COVID measures
At Parish Council last evening we acknowledged that New Zealand has entered a new and different phase of the pandemic where case numbers are very high and climbing, and are probably underreported by quite a long way given that Rapid Antigen Test kits are now being widely used, hospital admissions are increasing and the spread is now rapid.
In light of this and acknowledging that there is a range of views within our congregation, we agreed that the following measures are appropriate to manage the risks associated with meeting as a Sunday congregation:
- We will gather in church this coming Sunday 6 March and the service will include communion served in our seats
- We will not sing – we will listen to Peter play the hymns.
- We will not gather and mingle for morning tea.
- Rainbow Room will go online from this coming Sunday.
Continuing to gather in the church will depend on case numbers, hospital admissions and reports of cases within our own community, which we are monitoring.
We note that some service leaders may prefer to use ZOOM for Sunday worship while we weather the surge. We are looking into live streaming options. It will be a week by week decision.
Finally, for your information we are aware of several cases of COVID in our community.
Stay safe and look after yourselves and each other.
Lynne
Parish Council Convenor
—ooOoo—
This coming Sunday is the 1st Sunday in Lent. I recently learned where the word Lent comes from. It is the old English word Lengthen. If you are living in the Northern Hemisphere at this time of year, especially over the next 6 weeks the days lengthen noticeably just as they do for us in late August and September. So if that’s where the word comes from what does it mean for us today?
Briefly it is a period of 40 days during which there is the opportunity to remember the events leading up to and including the death of Jesus and to reflect on some of the key sayings and events that are significant to, and impact on, what we have come to call “The Way.” How we seek in our lives to express the values that were so important for Jesus. One such event is that time, recorded in Luke 4 when “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by “the devil”. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished.”
So we see where the 40 days of Lent comes from and there was this force, this “pulling power” that was suggesting, urging him to act in ways that in one sense would be to his benefit but didn’t align with, agree with, the values and the actions he felt were right. Luke puts it more bluntly “Satan tempted him to turn away from God and worship him instead.” Because Jesus refused is why people might, during the 40 days of Lent give up something in order to test their own self-discipline too. So it can be observed in a whole variety of ways, or not observed at all; or observed by saying something like “I won’t eat chocolate for 40 days”; or it can be when we take a little time each day to ask ourselves are there things that we are feeling we might do, are being encouraged to do, because they are really aligned with the values and objectives that are absolutely central to our concept of discipleship in today’s world here in Wellington? Which is it for you?
Barrie Keenan
To view the full e-news click here: https://mailchi.mp/8315f5aa0689/this-weeks-newsletter-from-st-andrews-on-the-terrace-8855281
