Dear friends,

Isn’t today’s date lovely? 4/3/21. I love numbers, you know where you are with them! (Unlike cats and tortoises, the animals in the rectory, which are more troublesome than all the children!)

It’s been a busy week, and I want to thank you for your prayers for the meeting that we had with the bishop this week, as part of the preparation for the new Ministry Area structure. It was a good meeting with some excellent questions and helpful answers. My personal view of the changes that are coming is that we have exciting times ahead. Not all the changes will be easy, and there will need to be some mind shifting from old habits and practices, but I take to heart and believe the bishop’s words, that if we are not prepared to change then our future is not good.

The Church is very good at getting bogged down in policy, , buildings, and money. Whilst all these are essential in any organisation,  it is so important that as Christians we remember that those things are vehicles for the real priorities – showing the love of God to our neighbours, worshipping God in all that we do, and striving to reach into the dark corners in our communities to be the light of Christ. ( I am sure you can think of other areas of mission and discipleship too).

Our money and our buildings must be for these purposes, and we need to remember that they all belong to God. This will help us in the coming months as we learn new ways of working and I am confident that we have a really hopeful future. Please continue to pray and I will keep you informed of the next steps as and when they arise.
And now what you’ve been waiting for – a list of links for services etc! Have a good weekend and keep in touch. 
With love from Sally xx

 Usk Ministry Area Onlines Sunday service – 9.30am Sunday 7th March

 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS_MlCI7UW1xWiQm7ZxMr1A

Zoom Coffee After Church 10.30am Sunday 7th March

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85702033318

Meeting ID: 857 0203 3318

Zoom Lent in a Bag (each date is the same link, and each week the four sessions will cover the same material)Monday 2pm (led by Raglan MA)Tuesday 9.30am (led by me)Tuesday 3pm (led by Goytre MA)Thursday 2pm (led by Raglan MA)

https://zoom.us/j/99927240868?pwd=Z3h1WjlHc1hBZjdiaFhXSGJTOE91dz09

Meeting ID: 999 2724 0868

Passcode: LENTEN

Zoom Morning Prayer 10am Wednesdays

Meeting ID: 946 717 9804

Passcode: 8fkwr2

Zoom Compline 8pm Thursdays

Meeting ID 954 9508 3856

Passcode COMPLINE 
— 

	Rev’d Sally Ingle-Gillis
Usk Ministry Area Leader
Monmouth Diocese
07813 264429

Good afternoon, and welcome to another list of online opportunities with a little bit of chat thrown in! I’m trialling a name for this weekly letter – what do you think? 

The weeks seem to be flying by and we are now well and truly in Lent. Did you decide on a Lenten discipline? How is that going for you? Ten days on and I am managing mine. I was really heartened by the numbers of you who have, in addition to your own private disciplines, also been part of the online opportunities.

Below are the usual lists of services available during the coming week. If you haven’t tried something on this list but are considering it, I warmly encourage you to give it a go – you won’t know whether it’s for you if you don’t try it, you might be surprised! There’s no obligation to go again if it isn’t right either!

 Usk Ministry Area Onlines Sunday service – 9.30am Sunday 28th February https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS_MlCI7UW1xWiQm7ZxMr1A

Zoom Coffee After Church 10.30am Sunday 28th February

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85702033318
Meeting ID: 857 0203 3318

Zoom Lent in a Bag (each date is the same link, and each week the four sessions will cover the same material)

Monday 2pm (led by Raglan MA)

Tuesday 9.30am (led by me)

Tuesday 3pm (led by Goytre MA)

Thursday 2pm (led by Raglan MA)

https://zoom.us/j/99927240868?pwd=Z3h1WjlHc1hBZjdiaFhXSGJTOE91dz09
Meeting ID: 999 2724 0868
Passcode: LENTEN

Zoom Morning Prayer 10am Wednesdays

Meeting ID: 946 717 9804 Passcode: 8fkwr2

Zoom Compline 8pm Thursdays

Meeting ID 954 9508 3856

Passcode COMPLINE 

St David’s Day Tea and Quiz 4pm Monday 1st March

 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89359660336?pwd=S2gwS0M5elhKYWxhZWlKOHpocTN3Zz09
Meeting ID: 893 5966 0336
Passcode: DEWISANT

Finally, please can I ask for your prayers. On Wednesday 3^rd March at 7pm there is a meeting with the bishop about our new Ministry Area structure. This will be a chance for Bishop Cherry to explain her vision and her hopes for our future, and for us all to hear answers to our questions. I know many of you have sent in questions and I am anticipating that this will be a lively and useful event. If you could pray for Bishop Cherry and the Diocesan Office and Officers who have been working so hard to begin to implement their exciting vision, and please also pray for all of us, yourself included, that we may listen with open hearts and minds, ready to accept change and work together in ways that will allow God’s love to show in every corner of every community.

