Category Archives: Look-In

‘Look-In’ in Lockdown #6

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the latest issue of our church newsletter. Hope that you are all continuing to keep well and stay safe. This newsletter is one of our ways of trying to maintain contact and a sense of community during this time when we cannot meet together as a church family. You can find previous issues of the newsletter here. We would love to hear from you and are looking for uplifting and encouraging content to share in future issues of this newsletter.  If you have any ideas or content that we can share, please do email them to Louise (publicity@christchurchuxbridge.org.uk)

We start with an opening prayer:

God calls you here:
Part of a community of disciples, Part of a church family.

God calls you here and asks you to be ready to be in the presence of the Creator.

Are you ready to worship?
Are you ready to listen?
Are you ready to think?
Are you ready to notice?

For it is God who calls us here – lets be ready to meet our Saviour.

The living God calls you.
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‘Look-In’ in Lockdown #5

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the latest issue of our church newsletter. Hope that you are all continuing to keep well and stay safe. This newsletter is one of our ways of trying to maintain contact and a sense of community during this time when we cannot meet together as a church family. You can find previous issues of the newsletter here. We would love to hear from you and are looking for uplifting and encouraging content to share in future issues of this newsletter.  If you have any ideas or content that we can share, please do email them to Louise (publicity@christchurchuxbridge.org.uk)

We start with our opening prayer:

In your love we trust, creator God:
your love for your world;
your love for each one of us;
your love that invites us to love others,
to love ourselves, and to love you.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
receive our love now, and our thanks.

Amen.
(Taken from ROOTS at Home)

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‘Look-In’ in Lockdown #4

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the latest issue of our church newsletter. Hope that you are all continuing to keep well and stay safe. This newsletter is one of our ways of trying to maintain contact and a sense of community during this time when we cannot meet together as a church family. You can find previous issues of the newsletter here. We would love to hear from you and are looking for uplifting and encouraging content to share in future issues of this newsletter.  If you have any ideas or content that we can share, please do email them to Louise (publicity@christchurchuxbridge.org.uk)

This week’s prayer is a hymn that was shared in our virtual church parade service last week. The words for this hymn have been re-written by Denise Creed to fit the circumstances that we are currently living in. Denise is currently a Deacon in the South Holderness Circuit, but some of you may remember her when she was at South Ruislip and was our District Chaplain. Hope you find these words helpful for the current times:

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‘Look-In’ in Lockdown #3

Hello everyone,

Hope that you are all keeping well and staying safe. This week, we’re sharing ways to take part in Christian Aid week, stories from lockdown life and the Bible readings from this week’s lectionary. We hope that you have been enjoying reading our newsletters so far.

We are always looking for uplifting and encouraging content for our newsletter and would love to hear from you if you have any stories, reflections, poems, photos or news to share. You can email any content for the newsletter to Louise at publicity @ christchurchuxbridge.org.uk

We start with an opening prayer:

Dear God
When we feel down at this very difficult time;
When we are worried by the excessive, and often negative, news;
When we are even a bit scared about how the future will be,
Help us to remember that you are always with us and there is nothing that we cannot manage when you are by our side.
Be with those who are grieving for lost loved ones.
Be with those who are missing family and friends.
Be with those who are ill and those who have lost hope.
Be with all those who are working on the NHS and those who are working hard to ensure that we are kept safe.
We ask all this through your son, Jesus Christ .
Amen
(written by Val Bailey)

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‘Look-In’ in Lockdown #2

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the second issue of our new church newsletter – ‘Look-In’ in Lockdown. I hope that you enjoyed our first newsletter last week if you received this (if not, you can find some of the content from it here).

