Announcements and Updates
From the Rector and Assistant Priest – Holy Trinity, Horfield.
Epiphany-tide, 2020
Dear Friends,
We hope you and your families were able to experience some peace this Christmastime, despite the challenges to our routine and personal well-being, because of Covid-19. It was good to see that many people were able to attend a Christmas Mass at Holy Trinity and that the booking system worked efficiently thanks to our churchwardens, Caroline and Carolyn. The total Mass attendance for the Christmas Masses at Holy Trinity was 140, with 65 attending the Story of Christmas in Words and Music; a total of 205 overall. The Masses of the Christmas Octave gave some an extra opportunity to participate in worship in this holy season – attendance ranged from 3 to 9, as we commemorated St Stephen, the Holy Innocents and St Thomas of Canterbury.
The reason we share this information with you, is not because of the statistics themselves, but what they represent, which is that for the people of Holy Trinity, Horfield, gathering in our sacred space, where people have gathered for almost one and a half thousand years in times of rejoicing and in times of challenge, is important and meaningful to us. It is how we proclaim, physically, our presence as the living Body of Christ in Horfield and by our remembering those friends not able to be present with us, we acknowledge that as the Church of God, we are not bound by the physical restriction of stone walls and Covid-19, but united by the love we name as God. It is where we are nourished by the Body and Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ, we become what we eat – and transformed by that gift of love, we are empowered to share God’s love and participate in the work of building God’s kingdom.
It is for this reason that the wardens and the ministry team have decided that the best way to respond to the current Lockdown # 3 (Tier 5) is to do what is meaningful and possible for us: that is to offer Mass, as Jesus commanded us to do “in remembrance” of him. Therefore, from The Feast of the Epiphany, the pattern of public worship at Holy Trinity, Horfield – as permitted by HM Government – will be the celebration of Holy Mass on:
TUESDAYS at 12 noon;
THURSDAYS at 10 am;
FRIDAYS at 6 pm,
and SUNDAYS at 10 am.
The recorded Mass published on our YouTube channel (Holy Trinity Church, Horfield) will continue.
It has been decided that we will not be opening the church for two hours prior to the Tuesday and Friday Masses, again, until the warmer weather returns later in the year.
We do wish to thank, on your behalf, those volunteers from our congregation, who engage in a variety of ministries communicating with and supporting those in need and who are self-isolating and shielding. Our especial thanks go to Helen Hinksman and Geoff Stock, who given many people support by phone – and communicate prayer requests to the ministry team and our teenage Gateway Group for the charitable work and outreach initiative this winter.
Finally, we wish to thank those who have contributed generously to our Christmas Appeal to support The Sisters of the Church. To date we have raised a wonderful £770.76. It would be good to reach the £1000 mark by Candlemass (February 2nd ).
We hope that you find this mailing of further prayer resources and information helpful – and however we worship in the coming weeks may the light of God’s love revealed by the Christ Child bless you and those who you love in the coming year.
Wishing you peace and every blessing – Fr. David and Mthr. Hilary
CHRISTMAS CHARITY
Our Christmas charity this year, will be to support THE SISTERS OF THE CHURCH.
Many of you will already know of this Anglican order of nuns, who work to support some of the poorest in our city of Bristol. They are based in the St. Paul’s district.
We have supported them in previous years and our own Gateway Group made up toiletry bags for the sisters to distribute last year.
From this Advent until Candlemass (2nd February), I am inviting you all, in addition to offering your prayers, to make a financial contribution to aid the essential work carried out by the sisters. There will be envelopes in church, which you can take away and return to the collection basket by the exit after each Mass; or you may wish to make a bank transfer to the Holy Trinity Charity Account:
Horfield Parish Church Charity account: 306296 27658063
Thank you for your generosity – Fr David
A big ‘thank you’ to members of the congregation
I had a most wonderful surprise just a few days before Christmas. One morning, Ann Chapman rang our doorbell and left a card with so many kind messages from members of the congregation at Horfield, and also news that a most generous sum of money had been collected as a retirement gift – it is truly unbelievable that this could have been accomplished in the difficult times in which we are presently living! I decided immediately that I should use the money to purchase a painting or print that would always serve to remind me of the seventeen years I spent as Director of Music at Holy Trinity. My initial thoughts naturally turned to our own Church, but after all the years Lyn and I have spent here, we already have several prints of the building, including that of the lovely painting by local artist, Laura Cramer. So I began to reflect on other churches that have been close to my heart in recent years, and immediately thought of St. David’s Cathedral on the tip of Pembrokeshire in Wales. We have spent so many happy and relaxing holidays in that wonderful little City – the starting point for countless breath-taking walks along the coastal path, and, at the end of each day, a stroll down to the Cathedral to enjoy the choral evening service sung by its highly talented choir. Amazingly, on the website of a local gallery, we found a most lovely original painting of the building – one that captures the colouring of the stone so perfectly and sets the Cathedral very beautifully against the surrounding countryside. In the next issue of ‘Reflections’, I will include a photograph for you all to see, but I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all those of you who contributed to this presentation for your enormous generosity – I feel quite overwhelmed by your kindness.
Glyn (former Director of Music)