#stayconnected: A short opening song for humming and with gestures

When the choir started meeting online to say Evening Prayer we figured very quickly that singing via Zoom is not very satisfying. So I asked Pastorin Anne Smets, a good friend of the choir, to lead us in a simple prayer with hand gestures. And so we have been starting our online Evening Prayer with this simple prayer ever since:

“Opening my ears / I listen with my heart / waiting for God”

This morning when updating the page about our online resources I removed (for copyright reasons) the Taizé songs which I recorded for Holy Week. And so I was left with the question what else to put there instead.

You see, it’s the simple things which are very likely to stick. And so of course our little “opening prayer” came up, and very quickly a simple melody:

I hope you all learn it so that you can hum along and pray with your hands when we gather again in the church!

Yotin Tiewtrakul, Choirmaster

Church reopening: when and how?

The Chaplaincy Council met on 6 May (via Zoom) and discussed the reopening in the context of the guidance received from our Bishops and what is permitted in Hamburg. Although churches may open, there are very strict conditions set. The Council therefore decided that the church will stay closed until the beginning of June to allow for proper preparation.

Fr Pete Wright is still our locum until the end of May, however, and will continue until then to film services together with members of the congregation and post them here: see church online.

There is a small group of people working on what we need to do to reopen the church. We will let you know as soon as we can when that will be and how we are going to do it.

#stayconnected: Who would you like us to pray for?

As many of you know, we have been offering Compline/Evening Prayer on Zoom since the lockdown started and continue to do so every Saturday at 7pm. If you haven’t joined us yet, you can do so any time, simply by getting in touch with Yotin.

But, we are also aware that meeting on Zoom is not something for everyone. If you cannot join us online, but would still like to offer a prayer (for example for a specific person in your life or for a group of people or anything really you’d like to pray for), we are happy to include it on your behalf during the shared prayers part of our Evening Prayer.

Simply contact Yotin and Arwen at music@anglican-church-hamburg.de and they’ll make sure your prayer request gets included.