Ask a Simon!
Q and A from church members to our two Reverend Simons.
As we pray to discern and fulfil God’s will for Busbridge&Hambledon as we journey through and beyond Covid 19, here are some simple, and not so simple, things you might like to know. Simon Taylor and Simon Willetts have tried to answer some of the Qs following the suggestion to “Ask a Simon”.
Communion
When will we have in person communion in both kinds?
This one is dependent on national Church of England guidelines, and celebrating communion in both kinds is currently not permitted. We are greatly looking forward to sharing communion in one kind on Easter Day, and afterwards at each of the 3 services on a monthly basis.
Going back to church
We plan to return to church on and after Easter Sunday, 4 April, in accordance with government and CofE guidance for worship. Please sign up to attend and wear a face covering.
online worship
…Is here to stay. We have the ability to film and broadcast services from both churches, and will continue to do so after restrictions are lifted. This is in answer to questions received such as…
We will be offering YouTube services online after Covid for those of us not able to come every week (eg if husband is not a Christian)?
We’re not worried but we know there are some who aren’t going to be ‘back in church’ or going to home group for a while because they’re nervous of crowds. What are the plans for supporting them or will they get forgotten?
Why are you outside in the cold? Can’t you go in the church?
We’re not cold! Well… most of the time. It is kind of people to care. We’re outside for two reasons. One is practical and the other is about our faith. It has been quite liberating to be outside as it really shows people that our faith is not a building, service time or even a location. These matter, but they are not the be all and end all of our faith in Christ.
The practical reason is that we are in the ridiculous situation of having some of the smallest church buildings in a 30 mile radius but some of the largest congregations. We don’t fit in our buildings during covid! It is a wonderful problem to have. This is as much a Hertiage BCP at Hambledon issue as it is a Couch at Busbridge issue. Initially, we wanted to create something sustainable that would allow us to gather people if and as it was appropriate to do so. Outside was the natural place to do it, particular with the natural amphitheatre of the Old Rectory garden. This meant moving the ‘church tech’ to become ‘Old Rectory tech’. Once it was set up we found it far easier to stay in that location. In the meantime we have been working on filling the gaps in the tech in the church ready for worship in the building.
Hambledon Church and worship at Hambledon had an additional issue. There was no internet. Kind donations enabled us to pay for the internet to be installed from some way away involving wiring and tunnelling. This was led by Liz and Richard Cooke. It was a significant project and our thanks goes to them for all they did with such diligence, patience and care.
In terms of our faith, though it is true some would prefer to be inside (warmer) the church buildings (a building steeped in prayer) our faith is about generosity and reflecting Christ’s love. This means thinking of others. Several of those involved in services felt much safer being outside or in a room which had good space and excellent ventilation and space outside meant we could remain 2m apart during set ups. We found that if we were inside then we might not have enough people to run or deliver the services. We are all grateful beyond words for the way people have stepped up to be part of this growing tech team and the Holy Spirit has almost literally sent people to us to enable us to do what we are doing.
Our faith is also about generosity to our neighbours in the community across Busbridge and Hambledon. We began to hear comments in our local community about what might be termed ‘Christian exceptionalism’. People could not go into to their own ‘place of religion’ be it gather at a football match, visit the pub in groups, or even meet their own families in their homes yet Christians who are meant to do things for others can have 100 people together in their buildings. So, we decided to stand alongside our community and be one with them and lose the thing that mattered much to us in the belief it might enable people to see that we’re fundamentally about the state the soul is in (Mark 8:36). Each church had to make its own decision on this and we know there are different perspectives about the important of using the buildings and gathering to pray for the needs of the World.
Why do you use the chat on YouTube? It is distracting.
We are learning how best to use the Chat function during services. It’s lovely to get a sense of everyone watching together, and a level of conversation, particularly in the Contemporary Conversations services. However, we acknowledge that we need to discourage people using it inappropriate parts in the services and in more traditional services.
What is the average length of time that someone worships with us on a youtube service?
