SOUL SURMISE

PRAYERS FOR THE COMMUNITY - HEATHER CAREY

 

These are the prayers prayed by Heather Carey in our Fitzroy Palm Sunday Service 2020. Heather is an elder in Fitzroy and works, through Mornington, right across South Belfast Partnership. This is a prayer for our community. Fitzroy, please use it in your own prayers. If you are living and working in another community use it is a template for your own prayers in Coronavirus Times.

 

Lord

Paul said to the Corinthians

“You are feeling hard pressed on every side”

This morning our communities feel that pressure

Like the Psalmist we lament

 

Our schools and nurseries are closed.

We no longer hear the schoolyard games and the footballs bounce.

 

Our Youth Clubs door are shut:

We no longer hear our teens music, laughter and banter.

 

Our Community centres are empty:

We no longer hear the knitting needles knit prem babies hats

the cutlery at the pensioners lunch

the pilates weary participants chat as they leave

the after schools kids laughter over their snack

 

Our Special Needs community provision has ceased:

no sensory rooms to explore

 

Our Leisure Centres say “No Entry”

no splashing in the pool 

sweating in the gymns

5 aside at lunchtime

Slimming World chats

 

Our children’s parks are locked up

the swings hang silently

the climbing frames abandoned

 

Our Grandparents are not walking with us sharing wisdom, joy and treats

Our programmes for the unemployed have been shelved

Our probation service has stopped all placement opportunities for young offenders

Our hairdressers, barbers, dry cleaners, takeaways, cafes, garden centres, shopping centres, cinemas, theatres and sporting facilities are all locked up with no opening date posted on the doors

Our church bells are silent

 

2 CORINTHIANS 4: 7-12

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

 

But Lord

Our communities may be hard Pressed but they are Not Crushed

in fact we see your light shining out of the darkness

We see leaders rising up in our communities and it is these leaders we want to pray for now

 

Lord we pray that you will give them wisdom, may their decisions be marked by justice and honesty, give them compassion as they  listen and respond to growing need.

 

We’d pray for Forward South as they co-ordinate a South Belfast community response

 

We’d pray for LORAG, The Markets Community Development Association and Donegal Pass Forum as they manage

• the telephone helplines
• the local grocery delivery service
• help with gas and electricity top ups
• help with prescription collections 
• delivery of meals to the elderly 

 

Lord heal those who are already sick in our local community

 

Lord we’d pray for Alternatives as they find new ways to support vulnerable youth and those they work with in Hydbank. Lord make them fearless leaders.

We’d pray for Deidre Hargey, from The Markets who is our new Minister for the Department of Communities. 

Lord give Deidre your wisdom

                            your strength

                            your courage

Pray for her team as they implement benefit support to the many who have lost their jobs.

Lord we pray for fast efficient systems to deliver this money to struggling families

 

Lord we’d pray for Foodbank

We’d pray for Bruce, Victoria and Brenda as they change and adapt their systems to meet the growing need

We pray for safety and health

for the volunteers as they pack and deliver

for the agencies processing vouchers

for the team working with asylum seekers, refugees and the Roma community

 

Lord we’d pray for SOLAS working with children with Autism and special educational needs.

Surround the SOLAS team with your peace as they

prepare sensory packs

make daily contact with families

plan a respite programme using PPE equipment 

 

Lord we’d pray for Homeplus as they deliver care to our homeless citizens.

Thank you for providing 1000 pounds and other monies this week to help provide sandwiches for the next 12 weeks

Lord keep the teams safe as they deliver food, clothes and bedding.

Lord we’d pray for more beds and shelter - eliminate homelessness in our city during Covid 19 and forever.

 

Lord every charity in our community is hurting just now.

Covid 19 lockdown has just wiped 3 months income of their books

no Belfast marathon sponsorship

no charity shops income

no daffodil teas

 

Lets think of those close to Fitzroy

 

Mornington, An Droichead, 174 Trust

We’d pray for staff teams as they adapt to on line programmes

We’d pray for management teams as they manage cash flow to save the charity

 

We’d pray for Loveworks, baking bread, repairing bicycles and gardening, also Jubilee Farm which provides an opportunity to connect with food, farming and nature.

Both these co-operatives are having to adapt and change their business models to survive.

Pray for decisive leadership

Pray for generous donors

 

Lord move our hearts to give to the charities on our heart. We need them to survive to be there when we come out of Lockdown. We need them to continue to care for the vulnerable and be there for the societal fall out from Covid 19

 

2 CORINTHIANS 4: 16-18

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

 

Lord as Paul prayed for the Corinthians at the end of chapter 4

we too want to pray the same prayer for our communities

 

“So we are not giving up”

How could we!

