Yearly Archives: 2020

This week we had the first Post Licensing Training evening meeting so sort out the programme. Bishop Hugh dropped in at the beginning and asked everyone to introduce themselves and to say what they do when not in church, Readers, after all, have their feet both in church and in the community. It set me thinking:

When I am doing stuff for school like governance – safeguarding and staff well being is that non church? I consider both tasks as being born out of Jesus command to love one another as he loves us and to love our neighbours as ourseleves.
When I am walking most days between three and four miles and greeting people with a cheery ‘good morning’ and often stopping for a short conversation am I doing something that is non-church?

I know perfectly well what +Hugh meant….. but its the way my brain works! Anyone I meet is my neighbour, part of God’s world and worthy a smile as much as any pew-dweller.

Canticle
Christ, as a light
illumine and guide me.
Christ, as a shield
overshadow me.
Christ under me;
Christ over me;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Be in the heart of each to whom I speak;
in the mouth of each who speaks unto me.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Christ as a light;
Christ as a shield;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right.

Chaplains Blog – Stardate 13.09.2020

Jim’s further adventures in ZOOMLAND as we head ever deeper into Corvidtide.

Having had weeks at home running reasonably successful ZOOM services we headed to St Andrews Redruth this week to attempt to combine the church and ZOOM services, for which everyone I spoke to (both in the Church building and behind the computer screen) was universally appreciative and supportive.

The best thing about the corvid-restricted season in the Redruth Team has been seeing the very best in people – Christians showing much love and compassion and desire to worship and to pray having a go at pretty much anything we have tried. Of course there are always the odd dissenters behind the scenes like the person who filled in a recent questionnaire with contradictory but entirely negative answers but thankfully I did not have to talk to them….. and anyway they would not be watching me or indeed read text on a computer so I am pretty safe.

Last week I spent some hours rehearsing, testing sockets and leads and was all set for the service even with some praise from the Amazing Malcolm, our octogenarian organist as he came into church to the sound of “Praise My Soul the King of Heaven” belting out of the church PA.

The set up was as follows:

Rector, Caspar’s phone as a ZOOM window pointing at the church congregation and
his laptop as another ZOOM window on the new lectern (which John Doble might actually have made for this very purpose from an old pew) in front of the nave altar ZOOMing the president, the gospel reading and the sermon.
My laptop was attached to the large projector and screen and running the PowerPoint and YouTube videos of hymns for folks both at home and in the pews. One of the home ZOOMers was to read the epistle!

It was going to be wonderful: we had tested everything, found out how to get rid of the weird echoes and howling feedback and finding the perfect volume settings for the congregation to hum to behind their face coverings.

It was only once the service began that things went wrong. My laptop refused quite arbitrarily to reject any communication with the lead to the PA which meant that the hymn would only play through the tiny projector speaker, or the laptop speakers…… and we could not hear the reader at all. We had to resort to an emergency external speaker. Folks at home however did get a reasonable experience even if they did have to endure the sight of me overheating and getting short of breath, patience and ideas behind my dashingly attractive lighthouse pattern mask. I nearly threw the wretched thing across the church at one point. Thankfully, Caspar ‘forgot’ to record the first part of the service for which I am most grateful so most of my public consternation does not appear on YouTube.

We learned lessons and there was a much that was good. The home congregation loved being part of church and seeing folks come up for communion. They loved the personal welcome and the chat afterwards- especially when the Rector, the Church Warden and the Organist all took time to come and talk to them.

So mightily encouraged, we decided we would try the same thing for Bishop Hugh’s visit to St Euny Church this Sunday for Mining Sunday.

One Friday morning, a Rector a Curate and a Reader went into a church……… We discussed where to put the screen and the projector and how to tap into the P.A. for the sound and tested it all out. Phones and laptops were positioned, projectors angled and microphones tested. Brilliant!

The thought was that Caspar’s BT wireless hotspot hub thingumajig would host a couple of laptops in church and I would operate everything else from my study at home. So after an hour or so I went home to try out the links.

I got online.

I Zoomed

They Zoomed from St Euny

The gadgets all talked to each other

The video froze and unfroze, the sound spluttered and wobbled and the hotspot hub went on strike under the pressure of so much responsibility.

