Personally - Locally - Globally - St Michaels Verwood

Personally – Locally - Globally

                Stitching a new garment
Thought for     With lockdown extended for another month and all of us facing a long period of recovery, many are
the Month –     wondering when and if things will return to 'normal'.
May 2020        Licensed Lay Minister and former mental health nurse Chris Cox has been reflecting on what normal
                might be post virus:
                "When I worked as a mental health nurse I'd often get asked the same question, it was phrased differently
                by different people but essentially it was something like... 'when will I get back to the way I was before?'
                "I knew what they meant of course but, with sensitivity, and in a way that emphasised the positive nature
                of the change, I felt it was important to explain that going back to the way they were was simply not
                possible.
                "Their experience will have changed them, they will have learned, grown, and inevitably moved from
                where they were. It would not be possible for them to simply go back as if nothing had happened.

Personally – Locally - Globally

"In a similar way, this experience of enforced confinement will inevitably change us and
there is no going back to what we were before. We must reflect on what we've learned,
explore how we can live differently, and reprioritise what we do. The following reflection
by Sonya Renee Taylor says it wonderfully.
"'We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not
normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction,
disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate and lack. We should not long to return,
my friends. We are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment. One that fits all
of humanity and nature.'
"When eventually this crisis passes, and we are tempted to 'get back to normal' as
quickly as possible, it will be time to stop and reflect on what was so unhealthy about
our 'pre-corona existence'.
"It will be time for us to 'stitch together a new garment', one that envelops us in a more
thoughtful, compassionate, nurturing way of being, a way of being based on love for
each other, our communities and for all of creation."
© 2020 Diocese of Salisbury. ‘Grapevine’

May Virtual Services

        3rd May                                      Fourth Sunday of Easter

       10th May                                        Christian Aid Sunday

                                                    The Ven Antony Macrow-
       17th   May              From 9am
                                                             Wood

       24th May                                     Seventh Sunday of Easter

       31st May                                               Pentecost

As we cannot meet together for now, we will be putting together virtual services
consisting of recorded sermons, prayers and music to help us feel connected and ‘one
body’.
The services will be available from 9am each Sunday on our website
https://www.st-michael.org.uk/our-virtual-church/virtual-services/

Church
Contacts
   Personally – Locally - Globally
Rev, Deborah Matthews          01202 823707
stmichaelsverwood@gmail.com
            (day off Friday)
The Parish Office              01202 813256
Sue Shier (Communications!)    07585 900810
suejshier@me.com

Verwood Coronavirus Community Support Group
2020
offer the following:

Medical Advice & Support       07903 728547

                               07903 728550

Shopping Collection            07903 728552

                               07903 728556

                               07903 728557

                               07903 728558

Prescription Collection        07930 219010

Ways to stay connected

Deborah, Ellen and our Lay Pastoral Assistants are working hard to keep in touch with our church
family by telephone and email.

Our website https://www.st-michael.org.uk
Is regularly updated with virtual services, prayers and reflections.

We have two Facebook pages – St Michael’s church, Verwood – a Public one where we can reach
out to our community and
St Michael’s Verwood Congregation where we can share amongst each other.

We have a YouTube channel – St Michael’s, Verwood –which has music videos, sermons and
prayers.

St. Michael’s youth are keeping in touch using FaceTime, Zoom video etc.

Some of our Home Groups are Zoom meeting online and sharing fellowship.

                    Please spread the message –
      no-one should feel isolated during this period of isolation

Radio Broadcast by Deborah
   Every Sunday just after 10am
Available on our website after 11am

A new initiative from the    Are you in need of some daily
Church of England             hope during this lockdown?
                            We have a new FREE telephone
                              line for you to ring to hear
                            comforting hymns, daily prayers

Christian Aid Week is NOT cancelled!
This year’s Christian Aid Week will undoubtedly be a different experience,
but we know supporters like you will do all you can to make it the same life-
changing and joyous week we’ve run since 1957. Sadly there can be no Big
Brunch or little red envelopes this year due to Coronavirus and the
restrictions.

However like many things Christian Aid Week has gone on line. Here in Verwood and 3X we
are contacting as many of our supporters as we can via E-mail, Church web sites and
Facebook, to encourage them to donate as usual. To ensure we can see track how much we
have raised towards our £2,500 target, we have set up a Just-giving page directly linked to
Christian Aid, so that as soon as you donate they receive the life changing funds they need.
Just go to the Just Giving site and search for Russell White and it is the first page that pops
up.

As this virus spreads across the world, love rises up in response. You’ve already shown
incredible kindness to your neighbours and likely have supported NHS fund raising. Now is
the time to reach out to your poorest neighbours that are threatened by Coronavirus far
worse than us.
Your love protects the poorest usually from storms, from drought, and now from
coronavirus. Your love protects our global neighbours battling the spread of this illness.
Your love protects. With soap, clean water and medical supplies.
By supporting Christian Aid Week, you can reach out and protect more of your neighbours
today. I know that times are tough and there is a great deal of local needs, but we must not
forget those that are desperately poor, they are still our neighbours too.
Thank you on behalf of Churches Together in Verwood
God Bless keep safe
Russell White
01202 826860

The Methodist Church & Cliff College
  announce their festival at home

This is the new NHS approved Corona Virus app and helps the researchers
learn more about how Covid-19 spreads.

Click on the link below or download the app on your phone…

            Corona-Help.UK
            Category: Covid
            Free
            Corona-Help.UK is a website based, anonymous chatbot. It
            asks you questions about your experience with coronavirus
            (COVID-19), including if you:
            •have any symptoms
            •are staying at home
            •are currently self-isolating

            The data can be downloaded by medical researchers and
            decision makers to help them understand how coronavirus
            might be spreading around the country and how to manage it.

Ringwood and Verwood FoodBank
URGENTLY NEEDED ITEMS
(May 2020)

SPONGE PUDDINGS
TINNED COLD MEAT
TINNED CARROTS
JARS CURRY AND NON TOMATO BASED SAUCE
TINNED RICE PUDDING
PACKET SOUP (NOT TINS)
TINNED CUSTARD
TINNED FRUIT
SQUASH

There are collection boxes in Morrisons & Co-op

(The foodbank is not able to use out of date
food or opened packets.)