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My New Realty
When it first began, I put this down to one of those normal seasonal flu epidemics. It would soon go away, I thought. Little did I know! There was nothing normal about this virus. In one of the Homeless Night Shelter shifts I attended, I was asked if I still attend church service and I proudly replied, yes because I felt that God had my back. As it became more apparent this was a virulent pandemic, I remembered when Jesus was tempted by Satan to throw Himself off the pinnacle of the temple if He is the Son of God, Jesus said, ‘thou shall not tempt the Lord your God’. Keeping safe became paramount and Godly.
Not to sound cliché, but the world as I or indeed we knew it, has definitely changed dramatically and is never likely to return to what we called ‘normal’ pre lock down. We all now know the new norm is “stay at home, working from home, social distancing and stay safe”.
The most important of these is staying at home. It seems like distance memory when we were told being a couch potato kills but now it might actually save your life. What an irony but this is our new reality. Even though we now hear we have passed the peak of this pandemic, everyday still brings a sense of doom, sadness, heartaches, fear and anxiety. For those of us who still have to go in as “key workers”, the fear is ever so real. As you step outside your door, there is an eeriness in the air that reminds you that you are stepping into potential danger. In the mornings especially, there is a quietness and stillness outdoors that is a constant reminder of the unprecedented time we are in. I often wonder, I feel this way, how does the NHS staff being in the fore front of this battle, feel. I am fortunate enough to be able to work from home on some days but majority of the time I still have to go in to work. I count myself blessed and lucky to be able to do so as the prospect of being at home, all day week in week out except for one-hour exercise outdoors, is daunting.
My heart and admiration go out to those who have to face the general public all the time and well done as well to those who obey the order - stay at home. The times I’m at home, I’m generally working, endless Zoom conference calls, returning calls, emails etc. Sometimes, I get tired of seeing my face on these zoom calls and I get tempted to switch my camera off! After all, under normal circumstances one never really sees themselves in realty, so it can be a bit weird at times. However, it is also good to see other faces apart from the four walls of the house.
I am an extrovert that enjoys her own company and my ‘me time’ but not covid-19 imposed ‘me time’. The days I am staying home and not working, I keep myself entertained by watching viral videos (some of them are hilarious), funny posts, binge watch classic game shows on TV, virtual games or quiz times with my colleagues. I try to steer clear of too much News as it can get quiet depressing easily.
Talking about binging, how can I forget food! I have been indulging in YouTube cook videos with endless recipes. I stumbled across this:
I honestly thought it was going to be easy. I had not factored in that being at home would mean being in close proximity to the kitchen. You know what that means.
Anyway, this pandemic has tested our strength, endurance and resolve but it has also brought out the good in us as a whole. Captain (or Colonel) Moore’s achievement has been an inspiration to the whole nation. We cannot forget our platform- this newsletter. It is amazing that we are supporting and inspiring each other through whatever means whilst living in this current ‘digital neighbourhood’. In addition, in the midst of the devastating toll on human lives this pandemic has caused in Italy, it has also been reported that for the first time Barrel jellyfish was caught on camera gliding through the Venetian canals. It has also been recorded that incredible flora and fauna have been videoed there too, according to the Independent (21/4/20). The lack of boat activities on the water ways, lower emissions, and less pollution due to the lock down has allowed the water to clear and for natural life to thrive. There are countless other reports of how our ecosystems is reviving since lockdown even though a few of these claims have been debunked too. Nevertheless, I feel the lockdown has had some positive impact on nature. This is by no means a consolation but for me, it takes my mind off the doom & gloom to appreciating God’s creations and the cycle of life.
As we prepare to enter the new phase of this unprecedented crisis, no one knows what it will bring. I pray that God will give our Prime Minister the wisdom to make the right decision for us all. I’m not only worried about the impact on human lives but also on the economy - recess? It seems inevitable, bankruptcies, mass unemployment etc. I remember in prayer those who have been furloughed and what their fate will be once the government takes away this subsidy.
As the lockdown continues, the impact on our finances increases, so here are a few tips that could come in handy, you may already know of these but if you don’t:
? check your direct debts, are you still paying for things you do not actually need or can do without. Remember your bank can assist you if you need financial help e.g. most banks will waive interest on the first £500 of arranged overdraft & a discounted rate on all arranged overdraft over £500 until 9/7/2020, up to 3 months payment holidays on your residential mortgages & buy to let mortgages, credit card and personal loans until 6/7/2020 and business banking loans are available to businesses - 6 months interest free guaranteed by the government.
? Contactless payments have been increased to £45 from £30
? 6 months extension for MOT renewals.
? Council tax holidays during this crisis - speak to your local council for eligibility.
? Contact Sky Sports for a reduction in subscription.
? Don’t forget to freeze your gym membership.
