A message from the Rector

Dear Friends,

I am enjoying recording a prayer and a few thoughts for you all each day to keep us focused on God and full of hope in our prayers during this national lockdown.

It may be that not all of you realised that I was going to offer this.  To access it, you can simply click the link:  DAILY PRAYER or type into your search engine: YouTube dailyprayer.bournemouthtowncentre  – it should appear as an option that you can choose.  Once you have found it, you just click on the video that you’d like to watch.  Most are between 5 and 10 minutes long, and there is whole week of them already sitting on the YouTube channel – and I shall continue to add a new one each day!

If you liked the prayers (and of course I hope you do) then Walter Brueggemann’s book is, ‘Virus as a Summons to Faith’.

The aim, of course, is not only to bring us closer to God – so that at least we might come out of lockdown having got into the habit of praying each day a bit more – but also that the many people who are lonely and isolated at home might know themselves tangibly part of the Christian community of our Parish. I hope it helps.

Lucinda will ‘kick-off’ another such initiative on Sunday morning when she leads the first of a series of live-streamed services at 10am, which will become a normal part of life for us (in as much as anything represents ‘normal; just at the moment!).  To access that, live or later, click the link: LIVE SERVICE ON THE SECOND SUNDAY BEFORE ADVENT or go to the BOURNEMOUTH TOWN CENTRE PARISH YouTube channel and click on the service. Don’t worry! It’s all easy enough, once you get used to it.

I am very much looking forward to seeing you all again in December.  Like so many of you, I am being particularly careful of my personal health and safety during this Winter lockdown, which is a different proposition from the warmth of Spring and Summer! We must take care of ourselves, and keep safe, whilst at the same time using all the resources we have to partner with others to care for the needy and hungry on our streets.

Lockdowns, with all their challenges, offer Christians sharply focused opportunities to do something about the two main planks of our vision – getting closer to Jesus and caring for the poor.

May God bless you richly,

Fr. Ian Terry

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