We discussed…… this time on a stuttering ZOOM connection. St Euny is down in a valley whereas St Andrews is high on a hill (this does not altogether accurately convey churchmanship) but probably goes some way to explaining the Wi-Fi issues. We could not be sure enough of the reliability of the kit to risk it. Our Zoom congregation have been so wonderful that we did not want to chance leaving them in a zoom limbo at some point in the service, nor did we want a less than reasonable sound in church so we decided that for this week the church service and the Zoom service would be two separate entities. Curate Graham and I will be ZOOming as normal and Caspar will video the church service for folks who want t catch up with it later. Or at least that is the plan…… J

Next week back to St Andrews; Sue has given me a visor so I can escape the mask. Aren’t God’s people wonderful and worth making the effort for!

The comfort of my study desk and a fibre optic broadband……. much easier than actually being in church with just the laptop…… but!!

The Blog will appear here….. in the meantime listen to these chaps on the stairs!

I had a look at the website offered here and there appears to be a lot of good stuff……

Dear Mr. Seth,

I invite you to visit our website, New Pilgrim Path: www.newpilgrimpath.ie and, if you find it useful, to bring it to the attention of your parishioners.

The Internet offers immense possibilities for encounter and solidarity. “New Pilgrim Path” is a website aimed at sharing with fellow travellers of all Christian denominations the wealth of online spiritual resources we have discovered and continue to discover.

The website features daily prayer, online retreats, reflections, sacred music, poetry, religious broadcasts, and much more. The site was launched in Advent 2016.

Each week, we feature a ‘Website of the Week’. We send a description of the featured site several days beforehand, so that parishes have time to feature it in their newsletter for the following weekend.

If you would like to receive this weekly email, please click here: Contact us. If we do not hear from you, you will receive no further unsolicited emails.

Helen Gallivan

Dear All

the weeks just get busier!!

Bob’s hymn of the week just landed in my inbox and was one of those happy ‘coincidences’ because I have been singing it all week especially whilst constructing my sermon for Sunday Zoom worship this week. Definitely my favourite hymn…. especially when I am marching along in my heavy walking boots through the mine stacks which makes me think of the miners all those years ago trudging their way to work and singing communally to keep their spirits up in tough times.

If you get a chance please do listen to “The Patch” which this week featured Camborne. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000m0nt

it is a fantastic bit of radio journalism and confirmed much of what I have been saying for years! But….. what is our response?

I had widely contrasting contacts from Readers this week the first requiring help that YOU might be able to provide and while others needed a more personal response. Does anyone have any good ideas and knowledge about raising funds online? If this is an area of expertise please let me know and I will put you in touch with the enquirer!

Some readers are having a tough time getting onto to Rotas to do anything in their parishes and it is usually to do with communication. I will do another piece on this but I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

That’s enough for this week…. we have socially distanced lunch guests in the garden.

Blessings

Jim

Stop Press: Some of Martin’s thoughts on The use of Readers…

Compared with many Readers in the diocese, I have had no trouble whatsoever in getting on the rota to preach and lead worship. However, my experience and thoughts about this might be relevant to your general enquiry. I have drawn distinctions between pre- and post-Covid, because this has led to some marked changes in how the parish allocates its resources.

Before the Covid-19 outbreak, the Parish of St Illogan held a meeting every six months, in which the main purpose was to discuss a draft rota for leading, preaching and other main responsibilities at the three churches in the parish……..

Almost always the meeting went without controversy; and I think this points towards several things that could well be of benefit to “some readers who need some help”; though I know that not all parishes have the characteristics that make St Illogan run reasonably smoothly. (I’ll come back to those characteristics.)

Pre-Covid I had been asked how often I wished to be employed in preaching or teaching; and the rota almost always expressed my response — once or twice a month.

Since Covid-19, things have changed. A new rota was drawn up by the administrator and Rector……

I have never been busier. Very often, my wife is involved when I am, because she is a Worship Leader. Since services resumed on 12th July, I have had something on the rota at least once a week, and sometimes twice — on one occasion (at short notice) three times. This can be in any one of the following forms:
a) Leading or preaching — or both — at one of the three live services in the parish. (Morning services are held at all three churches on Sundays.)