? Try to keep sufficient emergency funds, ideally a minimum of 4 x your net monthly expenditure if possible.
I hope this helps.
Keep safe and please stay home!
Ifey
Lockdown from a teacher’s
perspective:





How does one begin to describe the last five weeks: terrifying, boring, tedious!
One begins to see the world through a different lens – not the rose-tinted ones where we feel that we are invincible, that scientists can solve anything. One begins to feel that we are destructible just like the robots, the garget and the various technological paraphernalia that we have surrounded ourselves with.
Coronavirus first came as a great big shock. My first thought as a teacher was to question how I was going to get my students (GCSE, A Level students) their grades, especially as I knew that they had worked so hard. But little did I know that that was not the challenge. The challenge would be, how many of these students and I included would survive to value these so-called results.
As teachers, at any given mishap (ill health, Snow Days, etc), we quickly think about our students and how we will ensure that they come out not having missed any form of education or come to any harm. We learn the meaning of every facial expressions, every cough, every temper tantrum and we get them through it and teach them how to overcome obstacles.
So, what is worrying is the fact that their own parents find it impossible to know these idiosyncrasies. It was shocking to hear/listen to parents both on the phone, television and radio complaining about these obvious attitudes of their children and young adults. To my horror, I had parents informing me that they did not know how to get their children to sit down to do the tasks that we set. One went as far as crying on the phone to me because her son used expletives when addressing her. Well, welcome to my world!
As teachers, parents leave their ‘little darlings’ with us and expect us to know what to do and perform miracles. Most of the time we do.
Teachers are social workers, nurses, babysitters, pseudo parents among other things. What Covid-19 has now shown is, it is time that parents take back the rein and get more involve in rearing their children. If anything, it is a good outcome.
Social distancing, self-isolating, whether a teacher, parent, child etc life still goes on.
Remain blessed, keep well and keep safe!
Chinwe
Dear Friends,
You may not have seen some recent news about corona virus, but I think we need to be serious about the social distancing, shielding and self isolation protocols. This is because of two things: the first is that it has been discovered virus was already in Europe and the US earlier than at first thought by as much as a month. The second is that there is a more virulent strain around in Europe and the US, which may mean that you can be reinfected. I would hazard therefore for those of you in Africa, that it was there earlier than you think and I would urge you to stay safe and practice the guidance and the older you are even more so.
With love in Jesus
Tony
Lectio Divina with your family
Resources for families from the Diocese of London
https://www.london.anglican.org/articles/lectio-divina-with-your-family/?utm_source=Full+Diocese+list+March+2020&utm_campaign=229f8de1c7-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_06_25_09_32_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_33ff8205dc-229f8de1c7-453574117
Myfanwy’s Story: Exeter Bombing
While thinking about lock-down and people’s reaction to it, Myfanwy recalled a memory from her childhood in Exeter when, on 4 May 1942, the City was heavily bombed
This is her story:
“We lived in Exeter in one of the Victorian-type large houses with equally large gardens. We had installed an indoor Anderson shelter in the drawing room and that is where we went when there was a raid. On the Thursday and Friday there had been quite bad air-raids over Exeter but none on the Saturday. I said I thought the Luftwaffe had wanted to go to a dance. On the Sunday night I was woken by my mother as the siren had been sounded. We had no time to dress as my father, being a doctor, had to get out first. He was the deputy commandant of the City’s ARP.
The receptionist at the first aid post had a way of warning him about the level of the raids which were coded by colour, Red or Yellow. She would say, “This is first-aid number one speaking, air raid prediction “Yellow” or “Red”, and my mother would open the window and whistle to my father who was right down the bottom of the garden. She whistled the tune so that the neighbours would not know there was an air raid coming. It was meant to be kept secret until the planes were confirmed and the sirens went. That night the siren went and the bombs started. My father went straight away. My mother and I and the dog went into the small caged air-raid shelter in our drawing room. We could hear the bombs and the planes and we could see through the curtains the flames from them. My mother went out to see if there was anything she could do but of course there was not. She looked up at the house and saw we had to get out because a basket of incendiaries had fallen on our roof. Because it was a big house we walked out through the lounge. I still remember the flowers on the table. Then we walked out through the door. My mother called the cat but at that time the thick wooden oak stairs were ablaze and we couldn’t find him.* We went across the drive and sheltered there. In these situations you were instructed how to shelter. I was terrified. We heard footsteps which were the wardens coming to see how we were and to rescue us. They never heard my mother calling to us. I begged her not to answer as I was convinced they were German parachutists who had come to capture us. Eventually we were rescued and taken to the garden opposite where the other two houses of the triangle were taken over by Gaumont British staff who were all females and sat there. They provided a tin hat for my mother and the woman sitting the other side of me. There was not one for me because I was too small. Every time we were dive-bombed somebody would shout “duck” and we would duck, but bending their heads towards me I would get hit by the rim of their tin hat and it hurt.