It depends on the service! Some are longer than others. We get quite a bit of info and the info is different depending on if people are with us ‘live’ or joining to be part of it later in the day or week. In terms of ‘live’ most people are with us most of the service no matter what it is. When we were only offering pre-recorded (last year) we found people often jumped to the talk and skipped other things. This gave an average worship time of c12-14mins initially but this got much longer as Lockdown I went on. Now, the ‘live’ service then goes onto the internet and ‘sits there’ and becomes similar to our pre-records of last year. What is interesting is that the average viewing of the sort-of-prerecord service is now (2021) around 30-35 minutes, depending on the service – basically averaging at ¾ of a service. The longest length of time on the post service upload is the BCP congregation. Incidentally, during Lockdown we’ve been averaging over 90 BCP worshippers when we usual had c25 in a physical congregation.
Can you mix the locations in services by having live liturgy from Hambledon and the live sermon from Busbridge?
This is what we are working towards and is partly why the tech has taken a bit longer. Unlike some churches with a single location that simply popped a camera in we wanted to get cameras for immediate use but also do things in a way which was as future-proof as possible so that we were not spending money unnecessarily. One of those aims was so that we could have two-way relay between both our churches. We’ve also included the Old Rectory rooms and the Church Centre at Busbridge in this tie up so that we have complete flexibility both for general use and for if there is ever a third localised lockdown in the next year or so.
Can we have more traditional hymns for the book of common prayer service?
At present we don’t have the resources to run the contemporary service at Hambledon. In order to strike a balance for both congregations we are trying to offer worship that is authentically “Hambledon” by offering a version of the BCP service but also demonstrating love to others to whom this is not their preferred style. To achieve this we are aiming to have one traditional hymn and one more contemporary in feel. We are also aiming to “host/pre-record” an interview most weeks so that we can stay in touch with the village and church family. We understand that we run the risk of pleasing neither congregation but in the circumstances our hope is that we can all demonstrate a generosity of spirit and compromise as we seek to worship.
MONEY!
What has happened to our finances over Covid as we’ve heard that other churches are in serious trouble; why haven’t we been asking people to give on YouTube?
Firstly, thank you to everyone who continues to give financially and sometimes despite your own changing circumstances. We have been blessed by continued giving whereas this has not been the case for some churches. Much of our giving is by standing order but many churches rely on hall lettings, wedding income or Sunday by Sunday physically ‘donation giving’. We have experienced people giving special one off gifts (eg to our family support fund with the largest gift to that in the past year being £10,000) and in October several people gave towards online ministry. We took a decision not to have a running ‘ticker tape’ across our youtube saying ‘please give’ because we knew new people were joining us. We want people to feel welcomed! We know that every Christian is called to give according to their means and we are blessed with a church family who have this written on our hearts. Earlier in the year we decided to continue to live this generosity in practice. Unlike some churches, we have continued our outward mission giving and held mission giving Sundays. We also stepped forward to offer our diocese our full yearly parish gift payment up front. This is both the cost of being a church here and the mission giving into supporting several other churches.
We have fantastic treasurers in Andrew and Martin and excellent, prudent stewardship of previous years (Gen 41;18ff). The PCC has been monitoring our expenditure and we have had to draw on reserves but we believe this is currently the right thing to do, partly to ensure we have been able to provide online ministry.
What can we pray for you and Simon W?
Resilence is a buzz word but for ST this is important – to be able to keep going in a manner which is honouring to Christ. Pray for revival of Christian faith across Godalming and area and that BHC will continue to stand out and step out in faith through the Holy Spirit.
If you could change one thing about church after Covid, what would it be?
Be generous. Everyone can be generous with things that matter little to them but be generous in the things that matter much. There are going to be people ‘post covid’ who are very nervous about gathering. Let’s honour this. We are unlikely to be able to go ‘back’ to Sunday services in just the ways and places we were used to. Let’s be genuinely open to the future – so long as it is God’s future. Sorry, that is about three things rolled into one!
You said in a sermon last year in the contemporary service that you wouldn’t change your past even though it had not always been easy. Would you still say the same in the light of Covid?
Yes, I [Simon Taylor] did say this and yes I stand by it but only in the context and sense that you have to hear that statement within the overall Biblical message it came from. as Christians we have a sure and certain hope of the things to come. We are not locked into our past nor are we locked into today. We can say this, but living it is where it begins to make a different and the Holy Spirit works to transform us.
More Q and As will follow. If you would like to ask a Simon anything, please do so below: