PARISH LIFE M agazine APRIL 2021 50p Holy Week There will be a service of Night Prayer across The Helm Mission Community at 7pm on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week. Details will be sent shortly both to those who would like to engage online and to those who would prefer paper copies. Sarah will be leading the online service on Monday 29th Reopening of church At the time of going to print we are hoping to open the church shortly for some services, while still continuing to zoom services from home for those who prefer. Our current plans are as follows – • Palm Sunday - A Holy Communion service (Common Worship) at 9.30am in church, with a separate zoomed service at 10.30am from home • Maundy Thursday - A Holy Communion service (Common Worship) at 10.30am which will end with the stripping of the altar and the Gospel of the Watch • Good Friday - 3 hours of reflection in church from 12.00 noon to 3.00pm • Easter Day – A Holy Communion service (Common Worship) at 9.30am in church, with a separate zoomed service at 10.30am from home. • 11th April - A Holy Communion service (Common Worship) at 9.30am in church, with a separate zoomed service at 10.30am from home. We will confirm all these details – or any changes to them - nearer the time by email, post, Twitter, Facebook or word of mouth. We await the government’s next briefing on 12th April before deciding if we can open up the church for additional services on Sundays, our Thursday morning service and our Ministry of Welcome during the week. Easter will be somewhat different again this year but here is one of Dave Walkers takes on Easter from Church Times a few years ago 2 From the Vicar…. Happy Easter! This feels like a special Easter, an Easter full of hope. Last year we were locked down with a long unknown road ahead. This Easter we are seeing the beginning of the end of the Covid pandemic. All being well in a few weeks time we will be able to return to visiting one another’s homes and meeting family and friends face to face. That is our hope made possible through scientists, medics and vaccines. Humanity is showing what we can achieve if we work together. Many people are hopeful that as we emerge from this dreadful pandemic there will be more working together so that we can tackle other challenges of poverty, discrimination and climate change. We always have reasons for hope in abilities to make things better out of adversity. Our cherished NHS was born out of the horrors of the Second World War. However, human history teaches us that sadly, human beings don’t always make the right choices. Whilst this Easter is full of hope, every Easter is full of a greater hope—one that relies on God and not on us. 2000 years ago Jesus died on a cross outside Jerusalem. On the Sunday following that Friday some of his followers reported that God had raised Jesus from the dead. Over the following weeks many more people witnessed a living Jesus. Throughout Jesus’ ministry he had performed miracles including bringing people back to life from death— Lazarus, Jairus’ daughter and a widow’s son in Nain. Jesus’ resurrection was different. Jesus didn’t come back to life. Jesus was raised to new life. They would each suffer death again. Jesus will not. God raising Jesus opens the way to eternal life for all humanity and all creation. Death is defeated. Suffering has no ultimate power. Jesus is the first of many. Jesus’ resurrection promises hope of new life eternal for all who follow him—life that cannot be extinguished in death, life that can bring change and transformation to our hearts and lives now. New eternal life with God. 3 The hope of freedom from pandemic that we may experience now is nothing compared to the immense riches of hope given to us in Jesus. The promised hope of pandemic release can be seen now in the lives of those vaccinated. This is a little like the promised hope of Jesus’ resurrection life that can be seen now in those who believe in Jesus’ death and resurrection. We are not there yet. It is promised to us. That is our Christian hope of freedom in the face of any challenge. The promise of the end of the pandemic relies on human ingenuity. Easter’s hope relies on the goodness, love and grace of God for all of us. Nothing, even death, can overcome that. That’s something worth celebrating every day. Happy Easter! Mat Rev Mat Ineson Interim Priest-in-Charge [email protected] 4 HELM MISSION COMMUNITY LENT COURSE It’s been wonderful to meet people from other churches in the Helm Mission Community and share in the Lent Course. Throughout Lent, 50 different households from the 6 churches of our Mission Community met on Zoom using the Lent Course material written by Bishop Emma. Some of us explored that using notes at home. The Lent Course was based on the Sunday readings and gave opportunity to think about how we can live as Christian disciples in our everyday lives. We used the framework from the new refreshed vision for Churches in Cumbria adopted by the Diocese of Carlisle. Follow daily is about learning how to be daily disciples of Jesus. Care Deeply speaks of growing our love for one another and those we are called to serve. Speak Boldly encourages us to talk about our experiences of faith in Jesus Christ. Tread Gently is a call to increase our environmental awareness and action to reduce our impact on creation. They have been very rich and engaging sessions that have helped us to think about what it means to be a Christian in Kendal at this time. And we’ve met Christians from our partners in the gospel in Kendal URC, the Salvation Army and the parishes of Natland, Old and New Hutton and Crosscrake. I hope that we can continue to grow these relationships as we increasingly work together across the Helm Mission Community. Mat 5 Detached youth work is a model of youth work practice targeted at young people on their territory (streets, parks, open and shared public spaces). Participation is voluntary and engagement is on the terms of the young people. It begins from where young people are in terms of their values, attitudes, issues and ambitions and is concerned with their personal, social and educational development. It is characterised by a wide range of purposeful and intentional interactions between youth workers and young people and guided by youth work outcomes. (youthlinkscotland.org) The proposal for Kendal is to run a pilot project to explore the need for and possibility of a detached youth work team in our town. Richard Passmore, who is the Director of Mission Innovation and Fresh Expressions for Carlisle Diocese, has volunteered to lead the pilot project and train a team if this project develops. Richard led one of the UK’s largest emerging church projects for young people and spent nine years as the National Community Leader for the Streetspace Project, an initiative of Frontier Youth Trust which now has 58 projects across the UK. Richard lives with his wife, Lori, daughter Indi and Labrador puppy Treacle, on Windemere Rd, Kendal. The aim of the project would be to engage with young people for their personal, social and spiritual development. Network Youth Church leaders in the diocese are all very supportive and keen to see youth work develop in Kendal. Chris Mason, a NYC worker for Windemere Deanery, has offered to partner with us at any stage that this might prove beneficial. The local police are also supportive of this project. Church leaders across Kendal are all keen to see it develop and Mat 6 suggested that KPC own this initiative and provide safeguarding and insurance to make the project viable. The PCC agreed to this last time they met. The team for the pilot project would comprise Richard Passmore, Craig Bentley (Curate at Natland) and Anne Underwood (when needed). The team are all volunteering their time and no one will be paid. Risk assessments will be completed before going out on the streets. If the young people want to engage, the team would need to be developed as an ecumenical project working with people from different churches for whom Richard Passmore will provide training and Janet Thompson will oversee safeguarding. We’ve set up a management group for the team. David Donnison has kindly offered us the benefit of his experience along with Victoria Sekasi, Curate at St Thomas’s (and Network Youth Church youth worker in Ulverston before starting her curacy). The team is due to meet shortly to prepare for going out on the streets as soon as restrictions allow. I’m sure many of you will have heard how many young people have struggled during lockdown, on top of their usual challenges, so we would appreciate any prayer support. If anyone is interesting in supporting this project, I’d love to hear from you and would be happy to update you on a more regular basis. [email protected] Anne Underwood 7 Thank you to Beverley Moore for sending us this article from the Bible Reading Fellowship. Love and loss in a time of lockdown BRF 2021,brf.org.uk During 2020 the experience of lockdown has impacted all we do, and in particular caring for loved ones who are terminally ill or grieving those who have passed away.