Heartbeat April 2020 Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, services at all Heart of England Group churches have been suspended until further notice. It has also been decided that printing and distributing paper copies of Heartbeat is not strictly in keeping with the Government’s instruction that only essential activity should continue, but we hope that you will find this somewhat shorter electronic version interesting. We aim to produce another one in early May, and around the start of each month thereafter until things return to normal. Please send articles that might be of interest to our readers! Subscriptions for ‘missing’ copies of the paper magazine will be offset against next year’s rates – we do hope that you will stay with us. If you need any practical help or assistance in the coming days, please contact the Parish Office on 01386 872758 or email
[email protected] Finally, we hope that you and your loved ones are, and remain, safe at this difficult time. Editor (Page 2) IN UNCERTAIN TIMES Human beings usually assume that it is really hard to get to know God. We wonder how He could be interested in “me”, we can’t imagine why God would want to spend time with us, and we suspect that if we succeeded in speaking to Him it would prove difficult or awkward, or even frightening! Nothing could be further from the truth. The first mistake we make is always to assume that God is a bit like us: unable to cope with too many demands and inclined to reject those people who annoy Him.