On one occasion this involved me, at very short notice, doing both leading and preaching at Portreath, and thereafter at Trevenson, having also led the pre-recorded service. (Some of these could be repeated; but not all.)
b) Leading or preaching for the pre-recorded Morning Prayer services that are broadcast each Sunday from 1030am. That involves me (us) recording whatever and sending the file via Google Drive to the curate, who does the editing.

What makes all this run smoothly? I raise this because it seems to me that many of the difficulties that Readers in other parishes have encountered, have arisen because of failures in one or more of these areas. I would especially highlight the importance of No. 1:
1) All the people involved in ministry — Clergy, Readers and Worship Leaders, meet at least once a month for prayer and discussion. The Rector encourages us all to be open about how things are going, be they personally or within the churches for which we are responsible. This is an essential companion to the long-term planning of events.
2) Among all the clergy and most of the Readers, perspectives on theology, authority and worship are sufficiently congruous for things to work smoothly in general.
3) There is plenty of forward planning about services, liturgies, and so forth.

When things have settled down, I shall probably write something about all this in a public forum.

Thanks Jim. That was a valuable question to ask.

Cheers,
Martin

This year there will be two services.

The first is in the Cathedral on October 3rd for the Candidates to be licensed and a limited number of guests. This will be a relatively short service without communion based on the wording of the usual service. I am hopeful that this could be recorded, even if it cannot be streamed live so that it could be watched on YouTube later in the day. Bishop Hugh will be presiding and preaching.

On the 10th of October the service, with music (if we can get permission for the videos) when candidates who could not attend the cathedral service will be licensed, those moving to the diocese given their licenses, milestones recognised and so on. The warden’s committee decided that Holy Communion would not be part of this service either.

The candidates have been asked for their choices for hymns and we will endeavour to fit them in. Reader, Liz Lane will be preaching and the service led by Bishop Hugh.

I have been working at a PowerPoint for ZOOM and a booklet for the Cathedral which I hope will be helpful in discussions to get the services as good as they can be 🙂

I can’t make the ministry team meeting on Tuesday morning – Lez’s birthday taking precedence and we are going to Trebah Gardens for a walk and an ice cream and possibly lunch in the garden!

I don’t like missing staff meetings mainly because I actually feel lucky to have them when I listen to how many Readers are not consulted or part of ministry teams. The nice thing was that Peter and I were consulted anyway about the next steps in what Redruth offers in the way of services in church and online after this month.

I am on record as stating that I won’t be going back to church to sit in a pew with a mask on- especially if there is no singing but it is not out of fear or being afraid. Part of it is because if I have to wear a mask I shall be thinking much more about the discomfort and the strangeness of it rather than feeling ‘spiritual’ whereas the alternative ZOOM offering, though far from perfect, is physically comfortable and many of them have been really moving and helpful.

Suggesting that people might be afraid to return to church might also have the unintended affect of making some people who are just being sensible, or staying away because they are working with folks who might be affected go back to church because they don’t want to be thought of as being fearful.

So let’s all stop talking about being fearful and afraid and instead lets talk about common sense, best practice and care for each other.

In the meantime although Sunday services, said, masked and distanced will be happening around the Redruth churches but our ZOOM communion will continue and like a separate congregation- or even a separate church will be on the ministry team rota.

Last Monday morning Roy and I were chatting about where we watched services and he had really wanted to watch the one Revd Canon Alan Bashforth had led from the Cathedral the day before. He set me the challenge of trying to find it.

Now I am quite search engine savvy and like a challenge so I Googled and Binged, I quizzed YouTube and scoured the Diocesan Website and the Cathedral Website and….. I failed! I FAILED to find the online Sunday service.

Roy had managed to find it eventually so it did exist- it was no figment of the imagination. We think the problem was that it was not labelled or tagged with words that were likely to be used to find it.

