BH Bulletin - Thursday 2 July 2020

Thought for the Day by Chris Dalton (BH Member)

​Have you noticed how many of the TV interviews which take place at the moment show the person in their home sitting in front of a bookcase? Sometimes you can spend most of the interview trying to work out what the books are and whether you’ve read them.  Or if you’d want to read them!

I love books because I love words and the pictures they weave and the stories they tell. My favourite book of all time begins, “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. That is my feet are in it; the rest of me is on the draining board which I have padded with our dog’s blanket and the tea cosy.”
It’s a great start and the ending is brilliant, too. Endings are really important and if the ending of a book isn’t ‘just right’ it will really upset me.                                                                                   

Have you ever thought that all of us are currently in the middle of a story – our own and each other’s.  Unless you’ve known a person from the day they were born, you don’t know what’s happened to them or shaped their thoughts and caused them to be the way they are. One good reason why we shouldn’t judge. 
 
Most importantly we’re in the middle of God’s story. It’s not a work of fiction like ‘I Capture the castle’, it’s true. He began it, “In the beginning, God...” and while we may not know what will happen on the next page or in the next chapter, we do know the ending. We know it’s not merely, ‘Just right’; it’s perfect. There will be a new heaven and earth, freedom from sickness, death and sin and all the things we know by faith now, we’ll know by sight.

Peter describes this part of our story in his first letter as being a time when we may know suffering and trials but that while we wait, we are being “filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy” because God is getting us ready for that wonderful ending...which is also a beginning! For those who’ve put their trust in Him heaven awaits and Jesus says, “Look! I am coming soon! ...I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
​Chris

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Coming out of Lockdown by Phil Moon (Vicar)

Services at BH Re-starting
As I’m sure you’re aware, as from next Sunday (5th July) it’s possible to have services back in the BH building.

We’ve been anticipating this, but we haven’t known the details from the Government and the CofE finally until this morning. And there’s a lot to sort out! So we’re intending to have our first service back in the building on Sunday 12th July at 9.00am. The online services will still happen as they are at the moment, and we will still deliver a recording of the 10.00 service with the Bulletin sheets and BH news to all those who would like them, in time for you to watch the 10.00 service at 10.00 on Sunday.

But things are changing and this is the first step to getting back to ‘normal’. The 9 o’clock will be a small service, no singing, with strictly limited numbers, especially in the early weeks. It will normally be a communion service, just with bread and no wine, most like our 8 o’clock service in earlier times, and with a shorter version of the sermon which will be preached at the 10.00 service. If you’d like to come, there will be some sort of ticketing arrangement, and we’ll let you know about that next week. We will observe careful social distancing of 2m, and take care to keep everyone safe. Having said that, we all have different circumstances, and it may be too early for some to even consider coming to church. Whether you come or not is your decision – we won’t stop you from coming – but please pray for wisdom in making your decision about this.

And the situation is fluid. Covid-19 may rear its ugly head once more and we will have to stop physical services once more. Or things may continue in the current trajectory, we may have all the livestreaming kit delivered (we still await the cameras – do pray) and we may be able to have our main service in church and livestreamed in a few weeks’ time. Who knows? But we do know that the Lord knows, and all these things are in His hands.
We have a meeting on Sunday afternoon to go through more details about the 9 o’clock service, and I’ll let you know more next week.
God bless
Phil

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