From the Vicar's Desk - 22 January
Welcome to "From the Vicar's Desk" for 22 January 2021
Water into Wine
The Wedding at Cana, the first of Jesus' signs as recorded in John's gospel, is remembered most for the miracle that turned six stone jars of water, each containing 20 to 30 gallons of water, into the most exquisite, fine wine. At one level, that shows us that those who follow Jesus should not be shy of a good party and can feel encouraged to celebrate important family events. At a deeper level, this miracle turns the water of purification into the wine of celebration, thus turning upside down the expectations of how we approach the divine: not so much a process of making ourselves good enough, but an unfolding desire to join the celebration.
We're praying for you
Both individual church members and the congregation as a whole are always in our prayers. During this time of lockdown, however, we wanted to pray by name for everyone on our Electoral Roll. Today at Morning Prayer we started at A (by surname) and we will be working through a dozen or so a day between now and Lent, using your first names only to protect your privacy. If you'd like to join us in praying through our electoral roll you can find our weekly prayer list here and you can join us every day at 9.0am for Morning Prayer on SMR Live. If you ever have any specific prayer requests, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
Corinne Rees funeral
Corinne's funeral will be held in church on Tuesday 26 January at 1.30pm. As with all our recent funerals, only those who have been invited can come to church for the service. If you wish to join us for the service please go to this link https://vimeo.com/event/621321. And the order of service can be downloaded here.
Home Schooling for Parents
Our Outreach team is organising sessions to give some support to local parents about how to home school. The team would greatly appreciate donations of rulers, pencils, A4 card, Rigatoni pasta, string or cord and empty egg cartons of 10. If you can help, can you contact David Cousins. Thank you.
Could you foster children?
In the earlier lockdown, leaders of the faith communities across the city came together to seek foster parents. The plea has come again from Bristol City Council and Home for Good for foster parents for at least five sibling groups. If this sparks an interest in you please watch this video and contact Claire Walker from Home for Good.
Bristol Churches Winter Night Shelter
This year Bristol Churches Winter Night Shelter is running in a Bed and Breakfast property close to SMR Church. We have rooms for seven guests and are providing three meals a day for them. SMR has responsibility for providing food each Friday. Click here to make a donation to help pay for these meals as well as other essentials for the guests. Thank you.
Live Stream kit installation
Further work has been done this week but, at the time of writing, we're still not quite there yet!
Send on / Contact me
Please forward this email on those who might be interested in SMR and contact me here (rather than using reply please)
Finally ...
I'm on BBC Radio Bristol on Sunday morning just after 8.30am being interviewed by Lucy Tegg about church life in the third lockdown.
With my best wishes
Dan
Canon D F Tyndall
Vicar, St Mary Redcliffe
Looking ahead
Sunday Services:
9.00am : Morning Prayer : Live Stream here : Words here
10.00am : Holy Communion : Live Stream here : Words here
We Are Bristol phone line is available for people who need support during lockdown: 0800 694 0184 (Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5pm)