Those of us who publish online (and I include myself in this- I am not picking on anyone!) really need to get a grasp of these relatively simple things and keep what we do updated. It was easy to watch the Easter Service. read about the Boyton Flower festival and watch a steeple jack climbing the cathedral but for the ordinary person wanting the comfort of the Sunday service from the cathedral it was nigh on impossible – they would have given up. Even the “Find a service online” on the Diocesan website did not give the link… nor incidentally to the myriad of ZOOM services from Redruth but that’s a different matter.

My other slight gripe….. is that the Diocesan YouTube page brought up 5 videos initially. One was the Easter service, one was Bishop Hugh’s sermon and no less than three were webinar things about giving.

I wonder what image we want to portray online to the casual seeker?

I am the Schools and Families Lead at TM Falmouth and recently have been looking at Godly Play training. I would love to be able to offer it across the diocese, including all the TM churches. I have recently heard that it might be possible to put on the 3 day training here in Truro diocese in January or February 2021. In case you are not familiar with it, here is a link: https://www.godlyplay.uk/ I think this style of Bible story telling is appropriate in many settings, including schools, churches and toddler groups.

The trainers have never delivered a course in this diocese before, so it would be great to be the first!!
The normal cost for a 3 day course is £320 per person, which I recognise is far too much for the average children and families leader in church. So I am doing my best to reduce the costs. I am hoping to get the price down to £150 per person. This is where I am up to so far:
• I will apply for a Funds For Mission grant from the diocese to reduce the cost per person
• TM Falmouth will also give some money to reduce costs
• We will put up the 2 trainers here, so their board and lodging are free
• Jane Horton is looking into the possibility of using Epiphany House, Truro, for the 3 day training
• We will advertise across the diocese to get as many people as possible (minimum 12 to make it viable).

Please let me know if you are interested, in the first instance, and also if you know anybody else who would like to do this. We need a minimum of 12 people, so do ask around any of your contacts.

Jane Wheeler

jane.wheeler@newstreetchurch.org

Schools and Families Lead
07866 665915
www.newstreetchurch.org
Killigrew Street | Falmouth | TR11 3PY

Above looking East towards Redruth and Below: looking South towards Carn Brea from the same vantage point.

The Wardens Group

This group / committee is a combination o several defunct committees, the readers steering group, the Readers in Training Management committee and probably some others!

Who is on it?

The warden Bishop Hugh
The Deputy Warden Rev Canon Paul Arthur
The Director of Reader Training: Rev Canon Jane Kneebone
Director of Post Licensing training- Martin Adams
The Secretary to Readers- Carrie Tucker
the chaplain – me
the chaplain to Readers in training: Margaret Sylvester-Torne
Reader Lydia Remick who is the Local Worship Leader coordinator.

The membership is fluid and not set in stone so that expertise can be drawn in as necessary.

What does it do? Examples…….

Support the Warden and deputy!
Compile the agenda for the main Readers Committee
Discuss the annual survey
Consider reader problems and pastoral matters (where appropriate)
Advise and suggest on the Annual Service
Organise the annual Reader Day
advise, suggest and help organise training in various ways.

A small sub group is meeting soon Tuesday afternoon to put togather ideas for the Reader Service which WILL be on ZOOM this year and the licensing service(S) one in the Cathedral and one remote.

The picture is of the railway line heading towards Redruth and the East- well everywhere that is the opposite direction to Camborne to Penzance! My brother asked me if we had plans to go anywhere to which the answer was in the negative. We like Stratford the the Royal Shakespeare theatre but that is not on the cards during the pandemic and as for going to Iona, which I quite fancy, that would mean countless service stations, bed and breakfasts etc and Lez wont fly. So I am happily staying at home and roaming out on mostly solitary walks for a couple of hours each morning. That gives me the rest of the day to fill. The empty tacks and pathway seem to hold the promise of journeying eventually though!

Now if I had thought that Corvid-tide would be a period of rest and reflection I was wrong, though I have managed to tidy my shed. Mostly things have found me.

The past week has not been untypical

leading morning prayer via Zoom a couple of times,
doing the technical background work for the Zoom Sunday communion service,
hosting the Monday Morning Readers conversations on Zoom
A socially distanced walk with grandchildren AND
The Wardens Committee which will get a report of its own.

