This year’s Annual Church Meeting will be held at TRINITY Southover on Wednesday 4 May at 7:30pm. You can download all paperwork for the upcoming meeting here.
Blog
Update
Thank you so much to all of you who filled in the questionnaire or sent us your thoughts on how we open up TRINITY as we come out of restrictions. As you can imagine a huge amount of work, time, and prayer has gone into planning how we do this and it has been really helpful to have your thoughts. The Leadership Team and Church Wardens have sought to take on board hugely varied views and responses to the questionnaire, alongside balancing the resources we have available to lead and preach at services at this point, provision for youth and children’s work, and available volunteers. Having looked at all the key areas, we believe that the planned Sunday morning provision is the only viable way forward in the short term.
However these decisions are also not set in stone, or setting a precedent, and initially cover the period from September – December. We fully expect to be able to come further out of restrictions as time goes on, but we will also continue to monitor Government and Church of England guidance, as well as monitoring local conditions. We also expect that our new Rector (whenever that may be) will want to make decisions for themselves.
With all this in mind from Sunday 8 August these changes will take place:
At all locations:
- Masks – We ask you to continue wear a mask unless seated.
- Seat booking – will not be required, but we will keep QR codes at all locations for those who wish to check in.
- Socially distanced seating – there will be an area of socially distanced seating at all locations for those who would prefer to be more spaced out.
- Cards will also be available – indicating you wish to keep a seat empty next to you.
- Congregational singing – will be allowed at all services without masks.
Service Timing
- The BCP service will remain on Wednesday at 9am at Southover
- South Malling will revert to 9.30am
- The online service and Southover will remain at 10.30am
- The 4.30 at St John sub Castro will continue at this time on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month
- Youth and children’s work will remain at 10.30am, centralised at one site, and to be hosted at St John sub Castro from September
Phase 2/ From September onwards
- It was clear from the questionnaire that communion in two kinds and more frequent live sermons were important to many of you. We are still planning on how we might allow both of these to happen, logistically
- Refreshments and fellowship time will be allowed at all locations as soon as possible, but we will need a bit of time to rebuild rotas and in some cases find new volunteers.
- We will restart a Sunday morning service at St John sub Castro, at 10.30am
- We aim to transition from an online pre-recorded service to a live stream
Thank you for your grace and patience as we have grappled with these decisions.
With every blessings,
The TRINITY Leadership team & Church Wardens
Lent & Ash Wed resources for 2021
Ash Wednesday & Lent
We all hoped we would be back meeting together on site for worship and church activities by now, but as we approach Lent we still find ourselves in restrictions. Here are a few suggestions for ideas that might help you focus on your faith this Lent.
Ash Wednesday
We’ll be holding our Ash Wednesday service on Zoom (please contact us for the link). The service outline is available below. If you are not able to join Zoom you might still like to read and pray through this service by yourself or over the phone with a friend.
Friday reflections
On Friday evenings through Lent members of TRINITY will share a short reflection on a passage of scripture. Find them on our website HERE, YouTube and Facebook.
Lent idea sheet
If you’d like some suggestions of things you could do, whatever your age, to help focus on your faith, have a look at the ideas on the sheet, all based around key Christian themes (& put together by a member of clergy from another church).
Children’s resources and bags
Are being put together by Emma and team – if you’d like to receive them please contact emma@trinitylewes.org
Churches Together Lent Course
Churches Together in Lewes are offering a Lent course called ‘Caring for Creation’. It will be run via Zoom on five Tuesday evenings, starting on 23 February from 7.15-8.45pm, all are welcome. For more information & to join the course contact Gretel Scott: gretel.scott@btinternet.com
Lent Books
If you’d like some Lent reading we’d recommend any of these new books:
Living His Story by Hannah Steele (£9.99), looks at revealing the extraordinary love of God in ordinary ways and is The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book for this year.
Lent Reflections on Life and in Christ by The Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally (£9.99), explores the ways in which we can live the Christian life to the full today.
Candles in the Dark: Faith, Hope and Love in a Time of Pandemic
By Rowan Williams (£9.99) offers comfort, hope and encouragement for the troubled times of coronavirus.
