Between now and the beginning of Lent we have three highlights planned:
The Sunday service for Candlemas on January 31st will be a rather special one with some thoughtful contributions from members of the parish and a little piece of drama performed by Dame Judi and Sir Kenneth (Oh no – they weren’t available but they sent their understudies, Rob and Liz Bruce!). We will also bless candles for our use so please have a candle ready beside you if you are joining us online. Many of us do have candles at home – any colour, shape or size is good. But if you would like a church candle you are welcome to collect one from the lady chapel at St Johns, or the back of St Mary’s Kidlington or Hampton Poyle. We will also be trying something new for zoom coffee this week: please bring a symbol of something that has sustained you in your faith this year. It could be the cat, a hot water bottle, a flower, some soil, a bible……. And we will talk about them in our breakout groups.
Valentine’s Day calls for some fun and celebration so we are hosting a Zoom Valentine’s Sing-Along with a range of well known songs to lift the spirits. We had a little difficulty finding a free evening for this so we have settled for Tuesday 9th February at 6pm. These sing-alongs are just for fun, and are not at all serious – Valentines costumes are encouraged so be creative if you like. If you know of friends / neighbours near and far who would like to join us please do invite them. The zoom numbers will be the same as zoom coffee; contact us if you need to be reminded what they are.
Shrove Tuesday also calls for some fun with pancakes, so we will hold a Zoom Pancake Party at 6pm on Tuesday 16th February. We will provide a recipe for pancake batter and you may, if you wish make pancakes live during the party. There will be several fun classes that you can enter:
- best tossed pancake (style and charisma, staying within camera range)
- best decorated pancake
- pancake decorated to look most like a member of the staff team
You do not need to make pancakes in order to come to the party and be involved. Instead, you might like to take the ‘Pancake Poem Challenge’ and write your own poem or find one that someone else has written. Bring your poem to the party and read it out or if you are shy one of us can read it for you. Poems can be about Pancake Day or can be more serious taking up a Shrove Tuesday line of thought – we don’t mind.