Pew Sheet – 10th January 2021

The Rector writes  ’Our Link parish in Perton are having another Online Fundraiser Quiz for the Mothers’ Union next Saturday 16th January. We are all welcome to join in (I have even been asked to set the Bible Round questions!). If you like quizzes and are free next Saturday night, just email the Revd Julia at revjulia.perton@gmail.com to register your team. The entry fee is 10 pounds but like the last time, Julia has suggested that we can donate 10 euro to our local Mothers’ Union rather than go to the bother of sending over 10 pounds to the UK -is that even allowed now with Brexit! If you want to take part, you can put 10 euro in an envelope and leave it in the Rectory Porch at some stage. So do join me  (the ‘Canon Balls’ Team) online at 7pm next Saturday night.  

Simon Woodworth, our Wonderful Webmaster (who because of my bad planning, also has written both the Random Notes and the Intercessions today!)  Simon asks that if possible we should ’subscribe’ to the parish YouTube Streamer. If we get over 100 subscribers, it will enable Simon to do all sorts of wonderful things on YouTube for us. We currently have 72 so not far to go! It’s really easy to do, you just go to YouTube, search for ‘Carrigaline Union of Parishes Streamer’  and ‘subscribe’ – it’s totally free…Thanks!’   

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Random Notes  CCCLXXII

With our third lockdown already started, the need to stay in touch by other means has become even more important. Over the last few month a small group of us from Irish MENSA have been building up a series of monthly talks and social chats on a wide variety of topics. Last Tuesday we discussed knitting, and social knitting online using the Ravelry website. Our next talks are on farming life in South Africa and on managing pregnancy hypertension during a pandemic. Similar to services, we use online platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams to get together and chat. Unlike YouTube, these are interactive sessions where everyone can talk and share video or pictures. One particular treat from last Tuesday’s talk was to say hello to a friend’s new-born son.

Moving such conversations online presents some technical problems and some degree of organisation is needed. Making sure everyone can log in can be a struggle, especially if we need to prevent uninvited visitors turning up. Agreeing dates and times that suit everyone is also important. We have also found it useful to do one or two rehearsal calls just to make sure the technology doesn’t let us down!

However, the difficulties are worth overcoming for the simple joy in conversing and socialising with friends, without putting ourselves at risk of disease transmission. It is possible to set up such chats with phones, tablets or laptops. The talks are not intended to be lectures; a topic of interest provides the basis for lively and entertaining discussion.

It might be interesting to try something like this at a parish level, formally or informally. At the moment none of us can meet in person for the next while. Part of our motivation for setting up these discussion sessions was to reduce everyone’s sense of isolation and separation.

If anyone is interested in discussing this further, I’d be happy to discuss technical details. You can reach me at simonwoodworth@gmail.com or (086) 083-0639.

(Oh, and now I know what a Stockinette stitch is!)

SJFW