Announcements
Book Study | The Color of Compromise: the Truth About the American Church’s Complicity in Racism, by Jemar Tisby. Thursdays, July 16-Aug. 20, 7:30-8:30 p.m. via Zoom. Bethany Bonnemere and David Dunderdale will lead this book study. Learn more here.
Congo Conversation Group | Saturdays, July 18, August 1, 15, 29, 8-8:45 a.m. Join us for a unique opportunity to learn from our brothers and sisters in Congo and deepen our relationship with them as we read together and discuss a series of articles that speak to current issues and generate meaningful conversation on the theme of Health and Society. Learn more here.
Listening in the Wilderness with Jesus: A Time of Prayer & Fasting for Repentance & Healing
Fridays in July | Details Here
In this time of fasting we are asking God to reveal what he is doing in each one individually, what he is doing in the Church, in our nation, and in the world. It is a time of prayer for individual and corporate repentance, particularly around the issue of racism.
Finance | Give Here
Our fiscal year ended on June 30. Our total offerings were around $1,690,000 (100.2% of budget), and our expenses will finish around $1,570,000 (93% of budget). The difference of around $120,000 will be transferred to the Future Vision Fund.
We are thankful to God for providing for our needs. We rejoice in the generosity of our congregation in these uncertain times. Please pray for our leadership to make wise decisions in all aspects of our church life.
There are multiple ways to give to Blacknall:
Checks mailed to the church office.
Automatic bank drafts as a part of bill pay directed to Blacknall using your local bank.
Gifts of stock. Contact Rick Every or Carol Smith.
Online giving (including ACH, debit card, and credit card donations). Members can also schedule recurring online gifts when signed on to CCB. Details here.
About the Music
Wednesday was my son’s birthday; if still alive, Jim would have turned 42. Crippling depression and anxiety were as much a part of his life as his off-the-charts intellect; but in that tug-of-war, what Churchill famously called the “Black Dog” usually proved stronger. The life that I have known has been built on “easy hope” – because I have a certain level of health, education and finances, I assume a future that is full of light and life shaped by my desires. Simply because I want to do or be something, I have hoped – assumed – that it will be so. As I said, easy; more accurately, shallow. Biblical hope is something quite different. It is not grounded in what we bring to the table, but in the provision, protection, and presence of the Lord of the Table. In Christ, the Light invaded the darkness, Eternal Hope proving stronger than temporal hopelessness. When we made the recording, Jamie and Dana sang, “Deliver me, O God”, and I heard my son’s cries: deliver me from this pain, this fear, this loneliness. As the song says, I “love my own comfort,” while Jim “feared having nothing” except more discomfort. In this life, I “taste” the goodness of the Lord, while Jim now knows, experiences, sees, fully. The song is a statement of faith and of longing, a beautiful prayer of crying out to the Deliverer. My certain hope is to see both Jim and Jesus (because He has said so), and to fully know as I have been fully known. Deliver me, O God – let me taste Your goodness, today, and one day and forever, I shall not want.
From the love of my own comfort,
From the fear of having nothing,
From a life of worldly passions,
Deliver me, O God…
From the need to be understood,
From the need to be accepted,
From the fear of being lonely,
Deliver me, O God;
Deliver me, O God.
And I shall not want, I shall not want,
When I taste Your goodness, I shall not want;
When I taste Your goodness, I shall not want.
From the fear of serving others,
From the fear of death or trial,
From the fear of humility,
Deliver me, O God;
Deliver me, O God.
And I shall not want, I shall not want,
When I taste Your goodness, I shall not want.
Prayer & Thanksgiving
Yes, the Harvey’s were our featured missionaries for update only two weeks ago. But Vincent Stubbs just received an unusually informative note from Thomas describing what is, and will be, going on in their lives. So, slightly abridged, we are sharing that today in lieu of a standard-format missionary update:
My apologies for not writing sooner. Covid 19 has had all sorts of unexpected consequences and one of them has [been] to up the level of work to be done, so I've been playing catch up for a couple of months.
In a sense, that is good news. OCMS continues to go full steam ahead even in lockdown, but everything has been moved online and I'm [the] officer overseeing that transition. That said, we have had 12 students successfully complete their degrees from around the globe. We hold the examinations online via video conferencing. We also have a strong cohort of students wanting to join the programme, which is good, on the down-sided we won't be able to hold their induction in Oxford due to travel restrictions, housing matters, social distancing, and required isolation upon arrival, so we have postponed the Induction programme until 2021 April.
Judy is busy if not busier than me. She has completed her ordination training and will be ordained in September with the Anglican Church. She is active preaching, teaching, pastoral visits in her ministry to the Cutteslowe Housing Estate. They have opened a food pantry/larder for residents that make boxes of food available and that has met a real need in the community. It's strange during ZOOM because Judy and I will be preaching to different congregations in the same house but in different rooms :)
Emma is here with us in Oxford and works from home for her company in London that is also all working from home during the pandemic.
Joe and Susan moved last week to Washington DC where Dr Joe has a position with the Consumer Protection Agency. Baby Anne is doing well. Paul and Caitlin are in Raleigh and in lockdown with Shatavia and baby Clara (who we have only seen via Facetime). Judy and I are going to fly to see Joe and Susan on August 1 and then to Raleigh two weeks later to see Paul and Caitlin. Do keep us in prayer as to health matters. We will be in the USA for 3 weeks and will not be venturing into public except for walks or runs, but we do not wish to catch Covid.
Spiritually we are well. In the early morning I've taken to listening to Scripture read by David Suchet on my phone app. In the 150 days or so that we've been in lockdown. This has been refreshing and has brought me back to sections of Scripture especially in the Old Testament that I haven't thoroughly covered for years.
In terms of health, we are well and using our time and place in countryside for running exercising and getting outdoors even when we are doing our work.
Blessings to you Vincent and all at Blacknall.
- Tom and Judy