Even though on the outside if often looks like things are falling apart on us

On the inside, where God is making New Life, not a day goes by without his unfolding GRACE

 

Lord hear our prayer 

Open our eyes to see

Your Grace flowing through the streets of our local communities during Covid19.

 

Amen

TOMORROW IN FITZROY - 5.4.2020

IN THE MORNING Fitzroy's Sunday Service will be going LIVE at 11am. As it will be live streamed we invite you from all over the world to come and join us. 

I will be looking at words of the apostle Paul that fit snuggly with our times - "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:18). I will not have to shoehorn those into Palm Sunday either. They fit there too. How can we embrace the moment we are in without getting stuck in that moment.

Worship will be from Karen, Gareth and Eleanor Black, Heather Carey will be praying for the Lower Ormeau community around Fitzroy, Erin Humphrey will be reading and Paul Bowman will sneak a reference to Palm Sunday in his cover of Rich Mullins' He Did Not Have A Home.

Watch us live OR on catch up (don't need to get up at 6 Lisa Ho!!!) here - FITZROY TV

 

IN THE AFTERNOON between and 3 and 4 we will be joining with all denominations across Ireland for an Hour of Prayer. You can find the resources for the prayer hour here - https://www.worldprayer.org.uk/Event/a-call-to-prayer-ireland

 

IN THE EVENING at 7, Gary Burnett's fascinating series Paul In Ten continues. Ten ten minute teaching sessions on Paul. This is great stuff. Again find Gary on FITZROY TV

 

ALSO at 7 our young people go Instagram to send out a half hour of worship. Lo-fi, informal and wonderfully uplifting. If you wish, you can listen to this and then watch Gary afterwards. A perfect Sunday evening!

 

A CALL TO PRAY IRELAND - PALM SUNDAY, APRIL 5, 2020

A CALL TO PRAY IRELAND

PALM SUNDAY, 5th APRIL 2020 3pm - 4pm

 

Is it just me or is prayer a little bit more popular than it has been in a while. With our world out of control, our lives tossed into disarray, our souls disorientated and all the fear and anxiety that goes with it, some people who don't pray are praying more and many of us who do pray are praying more.

So, all of the Churches - tip across the denominations - are calling us to prayer for one hour on Sunday morning. 

The simple call behind this initiative is to get as many people as possible across the island of Ireland to pray together, at the same time, during this time of great need.

The call has gone out for us to do this together from 3pm to 4pm on Palm Sunday, the 5th of April.

We do not want to be too prescriptive or to overly complicate things. The most important thing is that you commit to pray at this time. Please do not feel guilty if you cannot manage the full hour.

We would like to encourage everyone who is able to kneel down in an act of humility during the last 10 minutes. We want the heart and climax of this prayer time to be when we all kneel, in our homes, at 3.50pm. Just as Jesus humbled himself on the first Palm Sunday, riding on an infant donkey, we want our act of worship to be one where we bow down and lift His name up.

If you are not familiar with praying, you are very welcome to join us! In fact, we would love you to join us. We sense that many people are turning to Jesus at this time of fear and confusion. We encourage you to call out to him today. We fully believe in a God who hears your prayers.

Join us! Share this with your church, your family, friends and neighbours. We'd love for you to share with your congregations and online platforms in the lead up to Sunday. This is not a movement of one church or agency, but a movement of the Church.  And it requires all of us.

Let us do it!

Download the resource here.

PAUL IN TEN - Teaching Series by GARY BURNETT

For the next ten weeks Fitzroy TV will be following a series of Ten 10 minute teaching sessions on the apostle Paul. The series will go out at 7pm every Sunday evening but will be available from than on.

What was life like when Paul was preaching and teaching, in the First Century. Few people have been able to take me onto the streets and into the houses and prisons of the First Century world like Gary Burnett. Gary has this ability to bring it alive and then open the Scriptural texts into the vivid context.

The first in this series will prove my point. Gary quickly paints a picture of poverty, slavery, early death rate, violence and opposition to any who would go against the gods of the day.

Into this we find Paul learning in himself, and then teaching the early Christians, to not be anxious but to be content.

Paul in Ten offers encouragement and inspiration as we all try to cope in the current moment.

Gary is an author, blogger, theological reviewer and teacher in the New Testament with particular expertise in Paul.

We invite you to use up some of the extra lock down time by doing us for Paul in Ten. 

 

 

PRAYERS FOR EDUCATION

I asked Patricia Eaton, a member of Fitzroy and Director of Teaching and Learning at Stranmillis College to give us Prayer Points for the world of education during Coronavirus.