Daily encouragement from SPCK
Sign up here for a daily email reflection: https://spckpublishing.co.uk/bible-studies-and-group-resources/lent
Share the Hope
Share the Hope is an Advent calendar for the digital age (without the chocolate!). It’s about hearing hope and sharing hope, especially in this strange and difficult season we are all living through, because Advent is really less about chocolate and all about hope – the hope we find in Jesus.
Join us here each day between 1-24 December and you’ll find a daily dose of hope, including a reflection, a bit of the Christmas story and something to share. All the posts will appear here and on our Facebook page, or you can sign up to receive them via email direct to your inbox – click here.
Bereavement Service 2020
Join us for our annual service as we remember our loved ones. Online, Sun 6th December, 3pm.
Each year TRINITY works in partnership with Cooper & Son Funeral Directors, to offer an opportunity to remember our loved ones who are no longer with us. Although Covid19 restrictions mean that we can’t run the service as we usually do, we still feel it is really important to offer those who are grieving, no matter how long ago your loved one died, the opportunity to join us to remember.
Although it will be a bit different we are going to run an online service that will be available to view online here and on our Facebook page here. Join us on Sunday 6th December at 3pm.
Advent
The darkest and the coldest time
Is also the best time
…….
At the departing times
The coldest times
of our lives;
At the times of excitement
and the times of expectance.
At the times of intersection
when hard choices
have to be made.
Be with us
Prince of peace.
Kate Mcllhagga
We are now coming to the time of year, when the light disappears from our land. The bright sunlight of summer has been subsumed into the glorious colours of a riotous feast of autumn colour.
Slowly now the leaves are falling from the trees and bowled down the streets by strong gusts of equinoxal gales, and as the leaves fall bare branches are exposed and all the colours slowly fade into a uniform grey. Life withdraws into the earth and the very pulse of life slows down.
As a special holy gift for this time of year we are given the fast of advent.
Sadly, this gift has been lost in this culture as an all intrusive commercialism seeks to extend Christmas ever earlier into a feast and frenzy of consumer spending.
Advent is a time of quietly awaiting the coming of Christ, it is a time of withdrawing our energy from the mad treadmill of busy life and to make room in the darkness to prepare our hearts and minds for the coming king. A time to attune our bodies to the slowing rhythms of the natural world around us, A time to say no to our bodies and yes to the coming Christ. A time to stand on tiptoe eagerly awaiting the time when not only our bodies but the whole of creation will be redeemed and made new.
We wait for a God who does not stay aloof of His creation but enters in to all the mess and chaos we have made of His beautiful world. He enters this world as a weak and vulnerable baby to redeem it, and at His perfect time He will enter as conquering Lamb to overcome everything which spoils our world to remake heaven and earth as the perfect dwelling place where He rules in the midst of His people.
Most of all Christ wants a personal advent into the hearts and lives of each of His children, Christ breaks through to shine His light into our personal darkness to make His dwelling in the very centre of our lives.
Advent is a time of special rhythms of prayer so join us in St John’s at 8 am on a Friday as we spend an hour simply listening to what God is saying to us, or read through one of the many excellent Advent mediations which are readily available.
Ian Hempshall
Sharing Your Faith on Social Media
Recently I went to the Premier Digital Conference in London, and the overarching theme of the day was digital evangelism: sharing our faith online.
It’s always an inspiring conference but I was particularly challenged this time when Rachel Jordan Wolf, Head of mission and evangelism for the Church of England, raised the need for a movement of people online -for us all to be the people who God made us to be kin the digital world. How many of us talk about our faith online? How many of us actually consider whether we are representing Jesus on our social media? Imagine how much of an impact we could all have if we shared a few thoughts or comments every now and then?
So if you’ve not considered it, or if you’re wondering how you can share your faith on your social media, or how to start, here’s a few tips & thoughts on how to get going.
- Firstly, friend or follow non Christians! How can you share The Word if all you do is follow people who have already accepted it! Rachel Jordan Wolf shared these stats at the conference:
67% of the population knows someone who is a Christian
43% of the population believe Jesus rose from the dead
20% of those who have had a conversation with a Christian, want to know more.
So there are a lot of people out there who genuinely would be open to hearing about faith! Get following some of them!
