E OPEN DOOR an ONLINE UPDATE from ROMSEY ABBEY & ST SWITHUN’S
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
MAY 2020 e OPEN DOOR AN ONLINE UPDATE FROM ROMSEY ABBEY & ST SWITHUN’S Open Door is the parish magazine of Romsey Abbey & St Swithun’s, Crampmoor. We are unable to bring you Open Door in the usual way, so please enjoy a few pages put together as we stay in touch during the lockdown. We hope you are keeping safe and well. www.romseyabbey.org.uk follow us on social media! 1120-2020—900TH ANNIVERSARY OF ROMSEY’S NORMAN ABBEY CHURCH THE VICAR’S LETTER Dear Friends, Lock down has brought a new kind of normal. All of us are now familiar with communicating at distance, be that 2 or 8 meters apart, using phone or snail mail or new technology such as Zoom or other video call applications. Businesses have also adapted to working from home through conference calls, email and operating remotely. And churches have adapted too, now offering worship and pastoral support online and remotely. And the result? There certainly is some amazing creativity out there which a tour around Romsey Church websites will show. Moving church online has seen churches connect with people far beyond their regular congregations. A recent Facebook group called Compline at Nine started by an Abbey congregation member has developed a life of its own and now has over 400 subscribers. Online worshippers now find they can not only join their regular Sunday congregation but can drop into Holy Trinity Brompton, Canterbury Cathedral or a church in Sydney Australia, all in a morning! But this new normal has also raised questions. How do we understand Holy Communion when we are not meeting physically together? How can we support families through grief when only 10 people can attend a funeral? What impact will online worship have when we are now used to fast forwarding the sermon and switching between different channels and churches? Lockdown has brought good things for sure. We have rediscovered afresh, the Church is the people more than buildings, as beautiful and helpful as they can be. The church is a community, living, believing and shaped by the Kingdom of God. While no doubt the creativity of our online presence will continue after lockdown, perhaps more than ever we will appreciate how important human touch is, especially in our worship and pastoral care to each other. Revd Thomas Wharton, Vicar of Romsey Let the team say a prayer for you or someone that you know! Revd Sally Womersley, Associate Priest, Email, text or leave a voicemail to the details above. Prayers will with Revd Thomas Wharton, be offered at the next midweek service after they are picked up. Vicar of Romsey in St Anne’s Chapel. Photo: Ken Gibson. 2 1120-2020—900TH ANNIVERSARY OF ROMSEY’S NORMAN ABBEY CHURCH A note from the Editor A warm hello to our subscribers, regular readers and advertisers and welcome to anyone new finding us online! The April edition of Open Door is still locked up at the printers as we were unable to collect and distribute these ahead of the COVID-19 restrictions. We will endeavour to get these out as soon as we can safely do so. In the meantime, this e-edition is a quick update to keep in touch. Hopefully you have been able to access the online service provision that the parish is providing as well as the Facebook events that Rhiannon Wilmott offers for children and families. I don’t know about you but watching the services makes me happy and sad. I love seeing who will appear but also recognise that there are many others unseen that make the magic happen. We are blessed to have such a creative and hard- working team, both ministers and volunteers. The images on the front page and opposite are a compilation of screen shots from members of the team and others that have been leading our worship during Holy Week and up to the Second Sunday of Easter. At the time of writing there is no date set for the lifting of restrictions. The diary on page 2 has been set out based on the current online service provision. Obviously this may change so please keep up-to- date by checking the weekly bulletin on the Abbey website or subscribe to receive it via email each week, or follow us on our social media channels. There are no adverts included in this online update and we will be in contact with all our advertisers in due course. Until the next time, stay safe. Amanda Taylor 3 1120-2020—900TH ANNIVERSARY OF ROMSEY’S NORMAN ABBEY CHURCH St Swithun’s Jottings Looking ahead We have no idea what may happen in the weeks to come, so all I can say is that we must wait for better times. Let’s keep in contact one way or another and A great deal has changed since I wrote the last jottings. pray for one another. March began with a semblance of normality and quite a number of St Swithun’s congregation were in the Elizabeth Pratt Abbey for Sally’s licensing. It seems quite strange now to think that back then we were all sharing the Peace with handshakes. By the second Sunday of March, we had moved to bowing to one another in the Peace, and receiving only the bread in our Communion service. Despite the increasing restrictions we still had a good congregation. On 15th March we were delighted to welcome Rev Sally Womersley for her first service with us. Richard and I had met her in the church earlier in the week to show her around and explain what happens at St Swithun’s. Sally was warmly welcomed and we very much enjoyed her service. Unfortunately by that time we were getting very concerned with covid-19 restrictions setting in and I completely forgot to take any photographs for you. We also had our monthly book sale, which was a ood opportunity to stock up with reading matter before future restrictions on activities set in. We also had to announce the postponement of our Spring Sale, which was a big disappointment as it is one of our major fundraising events. Not least is the disappointment of those whose spare rooms and garages are stuffed with items collected for the sale, although we have a bonus of a large collection of jigsaw puzzles! We have currently rebooked the sale for 3rd October and will have to wait and see what happens by then. Since 15th March of course we have had no services at St Swithun’s. Richard and I have checked the church on some of our daily walks and said a psalm or prayer for you all while we are there. The church garden is looking lovely with large patches of primroses and celandines, and a few bluebells. Richard has been keeping people updated by email or telephone. We have also had a lovely weekly service sheet from Averil which has gone to our members via email or people dropping it in to neighbours who don’t have email. A number of people have also been logging on to the live streamed services from the Abbey, and it is nice to know we are all worshipping together even though physically apart. Opposite: Primroses, bluebells and the flower beds at St Swithun’s. To quote Richard Pratt, ‘The church is closed but the garden is blooming’. Photos: Richard & Elizabeth Pratt 4 1120-2020—900TH ANNIVERSARY OF ROMSEY’S NORMAN ABBEY CHURCH Severed from routine and obliged to fashion new habits Imagine a world where everything familiar has gone, the capital city’s most famous religious landmark has been destroyed, you have been transported to a foreign country, and have no idea when or if you will be permitted to go home. That’s roughly what happened to the Jewish people in what is called the Babylonian Captivity more than 500 years BC. Jerusalem and its Temple had been obliterated. In exile, the Jews weren’t treated too badly, but they were bereft of the land they believed God had given them and where they felt Him to be present. When their captors, innocently, asked them to sing one of their religious songs, they bristled, ‘How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?’ But their faith matured in the 70-year exile. Scribes consolidated the Scriptures, new kinds of Be our hope congregations, called synagogues, sprang up where they could worship and teach the faith. Their somewhat provincial view of God God of compassion, actually got bigger - not only did they find Israel’s God accessible be close to those who are ill, afraid in their foreign surroundings, but their prophets began to see that or in isolation. God was for all people. Here’s part of Isaiah, Chapter 45 In their loneliness, be their consolation; “Turn to me and be saved, in their anxiety, be their hope; all you ends of the earth; in their darkness, be their light; for I am God, and there is no other. through Him who suffered alone on By myself I have sworn, the cross, my mouth has uttered in all integrity but reigns with you in glory, a word that will not be revoked: Jesus Christ our Lord. Before me every knee will bow; Amen. by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me, ‘In the LORD alone Barbara Glasson are deliverance and strength.’” Finally, and after many of the original exiles had died, the Persians conquered Babylon, and gave the exiles the option to go home, Why Jesus walked on water which many did.