During lockdown we keep in touch with regular emails including a reflection from either Fr Murray or Ann. The reflections are available here. If you’d like to be added to the circulation list please let Ann know.
A recorded service is made available for every Sunday while in person worship is suspended and can be accessed from a link on our main page. Previous services are available here.
New for Lent 2021
From Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, the Church of England offer Daily Reflections under the title #Live Lent: God’s Story Our Story. These can be accessed by downloading an app, listening on smart speakers, ordering a booklet or signing up for a daily email.
Chester Diocese are also providing daily reflections on their website with an introductory video from the Archdeacon of Macclesfield on the theme of God’s word and God’s world. These can be downloaded as pdfs as well as being available on social media.
Resources from the Church of England
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York together with other senior church leaders were encouraging Christians to pray each day at 6pm for a specific area of national concern for the duration of the month of November. Resources are still available here.
The Church of England has a range of resources including special prayers for this time of emergency which can be downloaded and printed as a booklet. The Daily Hope phone line offers music, prayers, reflections and full worship services 24 hours a day on the freephone number 0800 804 8044. Many churches are continuing to live stream services on Facebook and YouTube and their details can be found on the the website A Church Near You.
Chester Cathedral is among those uploading services onto YouTube and they are also posting service sheets on their website to enable participation. Chester Diocese continues to post regular video reflections on its main page such as this video from Archdeacon Ian.
Daily Prayer
The Church of England publishes a Prayer for the Day both as audio and text on its website as well as on several social media platforms. It also offers a Daily Prayer service three times a day either on their website or as an app Time to Pray is a similar app which offers an Order for Prayer During The Day as well as an order for Night Prayer.
Many Church of England resources can be accessed through smart speakers such as Alexa or Google home by asking ‘Alexa open The Church of England’ or ‘Hey Google, talk to the Church of England.’ As well as answering questions, the apps can be asked to read a range of prayers along with such things as the Apostle’s Creed and The Beatitudes.
Many people will have a copy of The Book of Common Prayer at home and the orders of Morning and Evening Prayer can be read aloud. The Psalter which is included in the Book of Common Prayer identifies a psalm or selection of psalms for each day of the month.
Radio and television
The BBC offer a Daily Service on Radio 4 Long Wave every day at 9.45am as well as Sunday Worship at 8.10am on Sunday mornings on Radio 4. There is Choral Evensong on Radio 3 every Wednesday at 3.30pm which is repeated on Sundays at 3.00pm. In addition Songs of Praise is televised on BBC1 at 1.15pm on Sunday. Programmes are also available on BBC iPlayer or the BBC Sounds app.
Bible Study
There are many Bible Study resources available as apps or on the web. The ones which we have mainly been using for our Exploring the Word of God sessions can be found on the following websites:
Musical Resources
For those who enjoy singing The Royal School of Church Music is offering a Hymn for the Day as well as video-led Vocal Warm-ups. Hymnal.net is an excellent resource of both old and new hymns as is Hymnary.org. If you’re missing organ music a quick search on YouTube or Spotify will also come up with great range of musical offerings.
For families
Roots are offering free resources for the time of emergency as are Fischy Music. The Little Worship Company have free videos on their YouTube page and Messy Church have ideas for activities to use at home.
Keep in touch
During this time of social distancing we can still keep in touch with each other by telephone, email or text messaging. If you have more ideas you’d like to share or to talk about any of these suggestions please contact Ann Barlow.