When we were walking down our drive I looked back and saw a sheet of flame coming out of our attic window and I knew then that it was gone. At some point my father, looking very shaken, had come from an incident. He saw a couple of the men talking. One he knew was pushed forward to tell him his house was on fire and there was no trace of us, so, he went to the garden and tried to call us but he couldn’t because his voice had gone.
But he did find us and apparently he always remembered I said, “Hello daddy we’ve been blitzed!” He had to go back which I felt was a bit unfair on him. My mother went to the end of the garden with him just for a minute to talk with him. He went and she came back. Eventually the sirens went and we went back to the third of these houses and we all had a cup tea. I was put on a sofa to go to sleep but of course I couldn’t. We went to sit on the steps and watched our house crumble to ashes and smoulder. I remember at that time the lilacs were in bloom in our garden, it was a glorious morning and the birds were singing - a real dawn chorus.
Afterwards wherever we went to find shelter we couldn’t because of unexploded bombs. We walked down the residential road. A woman came out from the house opposite who recognised me from a photo on my father’s desk and took us into her house where we washed. We still had the dog with us. One of the Gaumont girls** took a belt from her dress to be a collar and lead for the dog. Then somehow my father got to know where we were and one of his friends offered to drive us down to Teignmouth where my sisters were at boarding school. On the way my mother stopped at a boarding kennels where they took in the dog. I was always very car-sick and would lean against my mother to be sick. On this occasion I started to lean against her and she said, “Oh please darling don’t be sick that would be the last straw” and so I sat up straight and wasn’t sick and never have been since. (Years and years later when I was a ward-sister, a patient said she had always been car sick and I told her this story). When we got to the convent school we had more tea and they found us some clothes. My mother had the longest school dress available which reached to her knees. My father had a patient in Teignmouth and they had told him to come to them and that is what we did. When we arrived I had a long bath that I will never forget. I sat in that bath, I was alone, and I could think about what had happened”.
*If you are wondering what happened to the cat, he was rescued by my father from our green house in the garden!
** Gaumont Girls were women who worked for the Gaumont British Film Company.
Christian Aid Week begins on Sunday, 10th May. Because of the Coronavirus it’s going to be nothing like any Christian Aid Week you’ve ever seen, but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening! The need among the poorest people in the world is as great as it was before the virus appeared, so we’re moving Christian Aid Week online. There are lots of ways in which you can get involved, through our daily live-streamed worship, fun quizzes, and prayers and other worship materials, and by giving. You can find everything you need here: https://www.christianaid.org.uk/news/coronavirus-guidance-christian-aid-week-events-and-activities.
Coronavirus has shown us that our futures are tightly connected. It threatens the health and livelihoods of our neighbours whether they’re in our street or on another continent. People in poverty are at the greatest risk - they already lack water, food and healthcare, and they will feel the impacts of the virus most severely. Please help Christian Aid help them.We're working together with partners and faith leaders to inform people about the risks, offering hygiene and hand washing sessions, providing supplies to health facilities and training frontline aid workers. We're making sure food packages reach some of the most marginalised families, and ensuring protection for women affected by domestic violence. Thank you for everything you do, and give, to make this Christian Aid Week work for the poorest people in the world.
Please continue to pray for those who have asked us as a community to pray for them
Okey Jnr, Margaret, Yvone, Anna, Jason, Ian, Eva, Juliette, Ivor, Myfanwy, Tim and Dorothy
We at Golders Green Church will continue to offer a number of ways we can and will keep in contact though emailing and phoning each other, the use of Facebook and the website, sending out updates by supporting those who need shopping, prescriptions fetched, letters posted and anything else you may need if you are isolated at home, whether you are in the over 70-year-old age group, or, have underlying health conditions.
The important thing is, PLEASE LET US KNOW. We are drawing up a list of volunteers we can call on to help. If anyone wants to add their names to this, please email Rex rex@gg-pc.co.uk

We, at Golders Green Parish, have received this recent email appeal from Alyth Garden Synagogue, the organisers of the Night Shelter Project, in conjunction with “Homeless Action Barnet(HAB)” and “Together in Barnet” in which we have been involved for several years. We have been sent the following update with, most importantly, an appeal for essential provision and other kinds of help.
We are so glad that the night shelter guests have been found accommodation by HAB and others working with them. It was a cause for concern that we could no longer accommodate them in our church from the beginning of the lock-down and it is so good to know they are all being cared for at other venues.
Please read their appeal and see if you or anyone you know can help in any way. It would be so welcomed.
NIGHTSHELTER APPEAL FROM AMANDA and TEAM:
“I hope you are all well and are coping during this difficult time. Thank you again to everyone who has helped out and supported Together in Barnet and Homeless Action in Barnet over the last few years, we are so grateful.
