ST FRANCIS OF ASSISI,

GREENCOURT ROAD, PETTS WOOD

SUMMER NEWSLETTER 2020 – Lock-down edition

LIVE STREAMED SERVICES

OUR BEAUTIFUL CHURCH BUILDING HAS TO BE CLOSED BECAUSE OF COVID-19, BUT THE ‘CHURCH’ IS OPEN. Services are live-streamed on Sunday mornings at 10.30 a.m. and weekdays (except Mondays) at 9.30 a.m. Evening Prayer is at 5.00pm on the first Sunday of the month, and a calm, candlelit, ecumenical Taize service on the third Sunday of the month, both are also live streamed. The Blessed Sacrament is displayed on the altar and live streamed every afternoon, to enhance private prayer at home. The YouTube links for all these are on the church website www.stfrancispw.org.uk, and circulated by email and WhatsApp 15 minutes beforehand. Do join us!

(During the period when priests were not allowed into their churches, services were streamed from the vicarage dining room – and we became St Francis of the Dining Room – see above!)

SOME THINGS WE HAVE MISSED BECAUSE OF THE CORONA VIRUS -

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Coming into church and meeting each other, especially as this time has encompassed Holy Week and Easter.

Good Friday Walk of Witness, with Churches Together in Petts Wood Three lovely concerts that were planned – Gospel music, the flute and

piano recital, and Classics for Summer. Quiz Night Film Club All the community events at our church hall, including the Summer

Fayre.

EASTER GARDEN

This year the church steps became the venue for the Easter Garden, made from stones from the Vicarage garden, and flowers, plants and decorations contributed by parishioners on their daily exercise. It was beautiful!

JOURNAL OF A PLAGUE SPRING by Judith Niechcial

Monday 22nd March 2020

Things are moving so fast it is bewildering. Last week people over 70 were told to self isolate for ten weeks – yes, ten weeks. The summer is disappearing before my eyes. I empty my diary, and resign myself to living in jeans for the foreseeable future.

Tuesday 17th March

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A parishioner whose husband recently died, phoned, distressed. People are worried about coming to her husband’s planned funeral. The Church of England has banned all services except weddings and funerals. Stephen reassures her it can go ahead. The sun streams through the West window onto the coffin, the few mourners and the beautiful funeral flowers. I wish I had rescued those from the now abandoned church to take to her.

Stephen sets up a WhatApp group for the congregation, which is an immediate success, but we reckon several elderly church members will not have smart phones. Stephen plans to regularly phone those parishioners.

Tues 24th March

Lock down. Luckily Stephen has electrician skills. Today he finally manages to install wiring from the Vicarage to the church, in order to be able to live stream services on his tablet via Wi-Fi...

Wednesday 25th March

Only to hear today that the Archbishops have decreed that, not only do churches have to close to the public, priests themselves cannot enter, even for private prayer. All the effort of installing wiring is as nought. Stephen is angry and upset. We fail to see how a priest, on his own in a locked church, is a health risk. Locked church doors, with forbidding notices on them, send just the wrong message to people in greater need than ever of spiritual support. Seeing the inside of the church is so important to people. Broadcasting from the vicarage dining room is just not the same. I write a letter to the Church Times questioning the reasoning.

Maunday Thursday

Stephen has a dilemma. He very much wants to stream the Good Friday and Easter services from the church, despite the decree. He writes to all his people. If even one of them feels they would not be able to join the service, he will stick with the dining room. A flurry of beautiful supportive messages arrives, but two responses are concerned, so we decorate the dining table/altar with lilies and candles for tonight’s vigil.

VIRTUAL COFFEE MORNING

After the streamed Mass on Sunday mornings about 10 of us have started meeting each other on Zoom for a virtual coffee.

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Zoom is an easy-to-access internet platform much in use nowadays as a virtual meeting place for groups. It is lovely to see each other’s faces, and hear each other’s news. If you have an internet connection on a PC, a tablet, an I-phone or a mobile with a mic and camera do join us. Depending on what device you are using, you see varying number of participants, but you hear them all. To make it user-friendly it is a good idea to log in early to give time to check your camera and mic, and also the remember to mute yourself when you are not speaking to eliminate background noise such as the phones ringing or dogs barking.

KEEPING IN TOUCH – from David Sayburn

During the current lockdown most of us have spent lots of time communicating by various electronic means. The humble call centre is now dated, compared with all the apps. now used, but I still spend a lot of time ‘’on hold’’ listening to a recorded voice telling me that my call is important. It reminds me of the following, sent to me by Ray Steadman eight years ago and only slightly updated:

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if God decided to use a call centre?

