Hi Everyone
I hope that life – school, work, study, along with everything else – is feeling in balance for you, despite the stresses of this pandemic season! We miss catching up with everyone, of course, but are continuing to pray for you – the words of the Ilam Benediction feel very appropriate for us all right now, so feel free to claim them for yourself today!
How was “Ilam in Groups” for you last Sunday? Feedback has been very positive, and a number of people commented that they really enjoyed not being at home by themselves for the service. Our goal is to ensure that no-one needs to be on their own on a Sunday morning. Please keep your feedback coming in if you’d like to comment. We are proposing to repeat it again this coming Sunday, this time without using a Zoom option. Kaaren is putting the service together, and our intention is that it should operate well within the group settings without Zoom interaction as well.
(There’s still no clear indication when Alert Level 2 might end – but I imagine we’re all looking forward to being able to gather again and have conversations about church and the way we operate.)
A quick update on a number of things from me:
- Pastoral care: as you will know from last week’s Newsletter, Helen is taking a sabbatical break – probably until the end of October. That doesn’t mean that pastoral (and other) care won’t be available over this time!! If anything crops up for you that you would like us to know about and for which a chat or prayer would be helpful, please contact me or Andrea in the first instance. We have a number of people willing to help us out in addition if needed.
- One of the outcomes we are hoping for from “Ilam in Groups” is that there may be opportunities to pray for each other arising from the groups. If there are specific prayer items to pass on to the prayer team, can you please email them to me or Andrea by Monday lunch-time, next day?
- You may have seen reference to a group meeting we had a couple of weeks back to look into possibly sponsoring a refugee family in 2021 under the government’s community sponsorship programme (which will be running separately, and in addition to, the regular quota system for refugees). There is a strong level of interest in Ilam exploring this, and we are hoping that out of the group of 18 or so Ilamites involved with the meetings, a smaller working party will emerge to spearhead the main bulk of the preliminary work. Once we are able to meet at the school again, we will arrange a fuller briefing on what is involved and where things are heading. It’s very much a project that could draw on the strengths and networks and contacts of most of us in the church. Watch this space!