UPDATE: We have agreed that while we are meeting in housegroups over the winter of 2023/24 we won’t meet on zoom.

As the first lockdown began we looked for new ways to keep in touch, and began a fortnightly group on zoom. It meets every 15 days (Mon-Thu) so that there is an opportunity for everyone to attend (It is best to check the diary dates as it does get a bit complicated).

The format is that we split into breakout rooms for 10 minutes to have a ‘proper conversation’ with 3 or 4 other people, before coming back together to share news of the church family, to report news of what we are doing as a church, the foodbank, Toddlers’ Online, Bower House, and then spend about 45 minutes in the larger group.

We have been able to get to know people who have joined the Congregation during the pandemic, and they have been able to see the people behind the masks!

It has been a great place to talk things through, the Nativity Panels on the steps grew out of an idea that we needed to find an alternative to our Tree Festival in December.

We used zoom polls to decide which elements of the website were most helpful for Sunday morning worship, which led to a simplification of the page.

We’ve played games, written poetry, shared the things we were thankful for – which fed into Sunday morning worship, shared ideas for walks and local country parks.

Most weeks have ended with a shared Bible reading and an opportunity to sing along together on mute!

Many of us have found it very helpful when we have been through particularly difficult times. It’s been good to be part of a group and to reduce the feeling of being isolated.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far, 27 people have joined in (not all at the same time), It has been a steep learning curve so we have allowed ourselves some pride in our technical prowess!

We will be back in September 21 when we are moving to a monthly pattern and hope that more people will be able to join us.