Imagine praying and hearing the following:

Thank you for calling Heaven

For English press 1

For Spanish press 2

For all other languages press 3

Please select one of the following options:

Press 1 for requests

Press 2 for thanksgiving

Press 3 for complaints

Press4 for all others

I am sorry, all our Angels and Saints are busy helping other sinners right now. However your prayer is important to us and we will answer It as soon as possible. Please stay on the line

If you would like to speak to:

God press 1

Jesus press 2

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Holy Spirit press 3

For reservations to Heaven please enter JOHN followed by the numbers 316.

For answers to nagging questions about dinosaurs or life on other planets, please hang up and wait until you arrive in Heaven.

Our computer shows that you have already prayed today; please hang up and call again tomorrow.

This office is now closed for the weekend to observe a religious holiday

If you are calling after hours and need emergency assistance, please call our local representative, Fr Stephen, on 01689 829971

Thank you and have a heavenly day.

‘THY KINGDOM COME’ FOR FAMILIES – with thanks to Beth Maunder

In the season of Ascension to Pentecost the whole church around the world turns to prayer with Thy Kingdom Come.

There are some great creative ideas to try as a family, with Holiday prayer ideas (which may need adapting slightly!), creative prayers to try at home, extreme prayer! Also prayer ideas for use with families with additional needs, a Relay prayer game as well as a Prayer colouring poster. SO plenty on offer – enjoy! Click on this link:- https://www.thykingdomcome.global/sites/default/files/2019-03/TKC_Home_Pack_V4.pdf

BEREAVEMENT SERVICE

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All the St Christopher’s Hospice Help Points have been closed since March for public health reasons. We hope to re=open the Petts Wood point as soon as it is safe to do so. This is especially important, as so many people have lost loved ones without being able to be with them as they die, and as funerals are now so limited.

STUDY GROUP

At the start of Lent we began reading Archbishop Justin’s recommended Lent Book, ‘Saying Yes to Life‘ by Ruth Valerio, and have recently re-started the group on Zoom weekly at 8.00pm. We read specific chapters each week. Let Stephen know if you would like to join us, and he’ll send you the link.

MOTHERS UNION

Members are very much missing being together for the Lent Service, and for the next planned events, which were the May Cream Tea and the June outing.

A POEM – Anon, with apologies to William Wordsworth

I wander lonely as a cloudAnd smile and wave to those I meetAs close encounters aren't allowedI social distance in the street.

I firmly stride down Willett WaySt. Francis' garden's looking great.I find the door is locked but sayThat all things come to those who wait.

I sit alone and don't complainBut miss my friends at Mothers' Union

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Waiting 'til I'm once againIn church at 8 o'clock Communion.

A TRAPPED DOVE – By Terri Hull

On Monday 27th April I heard a coo-cooing from our dining room chimney, about half-way up. We removed the vent and made a sort of tunnel leading to the patio doors hoping the bird would come out from the chimney and make his escape into the garden. I rang the RSPCA and they suggested that for the night I put a box over the hole. This I did with seeds and water inside and shut the patio doors and we went to bed. On Tuesday 28th the bird had dropped down to the bottom of the chimney. Peter and I both tried to reach the bird but the aperture was only about a brick’s width and impossible to reach it. I rang the RSPCA again and they said they would send somebody a.s.a.p. On Wednesday 29th, Paul from RSPCA arrived and on hands and knees looked at the aperture and with a sucking of the lips asked if we had a hammer and chisel!! After about half an hour he had managed to chip away at a solid piece of wood (thank goodness it wasn’t cement) and gained another 2 inches of so. He reached in grabbed the bird (which was a beautiful white dove) and took it into the garden, whereupon it flew away without even thanking me for my hospitality! Paul left with our grateful thanks plus donation and we were left to clear up all the mess. We have managed to secure the vent again using drawing pins and sellotape, and when life is back to normal we shall have to find a handyman to tidy up the aperture properly. Who said lockdown was boring?