I hope to see as many of you as are able at coffee on Sunday. Don’t forget, you don’t have to come to the service beforehand to join in with coffee, but let’s keep that between ourselves!

With love,

Sally xx– 

	Rev’d Sally Ingle-Gillis
Usk Ministry Area Leader
Monmouth Diocese
07813 264429

Good Evening, it’s that time of the week again!

This week has seen the beginning of Lent, I hope you have found some of the online Ash Wednesday resources useful and appropriate. It seems strange to be entering this season in our church calendar still restricted in ways that give me a sense of dejavu. It was during Lent last year that the first lockdown began!

As usual this is an email with many links to online services and activities, I will list them as you have already received other emails detailing them – 

Usk Ministry Area Onlines Sunday service – 9.30am Sunday 21st Februaryhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS_MlCI7UW1xWiQm7ZxMr1A

Zoom Coffee After Church 10.30am Sunday 21st Februaryhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/85702033318
Meeting ID: 857 0203 3318

Zoom Lent in a Bag (each date is the same link, and each week the four sessions will cover the same material)

Monday 2pm (led by Raglan MA)

Tuesday 9.30am (led by me)

Tuesday 3pm (led by Goytre MA)

Thursday 2pm (led by Raglan MA)

https://zoom.us/j/99927240868?pwd=Z3h1WjlHc1hBZjdiaFhXSGJTOE91dz09

Meeting ID: 999 2724 0868
Passcode: LENTEN

Zoom Morning Prayer 10am WednesdaysMeeting ID: 946 717 9804Passcode: 8fkwr2

Zoom Compline 8pm ThursdaysMeeting ID 954 9508 3856

Passcode COMPLINE

How I long for a day when I can write to you with the dates, times, and venues for services in person. Although it is worth saying here, that when we do return to our buildings we will continue to offer a weekly Sunday service online too, for those who are unable to come to the services in our buildings for whatever reason.

One of the bright moments for me this week has been being able to visit our primary school. There were no children as it is half term, which meant it was safe to visit, so Rowena Brace from Tredunnock Church, who is a new foundation governor, and myself, had a lovely tour.

It was a pleasure to meet the head teacher and to hear the amazing work that the school is undertaking. I am in awe of all the staff and families for persevering. Please could I ask that you keep them all in your prayers as they navigate an ever changing landscape.

My other highlight this week was bumping into a parishioner who had ventured out for the first time in many months. What a privilege to chat and to pray together. May I have many many more occasions like that.

And so I think I will close, promising to continue to pray for you all, and asking that you might too pray for me. Please keep in touch, you know where I am, and I am always pleased to hear from you.
With love Sally xxx

Feel free to forward this to anyone who might be interested.

— 

	Rev’d Sally Ingle-Gillis
Usk Ministry Area Leader
Monmouth Diocese
07813 264429

Good evening everyone,

Another week has flown by and I continue to meet new people and learn new things.

There is so much information, and it is a constant delight that you are all so helpful, patient and willing, thank you!
A considerable amount of information has come out of the diocese this week about the new Ministry Area plans. These plans affect us all and you may like to click the link below to see the details, including information about the upcoming meetings which wardens will be in touch with you about – https://monmouth.churchinwales.org.uk/en/clergy-and-members/ministry-areas/

Lent begins on Wednesday and I am really thrilled that my brave guess at needing 150 Lent bags was just about spot on! How amazing is that?! Whilst these are designed to be used in our own time and space, you may like to join one of the Zoom sessions running across the deanery which will begin the week after next. I will include the link in next week’s email. We will not be running the Diocesan Lent Course “Dying to Live” ourselves this year, but we have had an invitation to join the group being run from St. John’s Maindee by their ordinand, Sarah Rosser (Who you might know from when she worked in the Diocesan office). I don’t have a link for that yet and will forward it separately when I have it. 

