The Parish of Keynsham magazine 50p June 2021 Coronavirus / Covid-19 - Update for June We continue to cautiously follow the government’s roadmap out of the national lockdown restrictions. Our Churches are now open again for services and weare continuing with a mixture of both online and in-Church provision. We are following the guidelines of the government and national church and so are asking people who come to major physical services to pre-book. Everyone who comes to physical services should wear a mask, keep socially distanced and not sing. Service patterns are not the same as the pre-pandemic patterns, so please therefore keep in touch if you can, with the Parish website at: https://www.keynshamparish.org.uk The weekly News Sheet can be found there at: https://www.keynshamparish.org.uk/news and this has the detailed news each week. St John’s Church is open for private prayer on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 9am-12pm. Weddings and baptisms for up to 30 people, are allowed under the current restrictions. The number allowed to attend Funerals is now limited by the capacity of the Church concerned, so can be more than 30. It remains to be seen whether all restrictions are able to be lifted on 21st June. If visiting any of the Churches, to keep yourselves and others safe, please read the guidelines upon arrival. Please remember to wear your face mask and use the hand sanitiser provided on your way in and out of the buildings. When we return to a printed version of Contact for all our readers is not yet decided. At present our office staff are continuing to work the majority of time from home as the government continues to advise. Online Our online provision has now settled into a regular pattern: Sunday morning service at 10.30am on the St John’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/stjohnskeynsham/ Other Sunday services as advertised in the News Sheet. https://www.keynshamparish.org.uk/news Morning Prayer – each weekday morning at 9am Evening Prayer – some weekday evenings at 8pm If you have any questions about services or anything else, please email the Parish Office at:[email protected] Stephen M’Caw THE PARISH OF KEYNSHAM DIRECTORY (www.keynshamparish.org.uk) Please note the Parish Office is currently closed to visitors and staff are often working at home. The best way to make contact is by email. If you are unable to email please phone and leave a message on the answerphone if there is no reply. Phone: 0117 986 3354 Email: [email protected] Office Manager: Pam Gardner - Facilities Manager: Vacancy Team Rector: Rev’d. Dr Stephen M’Caw - Tel: 0117 986 4437 Team Vicar - St Francis: Rev’d. Anika Gardiner - Tel:0117 985 3470. Missioner and Team Vicar - St John’s: Rev’d. Mike Burke - Tel: 0117 909 9425 Curate - Keynsham Parish: Rev’d Nigel Williams - Tel: 07850887498 Pioneer Missioner: Trevor James - Tel: 07368 526997. Readers: Rachel Hall, June Lowe, Rachel Shaw. Safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults: Parish officer: Wendy Harwood - Tel: 0117 986 2323 Directors of Music / Choirmaster: St John’s: Christopher Thomas - contact via Parish Office St Francis: vacant Bell Captain: Martin Pearson - Tel: 0117 956 4184 Parish Youth Worker: Philippa Traynar - contact via the Parish Office Parish Children and Families Worker: Vacant contact via the Parish Office Caretakers: St John’s: - Steve Spiteri - contact via Parish Office St Francis: - Jenny Minty and Katie Poynter 1 Would you like to provide the front cover picture for Contact? We enjoy creating the front cover pictures for Contact but would love readers and their families to join in by sending in suitable pictures to create a bank of illustrations for the front cover. They could be photos or original art work. Children’s drawings are welcome but all must be in portrait orientation. If you copy a picture from another source you must be sure there are no copywrite issues. Ideally we will have a bank of pictures to draw on and, if as we hope there are lots of them, we will have a mini- exhibition in Contact from time to time for everyone to enjoy. Photos and pictures need to be good resolution (1Mb or more) Send your pictures to Contact at [email protected] with a short explanatory note. Kath, Robert and Hero 2 June 2021 One practical outworking of our faith is hospitality. Something that we haven’t been able to do a lot in this last year due to Covid. But finally we are able to see more of each other, even mix in houses a little more by now. We are able to have people round for a meal, not having to rely on good weather. Able to share life with one another. Shane Claiborne speaks about hospitality in the book: Common Prayer - a liturgy for ordinary radicals. ‘Hospitality was one of the marks of the early Church. Jesus was always going to people’s homes, and his healings and teaching often happened around a dinner table or in a living room. The early church ate and met in each other’s homes. It has been noted that when the disciples were sent out with nothing at all (no money, no extra clothes, no provisions…), it was not because Jesus wanted them to suffer in poverty or be left alone in the street, but because they were to rely on the hospitality of others. Not only were the early Christians to practice hospitality; they were to depend on it. There was no “us” and “them.” My house is no longer mine but is God’s, which means it is open to all. One of the early Christians pointed out the miracle of hospitality nda the abundance that comes from sharing, and said, “We have no house, but we have homes everywhere we go.”...Our Saviour came into the world dependent on hospitality, from the moment he was born in a borrowed manger until he died in a donated tomb. What is more, Jesus longs to meet us face to face in the disguise of the stranger, the guest at our door.‘ The Bible is full of stories of hospitality, life shared with one another. We worship a God who is a refuge to the widow, orphan and alien. A God who is generous. As Christians, we are called to be like that - to open our homes to others, open up our lives. Growing up, whenever we had people over for Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake) or a meal in the evening, we made sure everything was tidy. Apart from grandparents, people didn’t just pop round. That was not the way we did things. I am not saying there is anything wrong with that, inviting people over for a meal, a scheduled time. ’I d just like to challenge us to also embrace hospitality when our homes are untidy, when we haven’t planned for someone to come over, when all we have to offer is a cup of tea. Anika Gardiner 3 Vicki MacRae It is sad to have to say good-bye to Vicki after more than seven years of devoted work in the Parish Office. Vicki has always been knowledgeable, hard working and helpful in her post as well as raising a lot of laughs. As a volunteer in the office I was always grateful for her kindness to the bumbling amateur. As much of her work has been involved in looking after the buildings and their contents she has not always been in the public eye, working steadily to maintain the site, as well as building up a large network of friends and contacts who smooth the process. However, her presence in the Parish Office has inevitably meant that she has also played her part in keeping the myriad tasks of running the parish under control. We wish her well in her new post at Julian House where she will be helping to keep the supported living accommodation in good order. The good news is that we are not losing her altogether, she will still be part of the St. John’s family and we look forward to seeing her in church. Kath McCarthy Notable Days in June 12 June: HM The Queen’s Official Birthday 20 June: Father’s Day Environment Days in June By good fortune, June also has some special days linked with an environment theme and, of course, summer officially begins on 21 June. There is a lot of material available online for the special days, such as: 30 May - 5 June: Bike Week - cyclinguk.org/bikeweek (there are alternative dates online - some sites list Bike Week as 5-13 June) 5 June: World Environment Day - worldenvironmentday.global 8 June: World Oceans - oceanic.global/projects/united-nations-world-oceans- day-2021 21 June: World Giraffe Day- giraffeconservation.org/world-giraffe-day/ (held appropriately on the ‘longest’ day of the year!) 4 Believe Together on KTCRfm Have you listened to it yet? … the Churches Together in Keynsham and Saltford radio programme broadcast every week on Wednesday at 4 pm and repeated on Sunday at 8 am on KTCRfm 105.8? This is a magazine type programme with information about what is going on in all the churches in the area, a great variety of music to suit all tastes from the well-known hymns to the latest modern Christian songs of all genres. There are interviews with special guests, poems, and a just-for-fun quiz, and we incorporate the epilogue from the Keynsham Talking Newspaper and end with a blessing.