Rector’s Weekly Update

The Beaminster Area Team
From the Hub Weekly Update Friday 4th December, 2020

So we are now in tier two. This affects our home lives and what we can and cannot do day to day, and this will also apply in places of worship. Over the Christmas period, defined as 23-28th December, you can attend church with your family bubbles BUT you cannot gather with friends outside of your bubbles in a place of worship during this period. Choirs are allowed to sing in a place of worship so long as the individual members are two metres apart.

Singing of Carols outside is permitted within the guidelines. You can of course spend a jolly yuletide hour reading through all the guidelines for yourselves. I am told that it beats Eastenders hands down. You can also go to the Diocesan website for its Covid resources which will take you on a mesmeric trip of a lifetime.

On a lighter note, it was lovely to see the response to Jo leading a virtual Christingle service for St Mary’s Academy this week. I have had some lovely and excited comments from the children around town. I also greatly enjoyed working with the students and staff from Beaminster School in church yesterday. We all recorded our parts for their online carol service to be broadcast via Facebook and the school website next week. I also got a chance to be the clapperboard operative. Having these wonderful young people in church brought laughter and singing back into the building after so many months of near emptiness.

I hope that all goes well with your services this Sunday and please do not forget to let Harry have your arrangements for attendance at Christmas services and who should be contacted for tickets. We already have the services themselves on the website – the details we need are for ticketing and booking.

Thank you to all those who have contacted me regarding home communions for Christmas. We will be contacting you soon to make arrangements. I have a number of PCC meetings over the next two weeks and I will be sending out dates for next year later this week.

With my continued thanks for all of your help and support.

David

Carol singing in the Square in Beaminster can happen on Saturday 19th December. We must maintain 2m apart from each other and not socialise across household bubbles. We won’t be able to give away coffee this year but perhaps we can still manage wrapped sweets. If you would like to join in the singing in the Square please let me know so I can sort out numbers. We will be singing between 10 and 11am by the Julia in Beaminster.

Advent resources are available on elsewhere on this website, there is something for everyone, do go and have a look.

Last call to book a Messy Church bag for 12th December. Please email Jo by Sunday 6th December to book your bag. Bags can be collected from the Church office at 10am on Thursday 10th December or from St Mary’s Church on Saturday 12th December also at 10am.

We held a Christingle service this week in Beaminster St Mary’s Academy. We had dropped off 100 Christingle sets for the children to make in school and then we gathered together via the power of Microsoft Teams and had a short act of worship together reflecting on what the Christingle teaches us about how much God loves us. It was such a joy for the whole school to be together to worship.

Peter Aves in Netherbury has offered to continue to host Zoom coffee on Sundays during Advent for those of us who aren’t back in church. Zoom coffee will be at 10.15am on Sunday, for 30 minutes and the Zoom invite is here. This will continue through Advent and then we will review whether to carry on in the new year.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/6711555347?pwd=TFNtalNHd1crWjdCa3BPZGovdDRTZz09
Meeting ID: 671 155 5347
Passcode: Y7s5zx

Jo

2020-12-04-Weekly-Sheet