Fiona's morning walk

Spreading Love & Hope...

Welcome to today's devotion created for your use at home during these days of physical social isolation and virtual social connection. We connect as Church through telephone & technology, so important during this time of Coronavirus. May this devotion and the links provided help you stay connected to God and the wider community. As we are now gathering weekly for worship (virtually), these devotions may become less-than-daily, but they will continue in some form, as the sharing and discipline have been good for my soul.

If you have items to share -- news, a prayer, song, Bible verse, reflection, photo -- please send it by email (just click on the blue envelope-icon) so we can share them. Thanks to Fiona for the photos and poem of hope.
Blessings & peace, Ana & Tod
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Stop & Stare

Fiona's morning walk (2)
A daily walk now assumes great importance as so many other activities have stopped. A good chance to 'stop and stare' on a beautiful day and enjoy and be thankful for the sunshine, buds and blossom.
Here are photos from today's walk around the local football field!
--Fiona
Fiona's morning walk (1)

Music

Ely Cathedral - by Ana Gobledale, UK

Light a candle and be inspired by the Greensleeves Gospel Choir – singing to us together-in-isolation.
'Even through the mightiest storms or darkest moments, let's all rise and shine like lights, let's all lift our heads and search for the source of our strength that only comes from our Lord above. The bigger the distance between us, the higher the vibrations of our voices, all together in an incessant song of vivid hope and gratitude!'
--Greensleeves Gospel Choir - www.ggcgospel.com
Send in your favourite music links to share.

Palm Sunday on-line 10:30

IMG_1588
Sunday, which is Palm Sunday, we will be gathering on-line. Worship begins at 10:30 am, but you will be able to join anytime after 9:45.
To join the Zoom worship service, click on the button below.
Should you need it,
here is the Meeting ID: 298 606 943
John 14.27 Do not be afraid.
from Joan
Bible on stand, Salisabury URC
Click on the blue button above to read all the Lectionary Readings designated for this week of Lent.

Today's Prayers

Join Christians around the world praying daily at 12:00 noon, making each day a World Day of Prayer.

Lockdown:

a message of hope

from Fiona

Irish Priest Richard Hendrick has written a poem about the lockdown as a message of hope.

Lockdown
Yes there is fear.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.
They say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each other
across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open
so that those who are alone
may hear the sounds of family around them.
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland
is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I know
is busy spreading fliers with her number
through the neighbourhood
So that the elders may have someone to call on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples
are preparing to welcome
and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary.
All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting.
All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way.
All over the world people are waking up to a new reality,
To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have.
To what really matters.
To Love.
So we pray and we remember that
Yes there is fear,
but there does not have to be hate.
Yes there is isolation,
but there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes there is panic buying,
but there does not have to be meanness.
Yes there is sickness,
but there does not have to be disease of the soul.
Yes there is even death,
but there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.
Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic.
The birds are singing again.
The sky is clearing,
spring is coming,
and we are always encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul
and though you may not be able
to touch across the empty square,
Sing.
Haines blossoming tree

A Psalm a day: Psalm 9

Psalm 9:9
''God is a stronghold ...
in times of trouble.'

'Psalm 9 and 10 are together a song of the people of God who live in faith in the reign of God in the midst of the afflictions of history.' (James Mays)
How apt for this historic moment of affliction in which our world finds itself, in which the people of God find ourselves.

An activity for today:
Psalm 9 is an acrostic psalm where every line begins with a successive letter in the Hebrew language.

Try writing a psalm, a song, to God expressing your faith in this historic time of affliction.


Sun

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