- Don’t be afraid. What’s the worst that can happen? A few negative comments or an ‘unfriending’? Isn’t Jesus worth more than that? And anyway his word talks a lot about not fearing, so trust and go for it!
(also it’s worth having a standard response ready in case you think you are going to get negative feedback, like: ‘thanks for that, I’m not going to engage with that online but have a great day, bless you’) which gives you an out if you need it.
- Start simple.You don’t have to go all out JESUS JESUS JESUS! You can retweet a faith filled tweet, or a scripture graphic from another user; or you could join in with an online initiative like Thy Kingdom Come, or 40 Acts; or perhaps simply mention that you have been to church this weekend…
- Use themes that are accessible, like spirituality, mindfulness, or prayer. These can often create an opening to talk/ comment further. For example, mention you have had a ‘quiet time’, or have been praying for something.
- Be you in the way you interact online – don’t try and be holy and perfect! Also think about what are you good at? How can you use that for God’s glory online?
Maybe you love walking on the Downs? So share some pics with the hashtag #GodsCreation or mention how creation brings you closer to God.
- 6. Create opportunities for people to respond. Ask questions.
Eg: ‘just off to pray for friends and family, can I pray for you today?’
‘Loved church this morning, challenging and uplifting. If you ever want to come with me, let me know!’
And then make sure you respond if someone comments or replies!
- Share your story. How is Jesus at work in your life? Can you share how you became a Christian (in short form – social media is not the place for an essay!) but also think about the every day, how has prayer helped you recently? Has a scripture really stood out to you today? The word of God is living and active (Hebrews 4:12) so believe that it can work in people’s hearts – even online!
- Always remember who you represent (goes for real life too!). None of us are perfect of course, but try and post with grace and humility. You might be the one Christian someone knows. Getting ranty or cross with someone on Facebook might not be entirely helpful, but being someone who brings a peaceful approach to difficult conversations can really have an impact.
Some good advice I received was: never post on social media, after 9pm, after an alcoholic drink, or when at emotional extremes. All of these can affect your ability to post with reason and with love. Step away from the keyboard or turn off your phone, and come back to it another time.
- Use images and videos, people love something to look at. Use your own or check out some of the Christian resources for image and video that are available. Using Facebook Live means it is automatically highlighted in your friends feeds, so why not be brave and do a quick live piece about why you are a Christian?! Videoing on a smart phone is really easy and super easy to share too.
- Resources and hashtags
Hashtags help your posts to be seen by people interested in a particular topic so use an existing one like #LoveMyChurch or #TeamJesus and it will help people to see your posts more, or invent your own!
There are masses of resources to help you share your faith online too. For example, check out YesHeIs (https://uk.yesheis.com/en/) Go Chatter Videos (https://gochattervideos.com) and Speak Life to name just a few (https://speaklife.org.uk)
The Just and Loving God who brings us peace and harmony
“Men simple in wit can be well built up to heavenly living by the reading and knowing of the old testament.
For in the beginning of Genesis they can know, how God made heaven and earth and all creatures out of nothing, and made man to his own image and likeness, and to have bliss in body and soul without end.” From Chapter 3 of Wycliffe’s prologue to the bible.
In the Sunday morning services at TRINITY we have been studying the book of Revelation. One thing that has been plainly obvious is that it is a book that is impossible to understand without a thorough grasp and knowledge of the Old Testament. In fact, one Old Testament scholar, JA Motyer would start his lectures by telling us to open our bibles and tear out the separating pages between the Old and New Testaments. There are 933 quotes and allusions to the Old Testament within the New Testament.
Many people’s idea of the God of the Old Testament is as a vengeful God of hell fire and the God of the New Testament as the gentle Jesus full of love, this just proves they have never really read or understood the bible at all. If you do a bible search for “hell fire” you only get three hits; all in the gospels, from the mouth of Jesus. As Christians we aspire to love and grow more like Jesus as we live our Christian lives. So how do get to know love and understand Yahweh (Jehovah), the great I am of the old testament. As always Jesus is a good starting point. Jesus said if you have seen me you have seen the father. John 14:9
In the Old Testament, we see the Fathers heart in the tender love that Yahweh has for the people that He has called, even when they are continually sinning and turning away to other gods. He sends His prophets to call them back, only if they refuse to repent, and turn back to Him are they finally sent into exile so they can learn that total love and dependence on Him is the only way to live. This is particularly seen in books like Hosea: Hosea 2 and Isaiah: Isaiah 40.
