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With the current restrictions on movement in place it may not be possible for everyone to attend a funeral. This must be one of the hardest and most difficult things at an already very difficult time.
The Methodist Church in Britain has prepared a short act of worship to help us say formal goodbyes while remaining at home. It can be found online here, or as a PDF document below:
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 This Sunday, the virtual church choir organised by the National Methodist Choir of Great Britain will be performing a special online event on Easter Day, at 4pm to launch All We Can's Emergency Coronavirus Appeal. You can watch the ‘Easter Sunday Singalong’ on Facebook and Youtube channels.
A fifteen minute reflection from the team at Methodist Central Hall Westminster is to be broadcast across all 39 BBC local radio stations at 3pm on Good Friday. The reflection has been produced following current guidelines. You can find your local BBC station here.
The statement is supported by churches in membership of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, along with Churches Together in England, Cytûn, ACTS and the Irish Council of Churches.
Holy Week Statement from British and Irish Church Leaders God’s world is in the midst of an unprecedented crisis. In the nations that make up Britain and Ireland the Covid-19 virus continues to affect people at an alarming rate, health services along with many of our institutions and organisations, both local and national, are under extreme pressure and people are getting used to living in a very different way, many in extreme isolation. As with all such crises, there is a danger that the most vulnerable in society will be most badly affected. Christians the world over are entering an important time in the church year as we look to the events of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. At the centre of our common faith are both the depths of despair and the heights of joy. In the Bible and in the songs and liturgies of the Church, we see Jesus entering fully into human suffering. In His rising again, that suffering is redeemed and transformed into hope and joy. After Jesus’ death his disciples were afraid and all seemed lost and hopeless, but the risen Christ met them in their despair and restored hope through his victory over death. We pray that the world today might know this hope in place of despair. In the Book of Daniel we read about God’s people being taken into exile in Babylon. Daniel could not pray in the Temple in Jerusalem, but he continued to pray in exile – opening his window to face Jerusalem. Though he was on his own he joined with the prayers of the people wherever they were. Now we too are separated from each other physically, but when we pray in our homes we join in with this ancient tradition of our home as a place of prayer. Wherever we are, whenever we pray, when we speak and think of Christ, there he is in the midst of us. We join our prayers with all those who pray in our own churches and communities and around the world. As church leaders from across the many and varied churches of these Islands we urge all people to join us in prayer this Holy Week and Easter; to pray for those who suffer, those who face untimely death and all those who care for them; to celebrate our common faith at a difficult time; to help and support our neighbours in need; and to observe all the safeguards in place to slow the spread of disease. Our Prayer Loving God, in Jesus Christ, who died and rose again for our salvation, cast out the darkness of our anxiety, fear and mourning, enfold us in your love and give us joy and hope this Easter. Amen.
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!  The Methodist Church in Britain publises a quarterly magazine, The Connexion. Issue 18 (Spring 2020) is available now and you can read the magazine online here. It is well worth a read!
Along with this magazine this month is a prayer journal, also available online here. This is published by Thy Kingdom Come, which is a worldwide prayer movement. They have prayer journals that can be printed off / read / used for free available here. These might be of help to those who are searching at this difficult time. Frodsham Methodist Church have received the below information that may be relevant to residents of Cheshire West and Chester about some of their services that are continuing online, even at this time: Libraries (online services) 
New Leaf (skills and money advice)
 Announcing the launch of "Frodsham and District Open Hands" (a project of Frodsham Open Hands Limited, of which Rev'd. Andrew Emison is the director), which launched on 30 March in full co-operation and support of Cheshire West & Chester Council, Chester West Voluntary Action in partnership with Frodsham Town Council and Frodsham Churches Together.
We are hoping to put up our Easter cross outside Church as a symbol of hope for the community and those passing by.
But we will need lots of flowers to decorate it. The Church Stewards planning to put the bare cross up on Good Friday and will leave a bucket of water by it, so that people out on their permitted walk on Friday evening or Saturday you can leave flowers there. Please try not to touch the cross or the bucket itself so that we can keep each other safe. The Church Stewards will then put the flowers on the cross on Easter Sunday morning. Thank you. |
News & NoticesTo receive a copy of the weekly Church News & Notices electronically, contact us here.
It is normally distributed by e-mail on a Thursday and is available in Church each Sunday and throughout the week.
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