be required (we would need to separate parts of the church premises to make sure no one from one event/activity went into another zone of church which was saved and cleaned for a separate activity) and/or enhanced cleaning will be needed. As part of this plan we hope in September to be able to move the online service to be streamed live from church. There will be no congregation present, but it will enable more flexibility and permit more than one person to be present and help lead it. There is also the potential for funerals restarting at church later in September, but numbers attending will be significantly restricted. It is possible that we may be able to restart youth group at church in some format and maybe the regular walking group. As we move later into October, there is a possibility that we may be able to permit a very small number of people to attend our live streamed services at church, but the services will continue to be streamed on YouTube for all to attend online or listen via their phone. Even later in October we are looking at if we can start some sort of short spoken prayer service for a small number of people, possibly midweek. During November and December, and into the New Year, we will look to gradually reopen activities and events at church. Sadly it is too early yet to give any real detail of what this may look like as, at the time of writing, we have no knowledge of any potential second waves of Covid-19, how Government advice may change, of the effect of local lockdowns etc. We will keep everyone updated and we appreciate everyone’s patience, love and support as we try to carefully pick our way through this difficult situation. The Leadership Team Frodsham Methodist Church Festival at Home, a free online festival happening from 22 to 25 May hosted by Cliff College, a Christian theological college in Calver, Derbyshire. With worship, seminars, challenges, prayer, teaching and more for all ages, this is the place to be over the bank holiday! Join them online or on YouTube. PLUS Cliff College are also hosting two virtual open days, on June 2 and 3 – you can find all the information on their website. Jeremiah implores us: "seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you.....and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare". Although it might be a stretch to think of Frodsham as a city, nevertheless all of us around our circuit want to communicate the sense that although our buildings are closed, our church fellowships continue to pray for our communities. Members of Frodsham Methodist Church have hung bunting that celebrates God's presence and each flag carries a prayer for people in our community who are leading or serving at this time. Below are just a few of the flags, but do take a closer look when out for your daily walk. With this Friday, 8th May, being the commemoration of VE Day, the Methodist Church has a podcast episode available which features a chat to Methodists from the island of Jersey who were liberated from occupation. As we cannot meet together face-to-face at present, during the online worship on Easter Sunday there will be an opportunity for the Frodsham Methodist Church Family to greet each other.
If you want to be part of this, please send a photograph or video of you and your family wishing the Church Family a Happy Easter by Thursday 9th April to: webmaster@frodshammethodist.org This could be recorded on a professional camera but a phone is also fine. Be as creative as you want. Your message could be delivered orally, in writing, or anything else you can think of! But do try to keep the message short so the service does not overrun (too much!). Do note that the service will be broadcast on YouTube so everyone in the photograph or video should be comfortable with their image being included in the service. And we will try our best to include all submissions received, as long as the format is compatible. Please help to spread the word! Due to the COVID-19 situation, all public worship and activities are suspended.
Visit our What's On page for devotional materials and live Sunday worship! During this time, the Methodist Church in Britain is providing a number of resources online for Methodists to continue to worship.
Online Worship Resources The best place to find these online resources is by following this link: https://www.methodist.org.uk/our-faith/worship/singing-the-faith-plus/seasons-and-themes/worship-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic/ Online Worship A number of Methodist Churches around the country are also conducted acts of worship online. These include the following: Wesley's Chapel in London who will live-stream from the chapel (the Minister lives on the premises): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUAUqhmhevz5sqhh72LIMxA Swan Bank Methodist Church in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, this worship will be studio based – with strict distancing rules being followed: www.youtube.com/user/SwanBank and www.facebook.com/swanbank/ Methodist Central Hall Westminster: www.youtube.com/mchwevents “Life Together” will be taking place from Wednesday 12th February to Sunday 16th February. Andrew Emison is looking for volunteers to cook and be present during the sessions. Please help if you can. If you are not able to help in this way, please pray for our young people as they share in discipleship in this way. The Leprosy Mission is an international Christian charity with 141 years of experience. Through The Leprosy Mission’s global family a population of 305 million people in around 30 leprosy-affected countries is served. Leprosy is a mildly infectious disease associated with poverty. It is easily cured.
Leprosy starts by damaging the small nerves on the skin’s surface resulting in a loss of sensation. The Leprosy Mission is asking for help and prayer for more skilled medical staff to continue its hospitals’ vital work. People affected by leprosy often live in extremely poor conditions and have very limited access to medical care. Without treatment they face preventable disability and a bleak future. Prejudice and discrimination against people with this disease means that families are torn apart and suicide can sometimes feel like the only option. Medical staff working for The Leprosy Mission cure and treat thousands of people each year, providing unconditional love and skilled medical care at specialist leprosy hospitals. They work long hours because resources are so scarce. Following God’s calling, they work for a fraction of the salaries their clinical training enables them to earn. According to the latest World Health Organisation statistics, there were 208,619 new cases of leprosy diagnosed globally in 2018 – around one every two minutes. Due to the reluctance of leprosy patients to seek treatment because of the stigma surrounding the disease, we regard these figures as understated. More information can be found on their website here. What a wonderful Christmas it has been. It was wonderful to see so many people in Church for the Community Nativity, Carold by Candlelight and on Christmas Day itself as we welcomed Christ into our world and into our lives. The picture below is of worship on Christmas Day as we all shared the gifts we had received!
The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed the initials HH alongside the 10.45am service for Frodsham on the new plan. HH stands for Holy Habits, a book written by Methodist minister Rev'd. Andrew Roberts, which has become an extremely popular resource for many churches. During the autumn quarter we will be looking at each of the ten ‘habits’ of Christian discipleship as outlined in the book, based on the picture of the early church as recorded by Luke in Acts ch 2 vv 42-47.
You may like to read the book in advance, although this is not essential. It is published by Malcolm Down, RRP £10.99, but it can be found from various sources online for less than this. I can highly recommend it. Elizabeth Holmes As usual we will be supporting a number of charities over the Christmas period.
Our sock tree will go up on Sunday December 2nd to receive your gifts of new socks for men, women and children. Also under the tree we will collect hats, gloves and scarves. These will be given to Chester Aid to the Homeless, and to Warrington Salvation Army for their work in support of victims of human trafficking. Our collection at the Carols by Candlelight service will be for Action for Children (formerly NCH), a Methodist - founded charity supporting disadvantaged children across the UK. Gift Aid envelopes will be available. If you are a taxpayer please use this to increase the value of your gift by 25%. Our gifts on Christmas Day will go to Christian Aid. Their campaign this year is in support of those offering help in war-torn communities. Again, Gift Aid envelopes will be available. In our Sunday morning worship over the next few weeks we will be looking at ways in which we can grow, learn and be disciples together. These themes will be taken from a book called Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations by Robert C. Schnase. New and second hand copies are available to buy on Amazon.
Good to be joined by those from the other churches in Frodsham for our annual New Year's Eve Ecumenical Service today.
A very Happy and Blessed Christmas from all at Frodsham Methodist Church.
Pictures from our Christmas Service this morning at 10am when we shared the Good News of Christ, and our presents, with others! A few pictures from our Harvest of Talents this year--celebrating just some of the talents we have in our Church and community as well as many of the small businesses so vital to our community. |
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