We wanted to update you on where we're up to at the moment. In conjunction with HAB we are now supporting 90 clients with bi-weekly deliveries of food and essential items.
If you would like to help with either of these roles, please e-mail me at amanda@togetherinbarnet.org
At present the volunteering roles we need help with are:
1. Delivery drivers - Clients have been placed in accommodation across Barnet, Brent, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington, Camden and Harlesden.
2. Volunteers to pick up clients' medication from pharmacies and deliver to HAB to then be put in the food parcels.
We also need donations of the following items. These can either be delivered to HAB (36B Woodhouse Rd, North Finchley, London N12 0RG) during their opening hours (Mon-Fri 9am-3pm) or ordered from the link below and then they will be delivered straight to HAB:
• Tinned meat
• Tinned fish
• Tinned sweetcorn
• UHT Milk
• Butter/marg small tubs
• Tinned veg; peas and carrots (not chickpeas and kidney beans, lentils etc)
• Jars of sauces, bolognese, Carbonara etc
• Super Noodles with flavourings (Pot Noodles etc)
• Individual cooking oils
• Sachets of salt and pepper
• Ketchup
• Stock cubes
• Toilet Rolls
• Biscuits
• Long life puddings: Tinned rice pudding/Tinned fruit
• Small washing up liquid
• cleaning sprays
• Toiletries
Amazon wish list link: https://amzn.eu/5DT7ICj
Together in Barnet has asked if we can collect volunteers details in order to allow them to be able to contact volunteers directly, especially during this rapidly changing time, to ensure that we are best placed to support our clients.
They are also developing their policies and procedures and in going forward it is mandatory that they have all volunteers’ details who are involved in Together in Barnet for safeguarding purposes.
I would be grateful if you could send the details of the following information as soon as possible by e-mail to amanda@togetherinbarnet.org
1. First Name:
2. Surname:
3. Mobile number (landline if no mobile):
4. Email address:
5. Which Shelter venue or volunteer community are you associated with:
6. Consent to be added to the Together in Barnet database of volunteers:
7. Consent for your information to be passed to Homeless Action in Barnet who are coordinating logistics:
Thank you so much to everyone who's been helping out already! We couldn't do this without you.
Thank you all so much again, your help is invaluable.
Best wishes
Ruth, Rex, Ron & Danielle

Radio, Television and Online Worship
You may wish to join in worship during this time through television and radio.
Check online, in the Radio Times and elsewhere for details:
Songs of Praise BBC 1, Sunday afternoon, variable times
Sunday Worship BBC Radio 4, Sunday, 8.10am Choral Evensong BBC
Radio 3, Wednesday Daily Service
BBC Radio 4 (Longwave only), weekdays, 9.45am
Big Sunday Service Premier Christian Radio, Sunday, 7am, 8am, 10am Easter Sunday Eucharist A service is usually broadcast on the BBC on Easter morning
Free 24 hour telephone church service 0800 804 8044
Online resources Church of England Daily Prayer https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/join-us-service-dailyprayer
https://mailchi.mp/b9d86a4acdc7/coming-up-from-st-pauls-cathedral-1274047?e=377e26b1db St Paul’s Cathedral have a number of resources available for us to use.
Church of England Online Resources during this time https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/coronaviruscovid-19-liturgy-and-prayer-resources
Go On-line to " ps://www.achurchnearyou.com", put in Area or post code and find a local church that broadcasts Worship.
Prayers from Christian Aid https://www.christianaid.org.uk/pray/churches/coronavirus-prayers
https://pray-as-you-go.org/ Pray as you Go (a short service each day in the Jesuit Tradition)
LICC have some great resources on their website https://www.licc.org.uk/
Especially on Covid-19 https://www.licc.org.uk/ourresources/prayer-journeys/presence-pressure-purpose/
YouTube - Worship Videos
The UK Blessing https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PUtll3mNj5U
Be Thou My Vision | Celtic Worship https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiukM6WHQEQ
How Great Thou Art Celtic Worshiphttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKGf06YM7rQ
Stand Amazed | Celtic Worship https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmt5VNnrJIMI
Songs of Praise, My Favourite Hymn | BBC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkx9VRqzVCE
May our attitude be as that of christhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUn1lbf2rwQ
Fire of Your Spirit - Sarah Libermanhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOYJr6lF_Bc
Oseh Shalom (He who makes peace) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TBDrq2vHxs
Messianic Jewish Alliance (You are Holy) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P86tfWZWwoo
MJA Dance with me/Glory come down https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEt6pEYKvbE
Heartcry of David Jesus Only You - Martin Smith https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI7N1JMvtnE
Alternatively, try and tune into Premier Praise.
Do you have favourite worship songs? Please email them to Rex