St Mary's Church - Stoke Newington, N16

 

Suspension of Sunday Services

During this time of the coronavirus we have been advised to suspend public acts of worship.  This means that there will not be any services at St Mary’s until the situation changes.

Obviously, we want to be supportive and available, as best we can be, to our local community.  So please don’t suffer in silence.

If you are isolated and feeling that you need to talk to someone then please ring on 020 7254 6072.  A good number of people have volunteered to help deliver food or talk on the phone with anyone who needs reassurance so please don’t hesitate to make contact and we will make sure that you are supported as best we can.

It would be very good if we might ‘gather’ as a dispersed community at 10.30 each Sunday morning to share worship. We are going to attemp this via 'Zoom'. If you do not already have this on your device please could you download it before Sunday: https://zoom.us/download. You will be sent a link just before the service to enable you to join the 'gathering'. If you prefer not to use 'Zoom' you can use the resources under ‘services’ on this website including reflection on scripture reading and prayers. 

By now you should have received through the post a resource booklet from the church with suggested ways of praying, scripture readings and creative ideas to guide your thinking and praying for you to use as and when you choose.

Let us pray for one another and especially for those who are struggling with little food and some with no shelter. There is a crate outside one of the church doors to receive tinned food donations. The Foodbank is continuing during this time. If you know somebody who needs to be referred you can ring the office number: 02072546072.

Please do ring me if you have any particular concerns.

With love and prayers,

Dilly

And finally here’s something lighter to muse on -  an extract from an email sent to me recently:

Thoughts from a quiet corner of the parish

‘I wonder if we will be having Easter some time in the autumn. If so, I wonder if we can regard this crisis as an extended Lent, and be allowed to celebrate as soon as it is over. I dare say there will be no stopping us.

I can't help wondering, though, if something like this happened to our cousins, the Orang-Utan, who are extremely solitary creatures. They only meet to mate, apparently, but they must communicate somehow. Are we going to learn telepathy? Let's hope the internet doesn't break quite yet.

Sometime soon, my neighbour out the back and I are going to test out singing across our back gardens. Our Hasidic neighbours have the edge on us there, I'm afraid.’