Tag Archives: lock down

Lock down Day 1008 Dear Diary,

Last Sunday was Sara’s induction. It was a great service and it’s lovely to have her on board with the Ministry Team. She is already proving to be a huge asset during this crisis, and there is no way we could be doing so much without her. Last week I was asked by a couple of people why we had “to rush” her induction service and not wait until this pandemic is over when we could all join together “as the church” to do this. Before we recorded the service, we thought about why we should and also why we shouldn’t do the service and the Ministry Team decided that we would go ahead with the Induction Service. The thinking behind this was simple – we have tried to keep things going during this crisis as normally as possible. We have kept services going – even adding other services to the calendar (like a Welsh Easter service and evening Vespers which we never normally do). Bible study has kept on (and it’s even grown), we’ve celebrated communion, found ways to sing hymns, started a book club, continued pastoral visits, are sending out the Monday Missive to keep as many people in touch as we can and are even doing coffee after services and during the week. So since we announced Sara’s induction in February (before this lockdown) we decided to keep it on the calendar. It was not a rush decision made at the last minute but a carefully considered idea to try and keep as much normality as we can. The church still meets, the church is still working, we met “as the church” for Sara’s induction, as we have for all the other services. In fact over 500 people met as the church for Sara’s induction and we have had overwhelming positive feedback. The building is closed, 320 Latrobe street is a quiet and cold place at the moment but that is exactly what 320 Latrobe Street is – a building. If this lockdown has shown us anything it has shown us that the Melbourne Welsh Church is a widespread and active community which reaches, literally, round the world. We have regular attenders at our worship services from Wales, Scotland, Germany, The USA, Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand and of course all over Australia. We think that having the services online is a wonderful thing and we are hoping to continue this, even when we get back to using the church building every Sunday. We are looking into getting the equipment in place before we get back to our buildings so that as many people as possible can share in our worship. Thanks again for listening diary. I had risotto for dinner. It was 16 degrees today with clouds. Ludo’s training went well. Alan started a new job. So nothing interesting really.