So, where do we go from here

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Good morning everyone (or good afternoon or good evening, depending one when you come to this).
As with many of my fellow clergy I have been struggling over the past few days to work out how best to continue “Being Church” during this time of social distancing and isolation caused by the Covid19 Pandemic.
Some have looked at how they can physically serve their communities, be marshalling their congregations to look after those that they are connected with. By phone calls, calling round but maintaining distance, doing shopping for people, they have done their best to ensure that people are okay.
Some have arranged for virtual church to happen through platforms such as Zoom, Facebook and Skype or shared their denomination’ online worship.
For myself in my community building in St Clears, given that it was still very much in the early days, I do not have the churches or connections to work in the same way.
So I have been thinking…..and thinking……and then eventually, and definitely later than I should, I turned to prayer!
After some prayer and reflection I think that I have a way forward now which will hopefully form a foundation for my ministry in the future as well.
So sisters and brothers, here is the plan:

1) Every day (weather, family commitments and government guidelines permitting) I will do morning prayer in St Clears in the town, stood by the “Rebecca Riots” sculpture. To begin with I will be using the Methodist Daily prayer but I hope to post a bilingual prayer for people to download and share to join me in the daily prayer. I will also have my prayer box set up near me if you want to call by and post a prayer request which you have written at home.

2) As you will now have seen, I have resurrected my blog, with the intention of sharing sermons and reflections and prayers. The blog will be linked to the Facebook Page of The Church Without Walls, Yr Eglwys heb muriau.

3) I have reactivated my podcast. So, in addition to the old podcasts I will as often as possible be posting a sermon or reflection each week, the text of which will be recorded in the blog so that those who prefer to read instead of listen can still access the material.

4) I want to make myself available as a mental-health first-aider for people to email, message or video chat with as they might need to during this difficult time.

In all of this I will NOT be focusing on the virus or the pandemic. I think we all know that we are isolated and that this is a struggle as we come to terms with this new normal and that there is plenty of other places for this kind of information from people far more informed than me.
I intend to do what I can do and I hope that it will be of help to some of you.

And just so you know, anything that I put on the blog, in the podcast or on the Facebook page that is created by me, is available for any and all of you to share just tell people were you got it.

God bless everyone.
Deacon Jon

and the podcast is The Digital Deacon Podcast and can be found on most podcast catchers including itunes which I have linked here
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/digital-deacon-podcast/id1418185709

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