So how do we get into the enormous body of writings of the Bible? One good place to start is the Daily bible Readings that we are following as a community at TRINITY. They also have a section where you can read through the bible in a year, reading two chapters on the old testament and one of the new. This is a tremendous way of getting a feel for the whole bible and how the books relate to each other.
At New wine this year I discovered a new way, that is using Bible hub. This is a tremendous resource, for instance, look up Micah 6:8 click on Interlinear and you find some key old testament words “hesed” (meaning: covenant love, mercy and kindness) and “Mishpat” (meaning justice and right standing before God), click on the words and you get a concordance with a link to every other occurrence of these words.
Remember that when Paul said that all scripture is inspired by God 2 Timothy 3:16 he was talking about his bible!
John Norris is an aspiring part time metal sculptor from Hurstpierpoint. He bought a welder in December 2018 and started tinkering in his spare time. He dreams of one day being able to make a full time career out of metal sculpting. The pieces on display at the Lewes Art Wave festival are still some of his very first creations!
Martina is an artist and theology student with a background in professional photography and this is her second time exhibiting at TRINITY. Her photographic work this year considers how experiencing the world through digital media has changed our perception of it, while her community sculpture project invites to look inward and explore themes of holiness and wholeness.
Sarah is an award-winning Illustrator, author and painter. With an illustration career spanning 18 years, Sarah has illustrated for many clients including Kew Gardens, IKEA and The Guardian. Her staple work comes from illustrating funny children’s books. Her latest book CHARLIE CHANGES INTO A CHICKEN is the best selling debut middle grade book of 2019.
Suzanne is a semi-abstract, contemporary landscape painter and a teacher. She is inspired by the land, sea and big skies. She paints in oils and mixed-media from memory and experience, and her work is developed using artistic intuition. She says ‘my greatest loves are atmospheric weather and fleeting light and this I try to capture in my work, through my own emotional response.
Jo Marks is a British figurative artist. Using graphic lines, her chalk and charcoal drawings are developed from a fascination with the human form.
Her unedited marks reflect the energy and urgency with which the subject was observed. Whether these marks are intuitively abstract or more true to life, they always express an authentic understanding of form.
While Jo tries to reflect this sense of dichotomy in her carefully balanced compositions, she also aims to ensure her work brings a sense of peace. “Knowing when to stop is a huge challenge, I never want to over-bake my pieces but instead reflect the joy with which they were made.”
Martina was struck by the stories of pain, suffering and incredible strength and integrity she discovered just among friends and family. All hidden behind the socially acceptable facade of: ‘I’m fine’.
For this series she has photographed women with a hidden illness or trauma. The women choose a flower, branch or other foliage to represent the fact that there is more to discover than can be seen on the outside. The choice of foliage or its positioning may reveal something about their illness or struggle and how it affects their relationships and identity.
Although I have been sculpting in clay for many years, it was as a mature student that I went to study ceramics at Falmouth College of Art. Returning to Sussex I set up my own studio producing figurative stoneware sculpture. Singers, dancers, performers, some written over with sonnets or songs, my work reflects my love of literature and my early career in the theatre. I constantly go back to basics, which for me is an endless exploration of the human form.
The theme of Communication for this exhibition is a broad one. Visibly, verbally and tangibly, art is the great communicator, giving us fresh insight into the human condition. I like the image in the bible of the body being the temple of the soul. I hope these quiet abstract nudes have a meditative quality - meditation being perhaps one of the purest forms of communication.
The other two figures were inspired by events in the life of Jesus Christ 2000 years ago, but they are very modern tragedies. A Syrian refugee, her child in her arms and her possessions on her back, flees her country. A mother cradles her son after violence on a Hackney street. Only you, the viewer can say what, if anything they communicate, but if you have paused to look and wonder for a moment why these things happen, then thank you.
Suzanne Hennegrave is a semi-abstract, contemporary landscape painter and a teacher. She is inspired by the land, sea and big skies. She paints in oils and mixed-media from memory and experience and her work is developed using artistic intuition.
