Christian Coffee House - Prayer/Chat thread. No rubbish church coffee allowed.

[Madhairday]

With the latest prayer thread coming to an end, we thought we would create a new thread for prayer and general chat too - we had chat threads running for years alongside prayer threads, and we thought it would be great to combine them. I try and collate some of the prayer requests from the last thread in the next few days. In the meantime, dive in! Lurkers/newbies - you are welcome to post. Feel free to start any chat subject about Christianity, church, worship etc, and do share any prayer needs.
Would love to hear from those who were on previous threads and haven't been around for a while, too. Come and let us know how you are.

ou are very welcome Gruffalo. What part of the online service has struck you most?

Thank you very much I’ve really enjoyed the anchoring part of the week that’s been tuning in, our local church has done a great job of live streaming services from the building. For so many years I’ve kind of just kept my own faith but it’s been really lovely feeling more a part of it in an organised way - I think it’s the hymns and the prayers for others / the world that have struck me most. I love hymns so very much (maybe unusual for a Quaker attender, I know, but that’s one of the things that keeps me drawn to church too!) and being able to pray with others for the world in such an unsettling time has been wonderful.

@NoGruffaloShould I know exactly what you mean, in that I too am able to attend church a whole lot more now it's online! Blessings in the midst of the world's suffering.

I was also blessed this evening by a Zoom chat organised by our Children's and Families Minister, a chance for parents (all mums!) to just discuss how they're doing, how their children are finding faith in lockdown, how the church can support etc. We all agreed we're finding it hard! We were able to pray for each other. It's also prompted me to arrange to go for walks with a couple of mums who have issues I think I can offer advice with.

Welcome @NoGruffaloShould, it's great to have you on board and great that you've been finding online services helpful in this difficult time. They really are an anchor to the week aren't they, I do look forward to ours :) do ask faith questions here if you like - this is the place

@StrawberryJam200 that's really good about the parents zoom chat, we're doing stuff like that too, just trying to keep in touch and remember everyone in this time. It's our elderly people who don't access online stuff who are really struggling and sad, we are calling them a lot and people have begun visiting their gardens but I know they still feel so cut off :(

What will your churches be doing re meeting physically again? We're still waiting for diocesan guidelines but looks like we'll be meeting in some form soonish, not singing though which everyone will find hard. We plan to continue online services as well in the format they are now as they are friendly and accessible and do include sung worship too so hopefully be able to reach more groups through both. Can't wait til we're back together as normal but it could be a long time :(

As our Rector and his wife are expecting their second child opening our church which is very old will not be happening for a little while even after the diocese will allow it. There is just no hope of keeping the place clean to the standards required and ‘being’ the church is more important than being ‘in’ the church.
It was our patronal festival today and the choir did a beautiful Stanford anthem, sadly slightly out of my reach, but enjoyable anyway.

Please pray for our rector and his wife, their ds who is 2 and an eager ‘altar boy’, also for their unborn child.

Good morning.

Welcome to @NoGruffaloShould. I am glad lock down has been a boost to your faith. Quaker meetings sound very spiritual. I am rather stuck in my Catholic ways but I agree with a lot of Quaker writing (or they agree with other faiths, something like that!). Is it a CofE church you attend in lockdown?

I like that I have been able to 'go' to more daily masses. Even better live streaming mass is here to stay and people who would never have done so usually have got to grips with the technology. A real positive from an awful situation.

I was surprised to see that masses will start again from next week at our church. They are only opening one of the parish churches not all of them. There are lots of rules and restrictions and you have to pre-book your place and are not allowed to go every week to give everybody an opportunity to go. I really think I would rather stay home and watch the Livestream because then I could sing along with the hymns. But despite the lack of Sunday obligation I do feel obliged to go. I think it will help me get more in touch with God. I am apprehensive about going to communion. They are doing everything they can to make it hygienic but I worry about germs.

I asked my son who is usually an altar server if he will come with me and he was very unkeen and I am not inclined to push it at the moment. I am sure that they will not have altar servers anyway and I think he will be bored. But then he always was bored and I didn't let that stop me! Now it seems a little bit of a risk and also like he will be blocking the space that somebody who genuinely wants to be there would otherwise take. I have really not pushed the faith thing with my children during lockdown except to celebrate holy week. I am hoping that eventually we will be able to get back to normal. I don't want the children to experience church as some weird exercise in hand sanitizing and staying away from everyone.

Could you go but not take communion and just make a spiritual communion, zen? It’s what I did the last time I went before lockdown.

As the Sunday obligation is still dispensed with I think they’re encouraging anyone who can to go to a weekday mass instead here. Still waiting for the full list of rules & regs. Although since I don’t think I can go it doesn’t affect me. Completely lost track of what the guidelines are for the vulnerable but not shielding.

Welcome Gruffalo. I’m hoping one of the things that comes out of this is that a lot of churches will keep the live-streaming so it does make things easier for those who can’t always attend.