Hope that you are all continuing to keep well and stay safe. This newsletter is one of our ways of trying to maintain contact and a sense of community during this time when we cannot meet together as a church family. We would love to hear from you and are looking for uplifting and encouraging content to share in future issues of this newsletter.  If you have any ideas or content that we can share, please do email them to Louise (publicity@christchurchuxbridge. org.uk)

Let’s start with an opening prayer:

Loving God,
We come before you as unique individuals,
Ready to acknowledge our strengths and weaknesses,
Ready to recognise the value of others, to value the difference,
Ready to hear your call as it morphs and changes,
Ready to hear your accepting voice and all that frees us to consider,
Ready to notice,
Amen.
(written by Jane Bingham, taken from The Vine at Home)

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‘Look-In’ in Lockdown #1

Hello everyone

Welcome to the first issue of our new church newsletter – ‘Look-In’ in Lockdown. Hope that you are keeping well and staying safe at home. Trying to be church remotely in this current time when we cannot meet together as a church family is a challenge that we have been trying to meet over the last few weeks. We hope that this newsletter will help keep you connected through sharing articles from church members, ideas for activities during lockdown and ways in which we can worship together during this time.  Any suggestions and items for future newsletters will be welcomed!

Let’s start with an opening prayer:

Loving God, here we are,
with all our different needs and emotions,
carrying the burdens of sorrow, pain and disappointment
as we journey away from the Cross

Coming as a stranger,
you caused the disciples hearts to burn within them
as they travelled the road with you.
Help us to expect your company as we travel –
to welcome you as a friend,
so that our hearts, too, will be set aflame.

Christ is risen – it is true!
so we don’t need to walk alone.
You promise to be with us through all of our journeying – the best and the worst.
So strike a fire in our hearts,
stir up our imaginations,
and inspire us to walk faithfully with you.

(Anonymous, taken from the URC handbook)

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Well, that’s a surprise

How true the words of Robert Burns are (or at least the English translation of his poem ‘To a mouse’) “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry”.

 

I had a nice clear plan of work and family commitments to take me up to my retirement at the end of August, at which point there would be parties and cream teas and a farewell service, after which I would slip into the blissful state of being in charge of my own diary.  However, life has thrown me a curve ball (an image less familiar to Robert Burns) and plans have had to change.

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Fear – Faith – Fortitude

In June I returned to ‘normal duties’ following my sabbatical, which I wrote about in my last letter for Look-In way back in February.  Due to family health problems things didn’t go entirely to plan (do they ever), but having the sabbatical when I did meant I was able to offer a lot more support to my parents and Sue’s parents than I would have been able to do under normal circumstances.

 

Anyway, now life has returned to normal.  Except it hasn’t.  The last few weeks have shown a side of life that is far from normal.  Terrorist attacks on Westminster Bridge, London Bridge and at the Manchester Arena; the attack on worshipers leaving a Mosque in Finsbury Park (was this a terrorist attack?  It was certainly an attack designed to create terror); and the horrific fire in Grenfell Tower; not to mention the Brexit negotiations (oh dear, I mentioned them) have all shown that these are not normal times.

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Bee Active

At our Harvest Service last month, Nick spoke about bees and their importance in providing the food that we eat.  Bees are essential for pollinating crops and other plants and it’s estimated that they play a key role in providing at least a third of the food that we eat, if not more.  What is worrying though is the decline in the numbers of bees since the start of this century – since 2010 alone, the bee population has reduced by 45% in the UK, and this is thought to be mostly due to the use of pesticides.  Two species of bee have become extinct in the UK since the start of the 21st century and several more are now endangered.

A bee on a white flower

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My Childhood – Part 2

The Church played a considerable part in our lives and the family were members of the Old Meeting House Congregational Church. My parents were married there and my Sister and I were christened by the Rev’d Luther Bouch. From the age of five we were taken to Sunday School each Sunday morning and again in the afternoon. At the end of Sunday school in the morning the children filed into the Church but only stayed for the first half of the service; we came out prior to the sermon. When Mother couldn’t take us in the mornings we were taken by Eva Keen, Ethel and Win Bright or Vera Newport; all lived locally to us. From about seven onward I was able to go alone.

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