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Topic: Easter 2
Time: Apr 19, 2020 10:00 AM Vancouver

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Meeting ID: 955 0260 1664

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Meeting ID: 955 0260 1664

Liz Young will once again lead our Prayers of the People this Sunday. Please send her your prayer requests by 9:30 am Sunday morning.

Email (preferred): pholcus36@gmail.com

Phone: 604 985-5849

Joyce Luptak felt called to offer a prayer to help during the COVID-19 crisis. This was circulated a couple of weeks ago but it is worth re-posting.

You are invited to offer this prayer daily at 7 pm as part of the tribute to our health care workers.

God who created and loves us, during this difficult time we pray:

for those ill from the virus, in hospital or at home, that they may fully recover,

for the people caring for the ill at home;

for the nurses and doctors and all medical staff on the front line;

for all the people providing essential services;

for those whose livelihood is threatened or lost;

for those who have died, and for their families;
for Your guidance to our officials to steer us through this.

and, for Your wisdom to those searching for a cure. Strengthen them with your Spirit,
that through their work many will be restored to health;

Keep us ever hopeful as we anticipate your future,
that we may grow in compassion and love toward our neighbours,
and bring all our thanksgivings to you in prayer.

Amen.

One casualty of the current coronavirus situation has been our weekly Sunday morning lectionary Bible study. I would like to revive it as I know that many people enjoy having a chance to read and discuss the Sunday morning readings.

I propose starting a weekly Zoom group open to anyone who is interested. It will be on either Wednesday or Thursday mornings at 11 am, depending on the majority choice of whoever responds. 

If you want to participate, please send me an email stating your preference of Wednesday or Thursday morning.

Send your email to me at priest@saintagnes.ca by 4 pm on Monday April 20. We'll get started next week!

Thanks!

Stephen+   

For the past few weeks we have been using Zoom to have interactive Sunday morning worship from our homes. Each week we have more people join us, and we are all learning as we go. I have been very impressed with your patience with each other and with me as we learn this new technology.

Every Sunday there is something new for me to discover. On Palm Sunday my internet connection kept dying while I was trying to lead the service in the church. Very frustrating! The resulting service was not recorded properly and that is why it was not posted to Youtube.

We had a successful Easter Sunday service with great hymns. When I went to post it to Youtube there was a notice saying that the use of "Jesus Christ is Risen Today" was a copyright violation and the hymn was automatically muted. If you were watching the Youtube version you may have stopped watching when the sound cut out. Do go back and fast forward past the hymn and the sound resumes. The other two hymns did not cause any trouble. By the way, the tune for "Jesus Christ is Risen Today" was written in 1708; you might think it was in the public domain by now!

I have been trying to improve the quality of the services by being attentive to lighting and sound quality. I know that our musician Ben has been spending hours trying to ensure the music sounds good given the limitations of the technology. Do bear with us as we keep working to improve the Zoom experience.

As I mentioned, I do record and then post the Zoom service to Youtube. The Youtube version is proving to be a popular alternative with more people watching it than attending the live service.

I send an email when the Youtube version is posted. You can also find the Youtube recordings on our webpage under the Sermons tab.

We are not sure how much longer we must continue under these circumstances. It seems likely that it will be several weeks if not months before things return to normal. In the meantime, let's all be good to one another.

Blessings,

Stephen+