 

We give thanks for our young people and all they contribute to our church and community.

We pray for them all as they have had their academic year cut short so abruptly and are adapting to an uncertain future.  We pray particularly for

• Those vulnerable students for whom school provides their only stability, and often the only source of a hot meal, in an uncertain life; that they will be remembered, identified and protected in the coming weeks and months.
• For those with special needs for whom the lack of school and the loss of routine can be really bewildering, especially with alternative provision hard to provide at home; that they may know your peace and be provided with the care and support they need when schools are closed.
• For those due to take exams that determine their future; that they will not be anxious about the future.
• For those changing or leaving school or university who finished in the strangest of circumstances; that they too will know your peace at this time.
• All our young people as they adapt to life without friends to socialise with in person; that the vulnerable will be befriended and that they find innovative ways to stay in touch with each other in this time of distance keeping.
• For volunteering and support opportunities that our young people can be involved in; give them creativity in ways they connect with grandparents or other older relatives they may not be able to see for a while, and guide them to find other ways to support those around them.

 

We pray for parents as they respond to school closure.  Give them reassurance that they do not need to recreate the full experience of school and freedom from guilt because they can’t!  Pray for a new rhythm of living and learning together in families to be established quickly and for creativity for all involved.

We give thanks for the dedicated workforce in education in Northern Ireland and beyond.

We pray for our teachers and educators who are facing major changes to the whole education system and being asked to make massive adjustments quickly.

• For strength and stamina in the uncertainty and the adaptability to provide a supportive teaching environment remotely.
• For those working in schools remaining open for key workers; that they know your peace and guidance as they provide support for a whole range of pupils.

 

We pray for education support workers such as classroom assistants, administrative staff, canteen staff and others as they find their role in these difficult times or face uncertainty about their future.

We pray for educational leaders as they make major decisions under the most challenging circumstances that impact on so many young people; for wisdom and guidance and peace of mind.

CORONAVIRUS AND FITZROY - LETTER FROM THE MINISTER

Dear Fitzer,

Fitzroy’s Session and Staff have been giving a lot of thought and prayer to how we best respond to the Coronavirus Pandemic. We have set up a small group to help us respond to an ever changing situation. 

We are considering the immediate response and are putting together an imaginative plan for worship and pastoral care going forward.

We are prayerfully considering how to make decisions between the writer of the Hebrews call for believers to not stop meeting together and Jesus call to love our neighbours. It is likely that we will have to make a call that sacrifices our gathering together in order to responsibly protect the vulnerable among us.

Let us remember that even if we feel we are strong enough to get through the virus that we should be determined not to carry the virus to those who might be vulnerable.

 

This Sunday morning’s service WILL take place as usual at 11am BUT Sunday evening is cancelled.

The morning service will be a shorter service.

Children and youth will go to Sunday school and Bible Classes from the beginning.

There will be NO order of service

There will be NO offering plates

There will be NO tea and coffee after the service.

There will be NO prayer ministry after the service

Stewards will open doors and we will try to have doors ajar to save us having to touch door handles.

Please keep your distance and resist the normal practices of hugging and shaking hands..

 

We encourage anyone with any cough or fever symptoms to stay at home. Please check latest government advice at https://www.publichealth.hscni.net/news/pha-advice-new-coronavirus-guidance and remember to wash hands regularly.

If anyone is feeling in the category of being vulnerable please do no feel that you have to come to Church. This is a time to be safe rather than dutiful.

If anyone would be returning, after the service, to people who might be vulnerable we ask you to again be sensible.

 

Going forward, all extra Fitzroy events are cancelled for the foreseeable future and we will reassess Sunday services and our youth work as the days unfold. 

If we cannot gather together we will have other options for communal activities.

We want to assure everyone that in a situation that might cause us to not be able to gather or even cause some of us to have to isolate that we will be doing our best to make sure that everyone feels connected. Isolation MUST NOT mean alienated, forgotten or lonely.

This is a time for grace and imagination. As well as a crisis it is an opportunity to follow Jesus in loving our neighbour. Members of our Fitzroy community will need words of encouragement and practical help. There will also be demand for volunteers across our neighbourhoods. Let us be on the front foot and ready to respond to the needs of family, neighbours and even strangers. (Read my blog on a Grace and Imagination response HERE)

 

I am drawn to that favourite pastoral reading of mine from Hebrews 4: 14-16

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

The Bible is mostly written in tough and dangerous times. God is not out in space somewhere with no understanding. God came to live among us in Jesus. He can empathise with our humanity. He invites us to approach a God who understands and offers us mercy and grace in this time of uncertainty and anxiety.

