1. Over the Easter weekend, there will be brief services for Maundy Thursday (TONIGHT), Good Friday and Easter Sunday available online – in time for their normal time slots – early evening Thursday (a reading of St John’s passion), Friday morning (featuring Robert Gribben as preacher) and Sunday morning (a ‘normal’ service…). Links to the services can be found on the home page as the services become available, and on the online services page. Remember that, if you have a smart TV (or Apple TV, Chromecast, etc.), you can watch the service on the TV by opening the YouTube app on those devices.
2. “Getting through the crisis. As we are planning the autumn edition of Mark the Word, we would like to include contributions from you about any aspect of the topic of Covid-19. If stuck , please turn to possible sources such as the radio, Letters to the Editor, cartoons, literature and anything else you wish to draw upon. If you have something to contribute, please contact Rosemary or Suzanne.
3. Synod of Victoria and Tasmania e-news update
4. News from the Justice and International Mission Cluster
5. The latest Synod eNews is here, including a digital Crosslight.

1. Sunday worship this week will be via a pre-recorded service, either  directly online at YouTube on the MtE ‘channel’ or by following the links from the home page of the MtE website.
2. If you’re still trying to get your head around what COVID-19 is — the nature of the threat and so on — this video from the Doherty Institute at the University of Melbourne is very helpful.
3. THIS SUNDAY March 29 (Lent 5): we continue with our reading of the ‘servant songs’ from Isaiah, this week looking at Isaiah 52.13-53.12. See here for more information. For commentary on the Psalm and Gospel reading for this Sunday, see here.

1. If you have not already seen it, please see the post about the cancellation of gathered public worship after this Sunday.
2. Lenten Studies will continue to their completion, now via the online service ‘Zoom’. Details of how to join in on the online discussions (very easy!) will be available soon. 
3. Our Congregational AGM has been postponed pending a return to normal Sunday worship gatherings.
4. THIS SUNDAY March 22 (Lent 4): we continue with our reading of the ‘servant songs’ from Isaiah, this week looking at Isaiah 50.4-11. See here for more information.
5. As Bunnings has cancelled all its fundraising BBQ’s for now, Hotham Mission’s BBQ is now cancelled too. The Mission did receive a $500 donation from Bunnings in lieu of the BBQ!
6. LATE ADDITION: Pastoral Letter from the VicTas Moderator in response to the present COVID-19 crisis.

20 March 2020

Sisters and brothers in the Congregation of Mark the Evangelist,

last night the Church Council met to consider the meaning of the current COVID-19 crisis for our life together at MtE. Taking into consideration the necessity of containing the virus and the growing anxiety in the community about even those social gatherings which are still permitted, we resolved that the worship service this coming Sunday March 22 will be the last gathered service for at least four weeks, and likely longer. This will include the Holy Week and Easter Services. We believe this to be the most appropriate step with respect to our common worship under these circumstances. The service on March 22 will be as usual, except that the Eucharist will be received only by the celebrant, we will space the chairs out more than usual, and we will not serve morning tea afterwards.

We recognise that this is a dramatic step, although we are mindful that a large number of churches have already or soon will also cease gathered public worship.

We are aware that some MtE members have already decided no longer to attend worship under the present circumstances and that others may also be feeling that they don’t want to attend this coming Sunday. Please act in relation to Sunday’s service in whatever way feels most appropriate to you.

While we will no longer gather for worship, it is our intention to continue to deliver a weekly worship service online. The details around this are yet to be finalised. We hope that at least an audio recording of the service will be available even from this Sunday, although there is a steep learning curve to ascend to perfect this! We will let you know when these online services are available and how to find them on your smartphones or computers.

Most meetings and study groups will no longer take place face to face but via an online platform – ‘Zoom’ – which has already proven efficient and easy to use over the last few days; we will help anyone who needs to use Zoom to get it working. Operations in the church office are still largely normal but we will be shifting to more work being done from home. The Hotham Mission staff are thinking through how to continue to maintain as much as possible the Mission’s programs.

We are in the midst of something new to us all, and quite disorienting. As we are forced to distance ourselves from each other for ‘natural’ reasons, so must we also strive to draw closer to each other in every way we can, for love’s sake.

I encourage you to be carers of each other in word, deed and prayer.

I encourage you to let others know when you are in need, when circumstances mean you can’t help yourself.

Please let me or your elder know if you are free to assist others, should the need arise (some help has already been offered, if you would like to ask for assistance).

The Church Council will, of course, continue to monitor the situation closely and, as we await changes for the better in our circumstances, we will do whatever we can to maintain as much as possible the common life of the congregation towards the ends of faith and hope and love.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Craig