While we can’t gather together physically, we’ll keep this page updated with latest news and resources to help us to love God and love our neighbours. The most recent post is at the top of the page. Scroll down for previous posts.
Why we’re not meeting physically in January 2021
I’m writing with the painful news that we’ve decided not to meet physically on Sundays for January. It’s painful because my conviction is that physically gathering with God’s people for worship is an essential part of the Christian life what it means to be a local church.
We’ve come to this conclusion after much prayer and discussion between the GCW leaders – with input from others too. I think this is the right thing to do to honour God by loving one another and our community – including the school community whose building we use.
Back in November, I signed a letter to the Prime Minister asking the government not to close churches during lockdown. With infections rising at such a great rate, and so many things unknown about the new strain of the virus, we have decided to use the freedom the government has given us now to stop meeting physically for a time. We do so, knowing that we won’t all agree on this course of action, recognising that not meeting will be more difficult for some than for others, hoping that we’ll be together again soon, and asking you all to pray for and look out for one another all the more.
We’ll review towards the end of the month. Click here for a talk on the importance on meeting together, unpacking the verses below.
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Hebrews 10v24-25
Join us this Christmas
Friday 11th December – QUIZ NIGHT
A fun quiz on ZOOM with a hint of Christmas. Form a team, or come on your own!
Sunday 13th December morning – ALL-AGE CELEBRATION
At St Peter’s school at 10.15am, and live on our Facebook page.
Sunday 20th December evening – ONLINE CAROLS
Since we can’t sing when we gather, this will be online – on Zoom and on our Facebook page – going live at 6pm. Crack open your favourite Chritmas snacks, hear some stories of the stories behind famous carols, and sing along to your heart’s content!
Friday 25th December – CHRISTMAS DAY CELEBRATION
At St Peter’s school at 10.15am, and live on our Facebook page.
More details for each event, including details of how to book in to our physical events, can be found on our Coming Up page.
Life Explored
We all want to be happy. Why is lasting happiness so hard to find?
Life Explored is an informal and relaxed seven-week series for anyone who wants to find contentment and happiness in life.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t consider yourself to be religious, and you don’t need to know anything about the Bible. You can ask any questions you like, or you can just sit and listen.
Whoever you are, whatever you’re thinking, Life Explored is a place for you to discover the secret to true contentment.
We’re starting a Life Explored course over Zoom soon.
For more details, follow this link, or watch the trailer below.
To join us, use the contact form on this website.
How to join us on Sundays
This is the first Easter Sunday that church buildings have been shut across England since 1208AD!
It is a real sadness that we haven’t been able to meet together in person for 3 Sundays now, and Easter weekend won’t be quite how it should be without being able to join together under God’s word to sing and praise him for Jesus’ sacrificial death and powerful resurrection.
Having said that it’s also been a joy to be able to meet and pray together on Zoom. Pixels on the screen aren’t the same as people face to face, but it’ll have to do for now.
Whether you’re part of the family, or you’ve never had any intention of going to church, we’d love you to join us at one of our virtual gatherings. Here are three ways to join in:
Zoom
Our meetings are hosted on zoom. For details of how to join, use the contact form on this website.
Facebook
We’ll also stream the Zoom meeting to our Facebook page. Anyone who ‘likes’ our Facebook page will get a notification when we go live.
Right here on this site
For anyone who’d prefer not to use Facebook, and would like to watch anonymously, the same livestream will be available right here on our website.
Wrecclesham Community Group
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’”
Luke 10:27
Caring for our local community and loving our neighbours has always been an important part of our life together at Grace Church Wrecclesham, so it’s been a joy to join together with other people in our village, including friends from the Parish Church, to coordinate help for those who most need it during the coronavirus pandemic.
Details of how to get involved are below. The experts say that the worst is yet to come, so it’d be great to have as many volunteers on our list as possible so that we can meet needs as they arrive.
What, no groups on Sunday??
Our kids love their groups at Grace Church on Sundays, and we’re so grateful for all the work the leaders do each week. But now that we’re adjusting to a new normal without being able to gather physically, what does that mean for our kids?
Materials for Families at Home
Although this time together at home will provide families with all kinds of challenges – old and new – there are also opportunities. One of them is the opportunity to spend time with them in God’s word.
While we’re stuck at home, rather than sending our children off to their groups, let’s do what we can to help our kids to see more of how wonderful Jesus. I know that lots of parents don’t think of themselves as experts when it comes to teaching their children from the Bible, so we’ve put together some materials for families to use together on Sunday with under 11s. I’d like to encourage you to use them in one of two ways:
- Join in with the first part of the Grace Church Zoom meeting at 10am all together. Then when we get to the reading and sermon, go off as a family and gather around the word together using the material provided – you can join us again at the end depending on time.
- Use the material provided to meet together as a family before the Zoom meeting starts at 10am. Then join in with the Zoom meeting all together. If kids don’t track with the whole thing – that’s fine!
You can access the materials HERE. Parents will need to look at them in advance. If you don’t have facilities to print, let me know by midday Friday, so I can deliver to you. New materials will be added each week.
For more details on how to join us for our virtual gathering on Sundays, use the contact form on this website.
