Bury Unitarian Church

MY RECENT VICE-PRESIDENTIAL DIARY

July has not been especially busy, as regards V-P duties, unless I count crossing out cancelled engagements, that is! Now I am beginning to face a new problem; as our churches begin to reopen, I'm starting to be asked whether I'll be able to fulfil promises I made, months ago, when this world was vastly different. The short answer to the question is that I don't know! The problem is that I need to phrase my answer diplomatically, without being too specific! I am busy preparing two Zoom services for August---one for Padiham, and one for Edinburgh---and I conducted my first ever Zoom service, for Bury, on July 19th. This seemed to go well, although there were some technical challenges, and I do thank those people who supported me. I spent many hours in July Zooming, including participation in a course entitled "Leading us out of Lockdown", aimed at helping those who conducted online worship and chaired online meetings, and found it very interesting and helpful. Zoom services vary from church to church: Edinburgh places great emphasis on sharing---exchanging news, feelings and ideas, and this is also the case at Altrincham. Padiham's service fits very neatly with Bury's, finishing just in time for us to log in to ours; it is similar in shape, uses a variety of service-leaders, and covers many interesting topics. July 26th offered me the opportunity to visit Dublin Unitarians, in their beautiful church on St. Stephen's Green. The church is open again, now, although it was obvious that restrictions were firmly in place. The occasion was an arranged Zoom visit from Padiham Unitarians, wih a service conducted by Pamela McCarthy, one of the Lancashire Collaborative Ministry team. Thirty Dublin members were actually present, and numbers were more than doubled by Zoom participants; the service was thought-provoking and enjoyable, and the resident congregation gave the visitors a warm welcome. Modern technology made the experience possible---one of the more positive experiences to emerge from a prolonged period of lockdown. We are beginning to attract visitors of our own---from Rochdale, Belper, and Padiham, and it is good to welcome them; they seem to be impressed by what we have to offer, too!

Having stood in for Kate, during her two-week leave, I have been amazed at the amount of work involved: devising and typing services, emailing material, printing off and delivering copies, and leading worship. All this requires time and effort, and has to be done, every week. In addition, Kate joins our several church-groups on Zoom, setting up the arrangements, and chairing, whenever necessary; she also carries out pastoral work, at a distance, and edits the calendar, each month. Thank you, Kate, and thanks, too, to Ade for all his support of Kate, both in personal and in technical terms.

I know that many people are longing to be back at church, and I hope this time will not now be long in coming. However, church cannot be as we have known it; the Church Officers, and other interested parties, have been working hard to reintroduce attended worship at Bury; there is much to be done, and the health of the congregation has, at all times, been both a priority and of paramount concern; government guidelines must be followed, too, so please be patient, if all is not as you would prefer, just yet; we are working on it!

Click here to read all Anne's diary entries since her installation