The links for our Sunday services are 

9.30am Service on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS_MlCI7UW1xWiQm7ZxMr1A/videos

10.30am Zoom coffee after church – https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85702033318

Meeting ID: 857 0203 3318

There is no Morning Prayer next week but Compline is happening on Thursday at 8pm on Zoom –

ComplineMeeting ID 954 9508 3856

Passcode COMPLINE

This letter is feeling like the email of a thousand links for which I am sorry! Such are the times.

As we enter Lent we may feel the urge to take stock, reflect on what we are and aren’t doing, and to consider our faith life and our life as part of the church. May I encourage you to make those reflections part of your prayers over the coming days and weeks. If you have any strong feelings about something that you would like to be doing, or that you think should change, I would love to have a conversation with you. I am new to you all, and it is important that I listen and consider everything that I can learn from you. We must move through the coming months together and the best way to do that is to communicate well, and share our hopes as well as our anxieties. 

In my prayers I am asking God to hold all this and you, please could you pray the same for me.

With love,

Sally xx

—

	Rev’d Sally Ingle-Gillis
Usk Ministry Area Leader
Monmouth Diocese
07813 264429

Good Morning Friends,

Another week has rolled by and I’m beginning to find my feet. I broke the photocopier in the vestry this week so I must be well and truly part of the team! (I didn’t actually break it, I am reassuringly advised, it just developed a fault on my watch!)

This weekend I will be turning the vicarage kitchen table into a production line as I make up the Lent bags. These seem to have really caught people’s imagination, I’m delighted. Please continue to mention them to people you know, we have 10 days before we start.

In addition to the Lent Bags the Diocese has an online Lent Course called Dying to Live. We are hoping to run this via Zoom across the deanery with sessions being led by familiar faces. I will let you know more about this as soon as it is finalised.

As in recent weeks we have a Sunday service on YouTube available from 9.30am here – 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS_MlCI7UW1xWiQm7ZxMr1A/videos

If you join us live then you might also like to come to coffee on Zoom afterwards. This is proving very popular and it’s such a joy to be part of old and new friendships alike. What is church if it doesn’t include informal gatherings of friends as well? We meet from 10.30am and the link is – 

Coffee after Church https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85702033318
Meeting ID: 857 0203 3318

Also don’t forget the Deanery Zoom Morning Prayer on Wednesday 10am

Morning Prayer

Meeting ID  946 717 9804 

Passcode  8fkwr2 

And the Deanery Zoom Compline of Thursday 8pm 

Compline

Meeting ID 954 9508 3856

Passcode COMPLINE

Perhaps that’s enough for this week. I am so pleased to receive emails from you, and hope you know that you can contact me at any time. You are in my prayers daily, and if I haven’t met you I hope to very soon.

With love,

Sally xx

USK MINISTRY AREA

NEW MINISTRY AREA LEADER

To Each Church

We are asked to Announce/Circulate the following on Sunday 20^th September:

“ Bishop Cherry and the Ministry Area are pleased to tell you that, following much prayer, discussion and a rigorous interview and discernment process, the Reverend Sally Ingle-Gillis has been appointed to be the new Leader of the Usk Ministry Area and its seven churches.

The Reverend Sally is currently the Priest in Charge of Wentwood Ministry Area and she will remain in that post until Christmas. A Service of Licensing and Induction to Usk MA will be arranged early in the new year.

Speaking after the unanimous decision of the interview panel, Bishop Cherry made it clear that she was making the appointment with total confidence in Sally’s abilities to undertake this bigger role and provide outstanding leadership in the future.  

Sally, who demonstrated a deep understanding of our respective needs and had quietly visited the outside of all our churches to pray, has subsequently spoken of her excitement over her new role and her certainty that God has plans for us together”

Thanks be to God!!!

Blessings

Graham

A socially distanced Thanksgiving Service was held at the Priory Church of St Mary on the morning of the 23rd August. This was the first service since March 15th and attended by 30 people the maximum allowed under the current restrictions. The service was led by our lay minister Bill Savage.

The Priory church of St. Mary in Usk is ready to open for personal prayer.

The church will be open on Sundays from 2pm until 4pm and Thursdays from 10am until noon.

Please enter via the North Door.