The other notable thing this week was an invitation from Naomi Kennedy from BBC Radio Cornwall to submit three ‘Motivational Talks’ for broadcast Tuesday to Thursday at some point in the future. Naomi has also asked if I will do a live interview on Sunday 23rd about ” .. how lay readers are feeling about the church being the way church has to be at the moment, how you’ve been supporting them and if you’re desperate to crack on with services the way they used to be etc?”

Now that is a BIG topic, one which the Monday morning group will surely get its collective teeth into but having been interviewed on Radio Cornwall before I know the time will be incredibly short so it is likely to be sound bite answers….. so thoughts please…… how do I represent what you think and are you getting the support you need?

I will post the three talks and the sound files after broadcast 🙂

Here is what I had to do and a link to some examples….

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0875dsr/clips (look out for the ones titled Motivational Message)

“BBC Radio Cornwall’s Motivational Message is a bit like a short thought for the day. It’s a moment for people to pause and reflect, to be encouraged and uplifted.
All you need to do is choose a phrase that you are familiar with, that you may not even realise you live by, which makes you feel motivated. Give three separate reasons why you like it…these will go out on air on a Tues, Wed and Thurs. Each reason, with a greeting and the phrase, needs to last for about a minute. Please avoid direct quotes from movies/books/ songs but apart from that the world’s your oyster! Do take a look at the sample script attached as a guide.”

The picture is of cobwebs on the ancient trellis and our damson tree. The damsons are suffering somewhat with the weather but that has not prevented Lez making some damson gin and donating bags full to grateful neighbours and our children!

It is wonderful that when the fog and mist roll in there are beautiful cobwebs to enjoy and a whole other view! I really feel sorry for folks who don’t like spiders- they are such artists!

PRAYER LIST

thank you to the few people who wrote in to update the prayer list – I really am most grateful for the information.

and……

THANK YOU to the couple of folks who said ….. thanks for the blog- some of it is really interesting 🙂

Do let me know your thoughts if you read this far!! It helps even if its not a critique but the equivalent of “nice sermon!”

Reader Alan Coode sent this clip to the rather excellent Saturday Natterday newsletter from Paul arthur for his Churches.

It’s rather apt…. and funny!

I am sure there is much I have forgotten that I meant to put here and even important names I have left out but I am beginning to suffer computer snooze syndrome and need to get out the email before I zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzgkrreaklnknl;2n3l’kn”””””””””nzzzzxxxxxxx

Pictured here is my Grandson Patrick with a couple of his toys modelling the masks made by Lez. I will not be attending church while the pandemic continues with or without a mask- I just don’t see the point in unnecessary risk – for me or more importantly for those more vulnerable for whom technology is a mystery and cannot join in with the online prayer community.

Corvid-tide, now into week twenty has provided a good deal of time for reflection and I think many ministers, both lay and ordained have been taking stock and wondering, ‘What next?’

Certainly, I have not missed my role as school governor for example but I have much missed my monthly service leading with the Methodist Churches in Camborne Redruth and Hayle.

Other Readers have hung up their robes and retired, not sought to renew their licenses or taken a step back for one reason or another.

Please keep them all in your prayers:

Molly Brown (Illogan Parish) has retired from ministry to look after husband Steve who was also a reader. Steve has been struggling with vascular dementia and a host of other problems for some time.

Roy Holmes has stepped back to care for his wife Chris. and nurse her though her worsening dementia.

Tess Dean has hung up her scarf after 14 years in ministry.

Angela Hooper from Illogan (Trevenson) who served for a long time as Deanery Reader Steward in Carnmarth North has retired.

Gloria Street – who really helped cement women’s participation in Lay Ministry in the Diocese, serving as Warden to Readers and Vice Chair of the National Central Readers Council has finally retired. Rev Canon Jane Kneebone, the director of Reader Training always says that hearing Gloria preach was what prompted her to become a lay Reader.

Nina Batley from St Keverne has resigned to head out on a diferent spiritual path .

Margaret DuPlessey has not renewed her license and is taking a prolonged sabbatical.

In the Redruth Team we are about to send out a questionnaire about how we proceed with services during the rest of Covid-tide in the coming months. Each week a communion service has been streamed live on ZOOM and relayed through Facebook and later placed on YouTube for folks who would like to see it later.