WORDS – by Audrey Chalk

I have a weekly e-mail chat with an old school friend who now lives in Amsterdam. As neither of us goes anywhere or does anything our topics of conversation are wide ranging. Last week one topic was 'clout' - as in casting one. I volunteered the information that ‘tailclout’ was the Elizabethan word for nappy. Then she told me that her late Yorkshire-born mother-in-law called a dishcloth a ‘dishclout’. Later on in the week I was enjoying a socially distanced cup of coffee in the garden with my Glaswegian son-in-law, Andy, and told him about it, so he put in his pennorth and said his mother called a dishcloth a ‘dishcloot’, and when it was the children's birthdays a treat was Clootie Pudding which was a rich fruit mixture tied up in a cloth and boiled, so clout/cloot must mean a cloth of some sort. Useless information I know but might be worth remembering for when we once again are able to sit chatting

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round a table with a glass of wine and a plate of delicious food we haven't cooked ourselves!

Another interesting word is 'snobs'. When I was a child growing up in Barking, East London, in the late 1940's we took our shoes to be mended at the snobs. I've looked it up in the OED, and it is an archaic word meaning cobbler. Another friend I was at school with also remembers using this word but no-one I've spoken to has heard of this meaning of the word.Interestingly both sets of parents were born in South London (over the water, as it was called) in Deptford and Greenwich, so perhaps it came from there? Has anyone else ever used the expression?

FOODBANK

Much needed donations have been coming into the box on the church steps at a good rate, and Jos has had more than one car-load to deliver most weeks. Thank you to everyone for your generosity. Keep it coming! Things that are particularly needed at present are :-dietary foods (lactose-free milk, gluten-free items, vegetarian options), long life milk and fruit juice, custard, rice pudding, jam, bleach, cleaning spray. sponge puddings. tinned potatoes, rice, nappies size 2 & 3, toilet paper, ladies deodorant.

POLITICS AND RELIGION, A REFLECTION - by Fr Stephen

There are some Christians around who believe that politics and religion are totally separate things. When it is suggested to these Christians that some changes in the way we govern ourselves may be necessary to be faithful to the Gospel, they often say something such as ‘you’re being political.’

This is a strange view because our Lord himself was probably executed for a political not a religious crime. For sure, the Jewish leaders handed Jesus over to Pilate for religious reasons, but Pilate was only interested in Jesus’ claim to be a ‘King’ - a claim which Pilate misunderstood, but which nevertheless formed the only justification for him to do away with Jesus

The fact is that much Christian action and belief today is still interpreted by different governments as hostile to the politics of the state, and repressed accordingly. The biggest example at the moment is probably China. Thousands of Christians there are being imprisoned at this moment, not because the

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Christian God they worship conflicts with Chinese Gods, but because what they proclaim, particularly about human dignity and freedom cuts across the Communist beliefs the government wants to instil.

But the political aspect of Christianity doesn’t stop with Christians being the object of persecution. Christians are to positively use their faith to influence politics. Archbishop Justin says ‘The Church ... should always, in any particular system, witness to the truth it knows and experiences. That draws it into the political (but not party political) sphere. Times of change require contributions from all parts of society.’*

There is no doubt that the Covid crisis is going to massively reshape our economic, cultural and political landscape. It will be an upheaval so big that many commentators are saying that a complete re-imagining of our civic society will be needed; the ‘Re-imagining Britain’ that Archbishop Justin was calling for even pre-Covid. Such times of crisis are of course full of anxiety and uncertainty, but they are also opportunities for national change and renewal which wouldn’t have otherwise come about. As Christians we trust to God’s power to bring good out of evil. He trusts to our will and faith to grasp the opportunity while it is on offer.

*Justin Welby, Reimagining Britain, p 41

CHURCHYARD

We are blessed with a beautiful churchyard full of mature trees. Unfortunately a multi-stemmed ash has now died, and we are in the process of getting estimates for cutting it down. The oak bench that was donated by Kemnal Park

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is now in situ outside the West door, and here are Jackie and Alisha, the first people to enjoy it!

ST FRANCIS CHURCH CONTACTS

Vicar Fr Stephen Niechcialrevdstephenn@outlook.com

01689 829971/07976 011494

Assistant Priest Fr Bob Wallacefatherbobwallace@hotmail.com

07950613932

Churchwarden /Church Hall

Dave Incedavid.ince2@ntlworld.com

07887 864

Music Director Stephen Martin-Lawrence stephenmartinlawrence@btinternet.com

07958 505816

Safeguarding Irene JonesJones465@btinternet.com

01689 825095

Treasurer Theresa Hullpettswoodtess@hotmail.co.uk

07946 189452

Website Ruth Martin-Lawrenceruthml@btinternet.com

01689871912

Facebook/ Newsletter

Judith Niechcialjmfniechcial@hotmail.com

07973 216408

www.stfrancispw.org.uk www.facebook.com/StFrancisPettsWood

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