Dear Friends,

Thank you for all the various messages and phone calls about the online services. I'm sorry not to have been able to reply to everyone personally - we have been really overwhelmed by how many people have contacted us, including people from around the circuit, and more distant friends elsewhere in the country! We are really pleased to be able to offer these services. If you've not managed to access them yet and would like to, Facebook are now making it easier to find live videos - just click this link to find all our past and upcoming videos in one place. Paul is also posting them on YouTube soon after the service has finished. You can find them on the Toast Church 'channel' here
We are planning to make our online services a little more participatory - please see below for further details of upcoming services.

Pastoral News

Some sad news which I didn't want to share until family had had chance to tell those who needed to know first - David Sharples died in hospital on Friday.

Obviously funerals are very restricted at the moment and can only be attended by small numbers of immediate family, but I know that some have been asking when they are so that they can pray at that particular time. Here they are:

Stanley Harrison 2pm Tuesday 7th April
Annie Mason 3.30pm Wednesday 8th April
David Sharples 2pm Thursday 16th April

I am sure all the families will appreciate your prayers. There will be opportunities for Thanksgiving services in the future to give all the opportunity to share in remembering and celebrating the lives of these wonderful friends.

Upcoming services

We will be here again this Sunday morning at 10.30 as usual, to celebrate Palm Sunday.
On Maundy Thursday (9th) we'll have a service at 7pm, and then on Good Friday (10th) two shorter gatherings at 12 noon and 3pm (join in with either or both)
Our Easter Day celebration will be at 10.30am

For a bit more participation, if you have an electronic device that can record video (smartphone, tablet etc) you might like to join in with the following, which will feature in our Sunday services:
This week we're looking for as many people as possible to record a short video clip of themselves saying/shouting these words:

Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna to the Son of David!
[Pause]
Who is this?
[Pause]
This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.

You can video this either as individuals or as a household group.
And an advance notice for Easter Day - we'd like to compile some short videos of 'signs of hope'. This could be something in your house or garden, or on your daily exercise if you're going out. Anything that you would consider a sign of hope (some daffodils blowing in the breeze, or some lambs in the fields perhaps. I'm sure you will have other ideas!) Just video a few seconds - we will only use perhaps 3 or 4 seconds at most, but we can edit as necessary if you send us something a bit longer.

For either of these, please click here to send your video by e-mail. Please send it by the end of Friday this week for Palm Sunday reading, or by the end of next Friday for the signs of hope. Please also include in your e-mail a few words to give consent for your video to be shared online on Facebook and YouTube, remembering that it will be publicly available on the internet for an indefinite period after the service.
If you have a mobile phone with a camera, you should be able to use that to record your video. If you would like to take part in this but you're not sure how to record and send a video, please feel free to send an e-mail requesting technical support. We'd love to include as many people as possible.

Take care, keep safe, and let us know if you need any support.
God bless,

Jo