Hi Church Family,
You will hopefully have seen the email from Dan informing you of our decision to cancel all meetings and gatherings in the light of Coronavirus situation. As we are sure you can imagine, this decision has not been made lightly. It is the result of discussion, prayer and consultation with others; it is in keeping with government advice and is what most churches are doing in Huddersfield and around the country. We see it as a responsible act of love for our neighbour apart from anything else.
As we are sure you have heard or read many times already, these are unprecedented days. Some of you may already feel unsettled and the thought of not being able to meet with family and friends makes it much harder. We want you to know that we will be working closely with the core leadership team, the trustees, the pastoral team and the operations team to ensure that the church family can stay as connected and cared for as possible. We will be using email, our website, Facebook and other social media to communicate with you all – and there is the phone! Watch out for more information in the next few days about how we can help each other stay connected with God and with our whole church family as we navigate this challenging stage of our journey.
It might seem a bitter irony that just as we are in a season of open gates, we are having to close our doors. But let’s remember that what the enemy means for harm God has a beautiful way of turning for good (Genesis 50:20). We have a sense that what appears at first to be a time of isolation and disconnection, God could turn to a way of actually encouraging closer connection and a greater sense of community; so let’s step up to that. Some of you are already reporting how you are making connections with people in your street! Open gates starts with open hearts. We can open our hearts to one another by keeping in touch and helping where we can. A phone call might make all the difference to some in our family right now. Let’s also reach out to the most vulnerable and easily overlooked in our communities. We’ll be gathering and sharing ideas about how we can do this over the next few days. But we’d encourage you to listen to the inspiring message from Ness Wilson, the Pioneer UK leader, in which she shares a vision for this among other things. You can find it here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mcLCeOhoK4&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1ZtJ2wDAoK4SAtRdyqS_EviXlhezD2ZIJddv69SDfajMNeylh805Va6zI
We’d also encourage you to take a look at what the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has said about his call to prayer and loving action this Sunday. You can read it here – https://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/news/latest-news/coronavirus-archbishops-call-national-day-prayer-and-action
We will be in touch again soon. Remember that we are an amazing
church family with strong bonds of love. Let this testing time bring out the
best in us. We will do this when we remember that God is faithful and we keep
ourselves rooted in him. He is our shelter and our refuge in times of trouble
(Psalm 59:16).
And there are open gates to his shelter! We have a unique opportunity to
show our faith through love in practical ways at this time. I love the
quote from A.W Tozer that Ness shared – ‘A scared world needs a fearless
church.’ Let’s be that church.
God bless you. Stay in touch!
Trevor and Alison Lloyd