PARISH OF ST ANNE WITH ST CHRISTOPHER Registered Charity number: 1134772

Vicar: Revd Anne Crosby Tel: 01582 850125 Email: [email protected] For admin, hall bookings etc. please call 01582 720050 or email: [email protected]

Letter from the Vicar Dear Church

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have instructed all clergy to suspend public services for the foreseeable future and we will be honouring this.

Our church services will not be happening on Sundays and Wednesdays for now. I will be live streaming onto our Facebook page as many of the services as possible. Sunday 9.15am fr om St Christopher’s; 11.15am from St Anne’s and Wednesday 10.30am from St Christopher’s. Look out too, for other streamed services, Morning and Evening Prayer as well as Compline.

The Church of https://www.churchofengland.org/ will be providing a range of resources to help people to continue their relationship with God, including #LiveLent daily reflections, prayer for the day audio and text and Alexa and Google Home smart speaker apps. Please make use of these resources.

The Lent Course will continue as people work through the study material contained with the USPG booklet, Living with a World of Difference. This material can also be found at https://www.uspg.org.uk/docstore/247.pdf Discussion comments are welcomed on the link on our Facebook page, Parish of Luton, St Anne with St Christopher.

Given the current government advice we are suspending the physical meeting all regular groups and activities. I will let you know about any virtual groups that will be meeting. I will also let you know about our forthcoming Annual Parochial Church Meeting once the / of have provided clergy with the relevant information.

We must continue to be a voice of hope to our community. We are aware that vulnerable people and those who are self-isolating might struggle with some day to day tasks. If you or anyone you know in our area needs help with shopping, a friendly phone call or other errands please can you ask them to email [email protected] with the subject ‘isolation’ providing their details and we will try to respond wherever possible, within the safeguarding and current coronavirus guidelines of the Church and the government. If you are able to volunteer to respond to these requests please email [email protected] with the subject ‘isolation volunteer’.

These are unprecedented times. It may feel that not joining for worship is somehow weakening our faith. This is untrue for two reasons. Firstly, our faith is based on the Incarnation, Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. This fact has not changed and cannot change. Secondly, many of the heroes of faith have been forced to worship in isolation. Bonhoeffer writes: "It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly to share God's word and sacrament. Not all Christians receive this blessing. The imprisoned, the sick, the scattered lonely, the proclaimers of the gospel in non-Christian lands stand alone". During this time of not meeting we stand with the oppressed and persecuted - and their faith is certainly not weak.

We are united by the love of Jesus Christ and this has not changed at all.

Every Blessing

Revd Anne