So how is communion going to happen @ZenNudist ? I didn't realise it could, any time soon.

Our church meets normally in a school so I don't think we'll be doing that for a very long time. Our PCC meets virtually this week to begin discussing what we might do instead. Our vicar is taking a very cautious attitude anyway, which I'm thankful for.

We met our new curate and his wife at Zoom church coffees today, lovely, but I do feel for them.

Thank you all so very much for such a warm welcome. It’s lovely to be able to chat with others. @ZenNudist I’m in Scotland so it’s a Church of Scotland that’s nearby.

I’ve been into the church this evening. It’s like a small segment of normality even though nothing about it was remotely ‘normal’. And even though the rest of the day has been a bit rubbish, everything feels a bit lighter this evening. Partly I think because I had the first face to face conversation I’ve had with anyone outside work since March.

How is the situation with your DC strawberry?

Oh thank you so much for asking @RafaIsTheKingOfClay: it's gone quieter but all the issues are still unresolved. One has just had a birthday which was nice. I can do nothing so that forces me to give it to God!

In our Zoom home Group this evening we prayed for Leicester, and for paramedics who are apparently dreading Saturday when the pubs reopen.

Hello everyone. I hope some of you enjoyed a return to church this week for private prayer or even (gasp!) Group worship?!

I'm sorry not to reply to Rafals and StrawberryJam I typed a reply but forgot to press send.

It's been lovely to get back to church proper this weekend. I went to the first mass back (I tried to book into the later Sunday one but it was cancelled as not enough people, and I didn't fancy 9.30 on Sunday!)

It didn't feel unsafe and it wasn't as odd as I thought it would be. I went to communion which just felt natural and not dangerous.

It's odd because we have to book in advance, have to wear masks, sit down throughout, not speak during communion and there was only one reader (me! Nerve wracking!)

As someone who is a stickler for doing all the "right" things in mass and who has in the past let it stress me out if I dont do something "correctly", it made me twitch a little. But its a lesson that I just need to chill out.

I didn't take the kids and they attended our local methodist church family zoom meeting which had lots of lovely activities for them. I think for now that if spaces at catholic mass are restricted I am going to leave the kids at home.

That sounds very similar to how ours will be. We don’t have to wear masks though.

Unfortunately, because it’s now open for mass they won’t be opening for private prayer. Which is understandable, but means I might not be able to go back for a while. Need to figure out how to get my head round that.

Our rector’s baby was born safely on Friday and he is now on paternity leave till the end of July. So we had a much reduced service on YouTube this morning (no singing), led by one of the other church leaders. He was very good and that was the first time he’d done it. The church will not be open, even for private prayer, because it is so very old and impossible to clean to the standards required. The church yard is open of course and there are quite often church members working in the garden, I think that is just as good as being in the building.

Dutchoma, some good news about healthy baby born safely! Although I'm sorry to hear your church can't open. It must be lovely when it is open, being so old. I got a lot of comfort from visiting our church whilst it was closed , so good you have the garden.

Rafals, you have to do what keeps you safe. Is there another church that would be open for private prayer or are there none 'meaningful' to you nearby?

Im getting quite a lot out of live streamed and recorded services. I dont think its a lesser option. Last week I watched a mass from a nearby suburb on church services tv. The priest gave a long detailed (but really interesting!) homily about the heart of Jesus. I wrote it down, it was so helpful. I wouldnt have seen it had our church live stream not had yet another malfunction. It's great to get new views. Like Dutchoma this morning and one of the other church leaders getting a chance to deliver the service. They must feel blessed to be able to do it and hopefully the congregation got something fresh or new out of it.

It’s definitely not a lesser option and I’ve been using church services tv for a couple of years. I think I’ve just got a bit of a FOMO over it. In my head I’d just not really been prepared for masses restarting so soon and me still supposed to be avoiding contact with people outside my household. Daft really. It’s not going to be anything like normal, is it?

I’m having a look at other churches, but suspect they might be similar. It’s a huge ask in terms of volunteers to cover 8 services a week and private prayer. I’m not sure I’d feel OK about going anyway. The GP signed me off work this week and while going would help I’m not sure I should.

That’s lovely news about your rector’s baby Dutch. And I agree with Zen about fresh ideas and points of view.

Completely understand that @RafaIsTheKingOfClay, still shielding from outside here but my church has made the decision to not meet back until August at the earliest for a number of reasons and I feel they're right (for our particular context - style and context is everything in this)

Oma so glad to hear good news about the baby :)

I've come out of shielding within the family over the weekend and it's amazing but left me completely emotionally overwhelmed and exhausted today, really strange feeling after 15 weeks locked down away from them. So lovely to hug my dc again.

That’s really good news, Madhair. Enjoy all the hugs.

