This week
In the church
The Act of Consecration of Man
Sunday (28th): 10am
Thursday (4th): 9am
Friday (5th):9am
This Sunday Selina is visiting the congregation in Canterbury
Online or Telephone
Tuesday: Discussion group 10.30 am and Poetry cafe 4pm
Wednesday: Selina available for phone or video calls 3-6pm
Thursday: Discussion group 10.30am and Gospel study 8pm
Friday: Tom available for phone or video calls 3 - 5.30pm
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Update
The church is currently only open for the services. Our discussion groups and gospel study group are being conducted online.
It is mandatory to wear a face-covering in the church and surrounding rooms, unless you are exempted. We are aware that they cause some of our members discomfort and misgivings. Thank you to those who have started wearing them out of consideration for others.
Please note that we need to avoid ‘mingling’ in the foyer and entrance lobby. This means that you cannot speak with anyone from outside your household. Unfortunately, it is also not permitted to congregate outside the church. We have closed the secondhand bookstall in the foyer in order to keep the circulation moving.
We hope that you will understand that we need to remind you about these restrictions, which we hope will not be necessary for long.
There are volunteers who would be willing to phone people who are feeling isolated. Please let one of the priests know if you would like to receive a call. We are also available for one-to-one conversations by phone or for Sacramental Consultations in the church. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you would like to speak to one of us.
Because people sometimes wonder when might be a good time to get in touch, we are keeping designated times free for phone calls. Our numbers are listed at the end of this Update.
Selina will be available on Wednesdays from 3 until 6pm.
Tom will be available on Fridays from 3 until 5.30pm.
You are of course welcome to ring outside these times as well!
With best wishes
Selina and Tom
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The six newly ordained priests for The Christian Community worldwide and their initial places of work:
From left: Svenn Olav Kalvo- Bergen, Norway | Jan Kirchdof - Bielefeld, Germany | Nataliia Shatna - Goppingen, Germany | Ragnhild Nesheim - Jerna, Sweden | Gabriela Halmagean - Weimar, Germany | Liza Lillicrap - Bremen, Germany
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The Secret of Ash
In medieval times we might have met each other walking in the town, wearing sackcloth and covered in ashes. It would be very visible that the mood of Lent had begun with 'Ash Wednesday'.
Wood ash is an incredible substance. Use it in the garden and it will repel the slugs and protect the plants whilst adding nutrients. Use it in the home as a cleaning agent and encounter its purifying properties. It can also be used for medicinal, healing purposes. It is incredible because it can do all this and yet there is hardly anything to it.
Under your fingers, it will crumble to fine dust and under a microscope, it is clear to see that its cellular structure has been destroyed.
It is pure and powerful and yet is also 'nothing'.
We use ash in some of our sacraments and words of consecration are spoken onto it before using it. To 'consecrate' means to 'reveal' the spiritual secret of something and to acknowledge its unseen reality. Our consecration words reveal that within ash lives the power of chaos, from which something new and creative can arise. It has been through a fire process that has left it open, enabling it to be a vessel for the spiritual.
From the secret revealed in ash, it would seem that there is a deep potential for similar 'fire processes' of the soul during times of chaos and crisis. And yet which of us would actively wish for that in our own lives? Do we ever pray for crisis even though we may have parts of our lives that do call out for revival and renewal?
Without Christ there would be only dead and empty ash.
Without Christ there would be only chaos and perpetual crisis in our lives.
Change, healing and choices arise because Christ makes our crisis into a vessel for new spiritual renewal.
In the Act of Consecration of Man, we acknowledge the necessity of entering a fire process before we can receive the power of renewal. Here in this consecration, it is the spiritual secret of being human that is being revealed to us. We go through a journey through the four elements which accumulate with calling on the 'fire of love' which has the power to create being and enliven 'the good'.
The secret is, we have, like Him, the power of ash within us. From our personal chaos can arise revival and growth.
Although we do not celebrate Ash Wednesday with the drawing of an ash cross on the forehead, as some other churches do today, we are involved in a spiritual process with the power of ash. When we draw the three crosses over our forehead, chin, and chest during the services we call on the Trinity. The cross on the chest is unified with a prayer to the Holy Spirit to enlighten us. In our baptism sacrament, a cross of ash is drawn on the chest and the power of renewal acknowledged, and thus the secret of being human and the secret of ash united.
