16th April 2020

It is really good to make contact with everyone again and I hope, that despite the restrictions, you were able to join in Easter worship through your radio, TV or on one of the many social media platforms.

It was interesting and encouraging to see how many opportunities there were available over the Easter weekend for worship and personally to know of many friends listening who would not otherwise have been involved in the journey of Easter.

At the Minster we will be continuing to put out a service each Sunday. This will be available from 10a.m. on Sunday morning.

For those who want to chat to other members of our Minster community there is the opportunity to meet online and ‘Zoom In’ at 4pm for the ‘Family Focus’ conversation and at 6.30pm for ‘The Gathering’ conversation.

Our Children Youth & Families Minister, Mandy, continues to put some great material out for the young people, details on our web page and social media platforms.

As the weeks pass more and more of us are being affected by the loss of friends and loved ones. It is with sadness that I share the news of the death of two members of our church family. Please pray for Jane Waite and her family on the loss of her husband Robin, and Trish Martin & Virginia on the loss of their mum Muriel Wick.

Bishop Frank is having a well-earned few days in his garden this week but I will continue to do my best to update you on any matters that may arise and hopefully keep you up to date with all the work going on behind the scenes at the Minster.

This week I thought it would be good to hear how Mark Keith, our Director of Music, and the choir are coping with all the changes. The following information has been sent from Mark;

Happy Easter!

Irene asked me to write a few words about the musical life of Hull Minster during these strange and troubling times.

As may be imagined, the ‘lockdown’ created immediate challenges for all of us and caused a great deal of head scratching. How would we manage to provide music for our worshipping community? What skills and resources would we need? How do we coordinate it all? How much should we aspire to provide?

Needless to say, our musical crew are a creative bunch. Before some of us could blink, the choir had set up a group chat on various media platforms, ideas were energetically thrown into the pot and people were offering their skills and expertise abundantly.

However, before I relate the unfolding story, let’s consider what it means to be a serving musician in Hull Minster!

Musicians are social creatures. They work in teams and rely on each other to provide the necessary constituent parts of the whole performance. Music simply cannot happen if some of the ‘cogs’ are missing from the machine! They congregate during dusky hours and learn/rehearse together (for countless hours over the years). And…when they perform during a service, they are offering their collective labour and craft to the glory of God and the worshipping community (very different to doing a concert for self-gratification). It’s an intensive and rigorous calling!

With all of that in mind, it might be easy to imagine that the isolation of our current existence would be a crushing blow.

Thankfully, the opposite is the case. Determination and aspiration are the qualities shining forth! It’s utterly inspiring to see so much enthusiasm and dedication being driven by the members of our musical community (I’m having to run to keep up).

In summary, our hopes are as follows: We are working to provide weekly musical worship across the range of styles that is HM. The process involves a lot of technology and recording - a very different way of working to live performance, and something that isn’t always immediately comfortable. We hope to see most of our family of musicians leading us in song as the weeks progress, ranging from individuals to fully sung choral hymns (and anthems too).

As ever, we keep each other in our prayers constantly.

Every member of our musical community takes great joy in offering their gifts, talents and hard work. And…if you happen to pass them some encouraging comments along the way I’m sure it would help to keep everyone smiling and feeling fulfilled.

Please enjoy and support the tireless endeavours of our team by joining in with the singing at home (don’t forget to prompt your friends to join us on-line too!) 

I hope that you are able to find plenty to keep you busy over the coming weeks. It is great to hear that John Swain is now registered and working for the NHS in a driving capacity, I am sure he is not the only one of our church family helping others at this difficult time.

If you have read the Lent Study book by Stephen Cottrell and enjoyed the Bible Studies that Val prepared in connection with the book can I suggest that you follow the new study on The Apostles’ Creed which Val will be starting this week.

Hope everyone stays safe and keeps well.

Love and prayers,

Irene
Associate Vicar