 

Let us be in prayer for one another, the wider community and indeed a frightened world.

Grace and imagination,

Steve

TOMORROW IN FITZROY - 8.3.2020

Tomorrow in Fitzroy (11am) with will be having our Annual Women's Service when the entire service (apart from announcements) will be led by Fitzroy women. Our guest speaker is Rev Lesley Ann Wilson who herself was Fitzer back in the day. She will be speaking about Hagar. 

In the evening (7pm) we continue in our series on How to Read the Bible when Frances Livingstone will be taking us into the Psalms. This has been a fascinating and informative series and Frances will be superb.

HOW TO PRAY - LENT STUDIES BEGIN - TOMORROW IN FITZROY

Tomorrow morning (11am) in Fitzroy we will be starting Lenten studies in prayer. The congregation will get a little booklet laying out the studies. In that I have written: -

Fitzers

The last few months have seen an intensity in prayer around Fitzroy like no other time in my decade as minister. 

It made me think that Lent might be a time for us to focus a little more on how to pray.

I was then drawn to Pete Greig’s new book How To Pray. My friend Alain Emerson helped Pete by putting together a Tool Shed of 30 Prayer Tools, included in the book. There is also a website where you can hear Pete talking about prayer - www.prayercourse.org

So, during Lent I will be preaching with the help of the book and website resources. Some of our evenings will also focus on Prayer and Roz Stirling will be doing some of those. We are also delighted to have Alain Emerson as a guest speaker on March 15th when our young people will lead us in worship at our Regular Passion worship event. The youth will also set up a prayer room for us all to use.

I come vulnerably as someone who has never really felt like a good pray-er! Let us ask Jesus, as the disciples did, to teach us to pray. 

I invite you to journey with us.

Steve

In the morning I will be looking at making a space to pray, finding a place to pray and maybe even how God's common grace causes every single person to pray... Sam Smith agrees... and David Grohl does it too... 

 

In the evening (7pm) Roz Stirling will continue the series, helping us to discern the divine whisper.

ASH WEDNESDAY SERVICE - EVEN FOR PROTESTANTS

I was to be a guest speaker for a few days at an Episcopalian Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The Cathedral of Advent is one of the most evangelical Episcopalian churches in America. I was picked up from the airport and driven straight to an Ash Wednesday service. Sitting near the front I soon realised that they were all getting ash on their head.

This was not the practice of Protestants in Ballymena where I grew up. I will be honest. I felt awkward. In Northern Ireland we are conditioned to what is Catholic and what is Protestant. The differences are dug deep. 

There was nothing I could do though and I went forward and in a prayer blessing I received my ash. I will be honest again. I was glad that I was in Alabama as I left looking like a Catholic!!!!

In the years since then I have reassessed all those religious taboos in my homeland. There is often no Biblical weight to many of the taboos. I would be much easier now with that ash on my head, though I would be aware that I will be immediately stereotyped when people see it. 

This year there is an Ash Wednesday service in St Marys Church in Chapel Lane, Belfast city centre. My predecessor in Fitzroy, Rev Dr Ken Newell, will preach. 

Come along and experience the richness of such a service. There is no obligation to receive the ash but as a sign at the beginning of Lent of our journey towards Jesus’ death and resurrection, let me invite you to consider it. In other parts of the world many reformed Christians are happy wearing the mark of Christ’s death.

 

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 26, 2020 @ 5.30pm

ST MARY’S CHURCH, 2-4 CHAPEL LANE, BELFAST BT1 1HH

PRAYER LESSON FROM WEST WING... AND MORE - TOMORROW IN FITZROY 23.2.2020

Tomorrow morning (11am) in Fitzroy and I will do what I have been threatening for many years. I am going to preach on the television series West Wing's two part episode Two Cathedrals. It is a remarkable piece of television drama where the President, Jed Bartlett, closes a Cathedral to have a rage at God about all kinds of injustices that he feels God has been sending towards him. On the other end of this encounter with God a storm creeps up the East Coast of America and Bartlett's senses something extra-ordinary in such an event at such a time and he finally hears God speak.

As we learn How To Pray during Lent with the help of Pete Greig's book of that name, I thought it would be a good opportunity to self indulge with this favourite spiritual television moment. It will be rooted in Psalm 13 in which we hear David having a Jed Bartlett episode. 

Seemingly unconnected, apparently by chance... the same How Long refrain from Psalm 13 will be included in our worship as we do Psalm 40 as co-written between Bono and King David!

In the evening (7pm) our How to Read the Bible series goes on. This week Michael Fitch will take a look at the context of the book of Daniel.