Each weekday there has been a service of Morning Prayer led by a different member of the ministry team at 9am which have been on ZOOM only but has featured a wide variety of liturgy from Common Worship to Celtic services.

Since the rule changes, there have been simple weekday communion services throughout the benefice on weekdays but we are now wondering how best to proceed; hence the questionnaire.

Reading the suggested music question really got me thinking, especially after Monday Morning’s Coffee with the Chaplain / Solomon’s Portico discussion with Licensed Lay Ministers- again using ZOOM. Music in church turns out to be a complex business with wide opinions and high stakes if one gets it wrong. Here are a few of my own thoughts which are not necessarily representative of the ministry team, nor of all the Monday Morning group.

Music for Worship should be:

Tunes that are well known or predictable enough to pick up and learn
Avoiding unnecessary key changes, instrumental breaks or frilly background wailing.
Have some link in the lyrics to the theme of the service as a minimum!
In a key that is sing-able by the average congregation member.
Avoid multiple repetitions especially of choruses because watchers can get lost (not to mention the person trying to scroll though the PowerPoint slides) which will put people off joining in.

In zoom services singing along with “Songs of Praise” type videos from YouTube is the most successful because they have words to follow and a good general set of voices to sing along with. The wonderful St Martin’s in the Field choristers who produced a set of hymns to sing with and made available on the C of E website are pitched too high for untrained voices and can be a struggle for us mortals.

Of course it is lovely to have wonderful songs to listen to and inspire as well – but if we are preparing music for online worship (quite apart from copyright issues) we need to be aware that people are watching and listening to it on a wide variety of equipment which will vary vastly in quality. The wonderful song we think we are playing might be a tinny-sounding mess on some old laptop speakers or a phone.

So what of worship songs? I don’t dislike all worship songs – there are some great ones, some even follow my golden rules but like all music there is good and bad. There are traditional hymns I hate singing, either because I find the lyrics make no sense at all or because I dislike the tune. The trouble is I meet people who love the things I loathe. “The pastures of the blessed are decked in glorious sheen” is one example of a lyric that puzzles each time!

I might well expand more on this next week…… but for now I need to reign in the vast array of funny stories and great wit. Well….. perhaps one story about inappropriate church music. At one service I was administering the chalice- when the organist stuck up “Edelweiss” – it was hard to keep a reverential expression and not to sing “Blood of Christ” along with the strident waltz.

Do share your thoughts and stories with me and I will share the best ones! In the meantime…… cartoons / memes on the subject.

Every morning from about 8:40 the faithful gather for Morning Prayer in the Redruth Team from Monday to Saturday. The link is in the email if you want to drop in and join us.

Every day is different with a different member of the team leading and often with a completely different liturgy. It might be Common worship but we have also used materials from Lindisfarne, Iona, the Methodists and various books we have in our collective libraries. Today we had a liturgy for Lamas Day from Celtic Worship and as each person signed in they were assigned a reader number to join in.

The group is rarely less than nine and never more than a screenful but it has been an anchor point for each day and a great joy- mainly because by 9am and the start of the service everyone is smiling or laughing together and I am quite sure that God is laughing with us.

Last week the pre MP conversation was around our first jobs (we prayed for folks in the first jobs 0or seeking them later) and Mary told us all about her first job as clerical staff in a bone yard, Sue told us about her job working for her father in the butcher’s shop and my tales were of sitting with a group of women for a week in a box factory where I had to look at boxes full of boxes checking for printing errors while listening to tales of the menopause or anything else they thought might make a 16 year old lad uncomfortable. These shared memories and conversations are as important as the service itself in many ways and makes the effort to conquer the technical problems and operation of zoom worthwhile.

Reader colleagues- don’t assume your older congregation members will not use technology – some will and will spread the word- give it a go especially if your opportunities for ministry are a bit thin on the ground at the moment.

Jim

Find the relevance of the picture of my grandson Patrick in Fr Peter Fellowes’ Newsletter here…. https://redruthchurch.org.uk/fr-peter-together-newsletter-2nd-august/