28 October 2020

Rev. Irene writes:

I had a very pleasant surprise just a couple of days ago when the postman delivered me a parcel. Inside was the first copy of Matt Woodcock’s second book ‘Being Reverend’. I had read the draft, just so I could check there was nothing too outrageous about our time together in it but seeing it in finished form was so good.

Zoe Ball (Radio 2 Breakfast presenter) says on the front cover ‘Matt’s honesty, wild humour and huge love of humans shine like gold in this book…. I loved it, Read it now!’

Many of you will remember Matt, if you did not know him Matt and I were ordained together at York Minster and both served our curacy at Holy Trinity as it was known then. He is a larger than life character who was called to Ministry by God as he road along the A19 Selby, York road some years ago. He tells his early journey to Ministry in his first book ‘Becoming Reverend’, worth reading.

The important thing about Matt is he speaks to the ‘ordinary’ people and they love him. As Ian my husband has flicked through this new book he has laughed and cried because he feels Matt shows him he is just as important to Jesus as those who dedicate their lives to Him through the church they attend. Please pray for Matt and his family and that this book will touch the hearts of thousands of people who read it.

Being Reverend will make a fabulous Christmas present and is available now online or in book shops. Hopefully, it will be on sale in the Minster Shop soon along with this year’s Christmas Card designed and painted by Julia Allum. Julia will be taking orders and is happy to deliver/collect orders if required. Please contact her on 01482 854030.

Robin Alden one of our churchwardens has offered to update us this week on Bellringing in times of Covid:

Hull Minster has a fine ring of bells in the tower and I hope you enjoy hearing them when they call you to church on Sundays.

Church bells need people to ring them. We are fortunate to have a band of 15 or so ringers that means we can gather 10 or so for every Sunday morning. We had a steady trickle of new recruits who want to learn to ring and we had been improving the standard of ringing month by month.

Then along came Covid-19. As you will recall, when the initial lockdown happened churches were closed entirely and so no ringing could take place. The last time we rang before lockdown was Sunday 15th March.

When the lockdown started to ease, churches were not the first thing to open, and as churches opened first for private prayer and then later for public worship bell towers could not reopen straight away.

As time progressed, the government set its regulations. The Church of England took the government’s regulations and issued guidance to churches. The Central Council of Church Bell ringers (CCCBR) published and disseminated the latest guidance to ringers everywhere. The CCCBR realized that, to the amazement of bell ringers everywhere, the government did not see the resumption of the ringing of church bells as a priority for their efforts to reopen the country. The CCCBR presented experts to join the governments advisory committees and eventually we were able to resume ringing, with a number of restrictions, on 19thJuly.

We cannot yet restart our Monday night practices and we can only ring for services. We are limited to ringing for 15 minutes at a time. We have a rota for ringing so that we have only the exact number of ringers in the tower as we have bells to ring on that day, to help ensure that a ringer only needs to touch one bell rope.

Because of the Covid regulations, ringers must ring bells whose ropes are 2m or more separated from each other. Where bell ropes fall in a straight line, as several of ours do because of the large ringing circle in our very large ringing chamber, that distance can be reduced to 1.5m and where ringers are in the same ‘bubble’, such as is often the case with ringers from the same family, that distance can be further reduced.

We set out with a tape measure to work out who could ring what, from where, and when, and we produced this simple and easy to read(!) chart: https://towerandbells.hullminster.org/HMRings.html

Our assistant ringing master, the aptly named Harold Bell, uses that chart along with his wit, charm, intelligence, latest weather forecast, and a steam car, to work out the rota for who is ringing each week.

We were pleased to ring for Tom and Amber’s wedding recently, and we have another wedding to ring for this Sunday.

We say a prayer together before we ring each Sunday, so when you come to church and hear the bells please think kindly of us ringers up in the tower pealing out God’s praise and summoning the faithful in English style. Robin Alden, Ringing Master.

Rev Irene concludes:

OPENING TIMES FOR PERSONAL PRAYER AND VISITORS

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday 12-3pm.

WEDNESDAY Holy Communion at 12:30pm. Entry through the north church side door.

SATURDAY 31st October – 4 p.m. Evening Prayer

This Sunday there will be an online service at 10am and a live service in the Minster at 10:30am. If you would like to be in the Minster for the service at 10:30am please book a place on-line here or by telephoning the office on 01482 224460.

ADVENT SUNDAY: Our 3:30 pm service will launch on 29th November. A service for all ages with contemporary style music from our worship band.

Also you have a chance to help raise funds for Christian Aid by completing a Humber Bridge Crossing. For full Information click here.

Readings:

The Collect for this week.

God of holiness,

your glory is proclaimed in every age;

as we rejoice in the faith of your saints,

inspire us to follow their example,