Dear Friends,

I hope you are well and keeping safe. We are living in challenging times and as such are called to live as the Church in a different way in these days.

Now that we can’t meet together physically at Muswell Hill it is time to ask how we can pursue our mission and ministry during this period of enforced social distancing?

The Revd Dr Jonathan Hustler, Secretary of the Conference said: “We are asking people to change their way of ‘going to church’ to help to protect themselves and others.  In the words of Dr Hustler, we are encouraged to think differently on how to be church. So, I am going to explain how you can access our worship online and share the positive impact it is having.

All our services are posted on ‘New River Methodist Circuit’ Facebook page (the picture above is from this page – there may be lots of faces you recognise!). You can watch this without needing a Facebook account. Holy Week & Easter services will be uploaded to this page. We will upload all worship to Muswell Hill Methodist Church Facebook page.

Why is the worship happening on the circuit page and not MHMC you might ask? Basically, it makes it easier for our circuit ministers and we are part of the circuit. We have a YouTube channel called New River Methodist Circuit where you can watch the services.

Our online schedule

• Sunday Worship led by Circuit ministers and local preachers
• Monday-Saturday 9am – Morning Prayers
• Monday-Friday 11am – Thought for the day led by ministers
• Monday 2pm – Lounging with the Lunns, an informal chat

People have watched and shared our services and gatherings from all over the world including Australia, Ghana and Iran. We may still have some teething problems with our services so please bear with us because this is all new for the church, leaders and tech team.

It is encouraging to see churches of all traditions finding creative ways to share the Gospel of Jesus. Methodists belong to local churches, but are part of a larger connected community, the Connexion. A sense of being connected makes a difference to how Methodism is structured and at its heart is an understanding of the Christian community as the ‘body of Christ’.

During these challenging times, we need to remain connected as a church via the world wide web, social media, Zoom, Skype, telephone, letter or WhatsApp. Just as sisters and brothers around the world and throughout history have taught us is when the world feels darkness it is time for the church to shine the light of hope, peace and love, and we can do this online.

Stay blessed and be connected

Reverend Matt