I'm looking forward to livestreaming the parish eucharist from inside St Mary's Church on Sunday at 10.30 am. Please be patient if there are teething problems! We will continue to add recorded material during the service so do keep offering to read, lead prayers, or provide a short video for the Notices.
Book Discussion Group from 6 to 7 pm on Sunday 17th May with Alison Shell. We will be discussing Louisa May Alcott's classic novel Little Women. If you would like an invitation to the group, do email Alison Shell at a.shell@ucl.ac.uk.
During the week:
Monday to Friday Morning and Evening Prayer at 9 am and 6 pm Zoom link
The website now has a short video from Mark on how to pray using the Examen - a very simple introduction to a valuable spiritual practice. Link here
Last Sunday's sermon "Dwelling-places" is now on the website Link here
Do read Judy Greengrass's latest chapter of "The Queen in Lockdown", also on the homepage of the website. Link here
We will celebrate Ascension Day on at 8 pm on Thursday 21st May with a joint service with St Mark's Regent's Park. A link will be given next week.
If you are in touch with someone who has no internet access, please draw their attention to the following notice:
Daily Hope offers music, prayers and reflections as well as full worship services from the Church of England at the end of a telephone line. The national line is available 24 hours a day on 0800 804 8044.
A message from Rachel Elliott for ME Awareness Week (11-17 May): Cherry Elliott-Millar, 22 years of age, and a member of our congregation, fell ill 7 years ago with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) in 2013 following a bout of Glandular Fever, which is one of the common triggers. She has never recovered and has been 100% bedbound, with a feeding tube, for the past few years. She is unable to listen to music, read, use a phone or tablet, or any other activity other than lying quietly in her darkened room. Cherry is one of the 25% of people with ME who suffer from a severe form of the illness. There is currently no treatment and only a very small number of people with severe ME ever recover to a significant level.
The best hope of recovery for patients like Cherry is increased funding into biomedical research, which is currently disproportionately low for this illness (which affects around 265,000 people in the UK). This may one day lead to the development of effective treatment.
It also is 200 years since the birth of Florence Nightingale. It's a little known fact that she was mainly bedbound for many years following an illness caught during the Crimean War: it is very likely that this illness is what we now know as ME.
