St Laurence Church, 173 Church Road, Northfield, B31 2LX    Registered Charity 1132975


Hello everyone, 

This is the 5th pack we’ve put together for your edification and delight(!) since the pandemic led us into lockdown.  Who would have thought it?  Hard as it is for us here, spare a thought and prayer for those who are living in much more difficult circumstances in areas of the world affected by poverty, war and oppressive regimes.  Counting our blessings can really help when we are feeling weary; one of those blessings has been the way we have been able to support one another through the St Laurence network over the last 5 months (if you feel you haven’t been receiving sufficient support let me know and we will see what we can do to improve things.)  

The PCC has been working incredibly hard over this period as we ‘do things differently.’  We resumed worship back in church on Saturday 25th July against the challenge of a major update of the guidelines the previous day.  Now we have had four services the ‘new normal’ is feeling more manageable.  However, whilst 4.30pm on Saturdays was a way to start things off, it is far from ideal so we are changing things a little from September onward – see the enclosed sheet.  

On recent Sunday mornings we’ve been ‘big screening’ Rise and Shine in the Pastoral Centre for some of our Sunday School families but we now feel we can run a mini-Sunday School for limited numbers.  I know many adults as well as families have been enjoying watching Rise and Shine on YouTube and we’ve had lots of positive comments but it is taking a huge amount of time and energy to put together so going forward it will be produced about once a month.  

The first community activity has returned to the Pastoral Centre  - a martial arts group  - with more planned in September.    Getting everything ready has been a mammoth task which Lorraine and Fr David have undertaken.  We are all dreaming of risk assessments – or it nightmares?!   

A lot of people are commenting that the easing of lockdown is much harder to cope with than full lockdown.  My current favourite phrase is that my brain feels somewhere between ‘lockdown and meltdown’ so here’s a little quiz to check out how you are coping…..  

Please tick all which apply.  

o You have lost track of what day/week/month/year it is.  

o You have forgotten your mask as you set out for the shops. 

o You’ve phoned Zoom thinking it was Conference Call.

o You’ve forgotten which coin is which.   

o You’ve failed to notice the one-way system in the shops.

o You want to shout ‘keep a Social Distance’ to people on television.    

o You’ve muddled sanitiser with sun-cream/shampoo/tomato ketchup.

o You are having a bad hair day.

o Your gnomes are breeding.

A score of 9 is the ‘new normal’ so don’t worry.   
If by any chance you have scored less than 9 then feel smug until you catch up with me…. 

Keep safe and well, 
Canon Janet                                                                                                          17th August  2020