Style and context is definitely everything. It definitely won’t be the same with only 30. And I figure that at 9 services a week with a maximum of 30 nearly half the congregation won’t get to go anyway.

I’ve been thinking about yesterday’s gospel and burdens/being overburdened. COVID has really highlighted how different people’s burdens can be and that what might be a relief for some people can be a burden to others. It’s not surprising that people are really struggling to understand other’s points of view. I think this week I might focus my prayer on tolerance and kindness.

Wow, MHD, not surprised that was emotionally draining, reuniting! Glad to hear you're doing ok.

I just started lurking a week or two ago. About the time you recommended the Lectio365 app, which I downloaded and have been finding helpful, so thank you! I have become a semi-recluse during the past few months and while I like the quiet, I often find myself with no words to pray! It's been helpful for giving a structure.

Hello, me again. I just wanted to ask you guys what your motivations are for going to church. Since lockdown started, I've just stopped having anything to do with my church. I hated the idea of zoom in the early days and didn't want to engage in anything where I could suddenly and unexpectedly become the focus (I have no idea if this is how it works or not). Now I've been absent so long it could well be worse - my church is very big on singling out newcomers to say welcome to, so if any church was going to make one person a focus regardless of whether they were comfortable with that, this one would be it!

Anyway, I'm moving house. I already live a long way from church and this will push the round trip over an hour. Plus there will be churches within walking distance for the first time! Only a couple. So it might be time to think about a change.

But I'm not sure Sunday morning church is my favourite bit of church. I have a house group with members from different churches, which I enjoy. And I'd quite like to do some volunteering within the community if there was a way to do that through church - to be God's hands and feet that way. The Sunday morning thing - I'm quite enjoying not putting myself through it every week, really. I may have just been going out of obligation. Maybe I should leave it to the sociable types?

On the other hand, no chance for communion if I don't go, and that is something Jesus specifically told us to do.

Phew, that was long

A few months ago I met a friend I have known for over 30 years in the church he worships at. He knew I’d recently moved churches to be able to join a good choir and said: “You have been around a bit, haven’t you?” And it is true, we moved when we moved house and then again and again. We were in our last church for 20 years, but I have moved again to be able to sing and to make a contribution.

Hi Charlotte, welcome. Love the name. I think I could do with a literary name (rather than this silly random pun that I've been posting under for a decade).

My motivation for going to church?. Good question. I started going because I felt obliged to take my son's holy communion seriously. I found the liturgy of Catholic mass took me back to my childhood and I loved the hymns. The community is fragmented and fragile, we Catholics are not given to mixing much before or after or outside of church. I have plenty of people to speak to who I know through school.

I have gone pretty much weekly for nearly 2 years now. I keep going because mass is my time to dedicate to God. Its also my chance to familiarise my dc with Catholic customs so they grow up culturally Catholic (important to me, the spiritual side I hope will take but that will be up to them).

It sounds like you have grown past your old church. The move will be a good time to try something new. Crazy to travel so far for church when you have ones on your doorstep. Only worth it if you really loved the community, which doesn't seem to be the case.

House group and volunteering both sound great ways to dedicate time to God.

I do also enjoy the church calendar: the seasons of lent and Eastertide and advent, with their specific hymns, prayers and rituals; the chance to think upon the experiences of the saints for a different take on faith; and marking out special Sundays and holy days gives a new and different shape to my life, and colours my search for a better understanding of, and connection with God. Plus, it gives common ground with other Christians when we all take lessons from the same gospel.

Church is for me the main time I read the bible. Am not given to biblical reflection outside of mass unless I see something on Catholic YouTube channels.

In contrast to Zen’s our Catholic Church is unusual in that it’s quite good at mixing. And there’s quite a few activities across the week/year. Some worship based some just social. There’s also opportunities to get involved in charity work if you want to. It’s not my parish one though. I just attended a couple of times and stayed.

I do agree Zen that for me I like the rhythm of the church year. Might be worth seeing if any of the ones where your moving are streaming or have a website where you can look at parish newsletters from before lockdown to see what sort of things they do.

That's interesting Zen that DC are part of your reason. I think, now my DC are getting older, that could be part of the reason I'm enjoying the break from church attendance. Sunday School was becoming an issue at my church - few children/teens attending and not enough people willing to run it. Very few churches round here with any kids in, and it's difficult dragging them unwillingly in such circumstances!

I think, like Oma and Zen, I like the music. And that's interesting about the rhythm of the church year. I haven't thought about it but I think I appreciate that subconsciously! Rafal, yes, good idea about the websites. Only one of the churches has a website at all. It looks with a try, though.

It's years since I've been in a liturgically-based church. I was brought up non-conformist, so that feels most familiar, but I have enjoyed Anglican churches I've been to. So I'm not going to discount the parish church, even though it has no website. After reading your posts, I may even bravely step through the doors of the Catholic church, although I've never been to a Catholic service before!