A few weeks ago, I imagine most of us in The Church of St. Michael & St. George on hearing the word “zoom” would have thought about speeding vehicles or enlarging elements on a screen. Well I did.
Zoom, has taken on a new meaning as it is one of many video-conferencing platforms now in use in this physically distanced world. Our children are using it to learn, our businesses are using it to work, the UK Parliament is even using it.
Churches are using it also, and that includes us.
We are using it to enable worship. Fr. Peter is leading compline every night at 8 PM. We are continuing our regular
Bible Studies
via Zoom. We are having our weekly staff meeting, our vestry meetings and other church meetings all enabled by Zoom. The Church’s Bridge group has used it.
The possibilities of how we can utilize this tool to connect to each other are just limited by our minds. Please do contact me if you have any suggestions for new ways in how we can deepen our connections with one another.
You may be thinking “I don’t have a camera on my computer or a smartphone, how can I connect?” If you have access to a phone you can dial in.
The ability to connect and to be connected is very useful, but there is always a shadow side. That shadow side is that we can get lost in the fast pace of the constantly changing information and demands that this pandemic can assault us with. But to be fair, this was a potential issue before in our hyper-connected world.
In the midst of all this ‘zooming’ around, we should never lose sight of our common calling to follow Jesus and to deepen our relationship with him.
Whilst walking Steve the dog, on Thursday morning, in the rain my phone reset itself and I walked the rest of the way mostly in silence.
In that silence some of the words of Psalm 46 came to me, “Be still, and know that I am God;”
In that moment I was reminded that the relationship that Christ calls us into is not a relationship that requires us to speed along. But it does require us to be attentive and for us to learn to be comfortable in the awkward silences. That may remind you of some of the video conferences we have been in recently.
In the chaos of this world, I pray that you will be able to still your heart and to spend time with God. I am also giving thanks in my time of prayer for all of you as you minister to one another. I am truly grateful for being part of this Church.
God bless
Tom +
