Spring News from our DP!
Spring Letter 2021
Dear Fellow Members,
What a joy it is to see the warmer days arrive and to witness the spring flowers coming into bloom! It is truly a wonderful time of the year.
“for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come and the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land.” Song of Solomon 2:11,12
With spring this year comes the hope that the coronavirus restrictions will be relaxed and I’m sure you are all looking forward to meeting with friends and family again. Above all I know many of you have been eagerly awaiting the day when church services will be allowed to resume. This now seems likely to happen in the near future, data permitting. We are cautiously optimistic that it may happen on Easter Sunday. What a wonderful way to celebrate Easter! We must say a big thank you to all our clergy who have been faithfully providing virtual services for the past year.
During February we held Area Sharing Session meetings on Zoom, during which branches were given the opportunity to report on ways they had been keeping in touch with members during the lockdown. Phone calls, emails, cards and doorstep visits were common to most branches, but some novel ideas were shared. Some branches held their own Zoom meetings and WhatsApp calls whilst others engaged in virtual coffee mornings and afternoon teas. It has been good to keep in touch with our MU family in these ways.
Our Festival Service on 21st March will now be a virtual service. We are very grateful that Dean Forde has agreed to dedicate the 11:00 am service from St Anne’s Cathedral that day to Mothers’ Union. We are also delighted that our All-Ireland President June Butler has agreed to be our preacher on this occasion. The service will be streamed live on Facebook, but will stay online for a month, so that means everyone will have an opportunity to see it.
June has also planned to do a sponsored walk to raise money for Mums in May. She plans to walk ‘21 in 21’ – 21 kilometres over three days in each of the 12 dioceses in Ireland. Unfortunately, due to current restrictions she will only be able to be accompanied by one person, but we can all be with her in spirit, and of course we can all sponsor her. She plans to start her walks in Connor Diocese, towards the end of March, so that is a great honour for us.
In Touch will be published in April and will be distributed by Area Chairs, together with the first issue of the new MU magazine ‘Connected’ from MSH.
May I wish you all a very happy and blessed Easter.
With my love,
Sally x
