This week’s UK national virtual service from the Church of England will feature a family from Wakefield hosting the service from their living room.
And unlike previous online services, it will feature a family game.
The service will feature the Rev Canon Leah Vasey-Saunders, the Canon Precentor of Wakefield Cathedral, West Yorkshire, who will be assisted by her husband the Rev Dr Mark Vasey-Saunders, Academic Tutor at St Hild College. Also taking part will be their children Miriam, 9, Elias, 12, Jude, 14 and Reuben, 16
The service for Low Sunday – the second Sunday of Easter – will explore what they have learnt about faith through the challenges of living in lock-down.
It follows the Easter Day service featuring the Archbishop of Canterbury from the kitchen of his flat in London, which attracted more than 600,000 views on YouTube. While it was also broadcast on Radio 4, a spokesman said that a third of the YouTube audience were under the age of 34.
Canon Vasey-Saunders said: “It’s quite daunting to be the first family to lead one of these lockdown services for the nation/national church but we were excited to be able to offer something of our own eclectic expression of faith at home in this way.
“We’ve had so much fun with the planning and preparation – some of our outtakes were hilarious.
“We have also come to a new understanding of what it means to seek and find Jesus when we find ourselves stressed, tired (occasionally grumpy) and stuck at home together 24/7.
“We’ve been left wondering where we might encounter Jesus next during this lockdown and what new opportunities and future he might be calling us to step into.”
The service includes hymns led by the choirs of Wakefield Cathedral and St Martin-in-the-Fields church in London as well as the Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir.
The gospel reading, from John Chapter 20, recounts how Jesus came to meet his scared and confused disciples behind closed doors after the resurrection and how Thomas, in particular struggled to accept it until he had physically seen and touched him.
In her reflection Canon Vasey-Saunders will explore how God can come among us bringing comfort and peace while we are physically apart during the current pandemic.
“When Jesus comes to find the disciples, and meets this bunch of scared, doubting, guilty, angry people, his words to them are ‘Peace be with you’,” she will say.
“And then he breathes the Spirit on them. Jesus comforts, inspires and empowers his church to be a people who, in the light of the resurrection, change the world.
“He does this, meeting them where they are – in the shadow of the cross, behind closed doors, in their homes.
“From there the resurrection changes everything.
“From here the resurrection changes everything.
“Peace be with you.”
The service will premiere on the Church of England’s Facebook page at 9am on Sunday and can also be viewed through the Church of England website.
[[] https://www.facebook.com/thechurchofengland ]
[[] https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/church-online ]
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