When we draw this cross on our chest in the services or in our own times of prayer at home, we draw a spiritual cross of ash over our 'loving heart'.
May the awareness grow that despite times of crisis and emotional pain, the power of love and renewal will most definitely, at the right time, arise in us.
~ Selina
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The crocuses are opening to the sun in our church garden
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Join us for an online Poetry Cafe!
Continuing theme: Love in all its forms
This week we explored the lyrical in poetry which finds itself in music and song and shared songs that were significant for us in the course of our lives.
We welcome all to this drop-in group who would like to sit back and listen to poetry and is not a requirement that you bring poems yourself. Just come along and have a nourishing listen with your afternoon tea or bring a poem which you've come across or perhaps written yourself.
~ Victoria Storey and Selina
Poetry Cafe - Tuesday 2nd of March 4pm
To take part in the Poetry Cafe, follow this link if you already use Zoom or would like to install it. Otherwise, you can join by dialling a national rate number: 0203 481 5237 and entering the following numbers when asked:
Meeting ID: 885 8806 8572 Passcode: 769554
The meeting space will open at 3.50pm.
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Discussion Groups from afar
We are now offering our discussion groups (10.30am on Tuesday and 10.30am Thursday mornings) and the gospel study group (8pm on Thursdays) for remote participation via Zoom. Zoom offers those who don’t have access to a computer or smartphone the opportunity to take part by ringing a phone number at the national call rates.
We will open the ‘meetings’ at 10.20 on Tuesdays, 10.20 on Thursdays, and 7.50pm on Thursday evenings, so that there is time to get ready before we begin.
If you wish to join the Tuesday morning group you can follow this link if you have – or want to install – Zoom.
To take part by phone, you can ring this number:
0203 481 5240 and enter the following numbers when asked:
Meeting ID: 878 9199 3921 Passcode: 211189. It's a national-rate call.
For the Gospel Study group (recommencing 28th January), follow this link or ring
0131 460 1196, enter these numbers when asked: Meeting ID: 895 6044 7039 Passcode: 643483.
For the Thursday morning group follow this link or ring
0203 481 5237 and enter these numbers: Meeting ID: 863 8299 2957 Passcode: 416000
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Forthcoming Events
The theme for Lent, Passiontide and Easter is Health and Healing
Saturday, 6th March, 6pm
Healing through the Incarnation of Christ
Evening Service with Sermon by Tom Ravetz
(this is combined with the service for those who have died)
Sunday 7th March, 11.15am
Family Service
Gospel reading and story in the church for children of any age
Saturday, 20th March, 6pm
Healing and straying into sin
Evening Service with Sermon by Selina Horn
Sunday, 28th March following the Act of Consecration of Man
Finding our humanity in the midst of the extremes
Talk by Tom Ravetz
Monday, 29th March - Thursday, 1st April 6pm
Evening Services for Holy Week
Friday, 2nd April, 3pm
The Words from the Cross
Saturday, 3rd April, 6pm
Evening Service for Holy Saturday
(this is combined with the service for those who have died)
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Gospel readings
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| Sunday, February 28 |
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Matthew 17:1-13 |
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Passiontide |
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| Sunday, March 7 |
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Luke 11:14-36 |
| Sunday, March 14 |
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John 6:1-15 |
| Sunday, March 21 |
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John 8:1-12 |
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Some useful resources
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Landline |
Mobile |
Email |
| Church |
01342 825 436 |
n/a |
tccinfr@gmail.com |
| Selina Horn |
01825 790452 |
07742 280147 |
selinaclarehorn@gmail.com |
| Tom Ravetz |
01342 458132 |
07749 662717 |
t@ravetz.org.uk |
- You can download a shortened, printable version of this email here.
- Reply to this email direct or by clicking this link.
- Gospel readings for the Act of Consecration of Man are listed here.
- Our Facebook page.
- Perspectives, quarterly journal of The Christian Community.
- The website of The Christian Community in Great Britain and Ireland has a blog where we are posting some of the material that priests have been sending their congregations in the last weeks and months. There is a facility to subscribe to that directly.
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