140 and counting ...

 … that’s the number of Fridays that the Said Service of Evening Prayer has been held since it was first launched on Zoom in May 2020. Around 12 to 16 people, mostly from St Dyfnog’s and around the Mission Area, still gather virtually from their homes at 5pm on Friday evenings to worship together. 

The Services are led and the Lessons are read by different people each week, and we focus on a specific occasion or Festival as the Church’s Calendar allows. Thanks to modern communications, of course, anybody can join from anywhere ….. one of our organists/pianists is in Devon; thanks to my getting an email address wrong, we have a strong new friend in Southport; and we have a regular participant in British Columbia - he says it’s the only time he’s ever attended Evening Prayer at 9:00 in the morning! Another benefit of modern communications is that the number of people who log on could be (almost!) unlimited!

The Services will continue as long as people want them. If you would like to taste and see if they suit you, please email me jghcymru@outlook.com for the Zoom Link. It’s also on the St Dyfnog’s website www.stdyfnog.org.uk.  We look forward to seeing you. John Harris

Virtual Evening Prayer

While normal church services are suspended, Denbigh Mission Area’s Travelling Evensong has become Virtual Evening Prayer: that is to say, there is a said service, hosted by John Harris, on Zoom every Friday at 5:00pm. It lasts about half an hour. Service leaders and readers change week by week.

Here is the Zoom link, which you will need to copy and paste into your browser: 

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9175346976?pwd=bHZVTWFRVTlVMHZqcTBvSXBBdWh1QT09

The link will be active about fifteen minutes before the service is due to start.

If you’re already familiar with Skype, Zoom will pose no problems. No software installation should be required; you need only to use the link above to join the service. Order of service and the Psalm for the Day will be shown on screen. If you do run into difficulties, please email me (kath-b@btconnect.com) after the service, and I will do my best to resolve them for you – a practice Zoom session, to explain how everything works, is perfectly possible.

All are welcome to join us – please forward this information to anybody else you think might like to do so.

How it all started ...

Over the last few years, a number of churches in the Mission Area have held services of Evensong which seem to have been fairly well attended and greeted with some enthusiasm. More than once, the comment has been heard “Why can’t we do this more often?”

In response, John Harris (St Michael’s, Caerwys) and Kath Mitchell-Dawson (St Dyfnog’s, Llanrhaeadr) proposed the following:

• A group gathered from the various churches in the Mission Area to travel around all the churches, providing a service of sung Evensong.
• Format: sung responses, simple chants for Mag & Nunc, simple chant for psalm, hymn.
• Frequency: normally the second Friday of the month
• “Host” church to provide, if they wish, a cantor to lead the service and an organist, though the travelling group can provide both if the church is unable to do so.
• Travelling group arrives an hour before the service to practise.

The first service was held at St Dyfnog’s on Friday November 9th, 2018. Since then, a service of Evensong has been held every month, and the TE choir has visited all fourteen churches in the Mission Area. They had already embarked on a second round of visits when the Coronavirus crisis caused the suspension of all church services. However, they hope to be back as soon as restrictions are lifted.