John Sherbourne

Carers Week is an annual awareness campaign to recognise the vital contribution made by unpaid carers across the UK.

This year’s Carers Week campaign (8-14 June), supported locally by Carers Leeds and citywide partners is asking people come together and help “Make Caring Visible.”

Leeds has at least 74,000 unpaid carers, and more people are taking on extra caring responsibilities at this time, for their relatives and friends who are disabled, ill or older and who need support.  Caring roles are many and varied – including those who support people living with dementia, those who care for children with additional needs, those caring for people who have mental illness, those who care for their parents due to disability or age.

During the coronavirus lockdown, many carers are experiencing the added challenge of caring for someone 24/7, when previously there were groups, activities and support for their loved one to be part of in their weekly routine.  Charities and services have adapted to provide as much support as they can in other ways, but life is not the same.

Those looking after someone should be recognised for the difficulties they are experiencing, respected for all they are doing, and provided with information, support and understanding.

There will be many people we can think of in our own families, friendship groups and throughout our community at Moortown who are carers. Perhaps you yourself are a carer…

What can we do to help?

1. Raise awareness

– Add Your Voice on the Carers Week Website or on social media to help make caring

   visible using the hashtag #CarersWeek

2. Recognise the impact of caring

– Talk to carers and help them to access the support services in our community, for  

   example, put them in touch with Carers Leeds (details below) or let them know about

   the ‘Looking after someone guide’ (updated coronavirus information on this page):

   https://www.carersuk.org/help-and-advice/get-resources/looking-after-someone

3. Do something for carers

– Could you reach out to someone who you know is caring, in a time when they may be

  feeling isolated? A telephone call, a card or letter could help make that connection.

-Could you start a zoom group for people you know who are carers? It could provide a

  time for them to chat or perhaps you could try learning a new skill or craft together?

Carers Leeds is here to provide vital information, advice and support to carers throughout Leeds. Their expert team of Carer Support Workers are available via the advice line which is open Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm. Call 0113 380 4300 or e-mail advice@carersleeds.org.uk. 

They also offer free online events every week for carers including wellbeing workshops, relaxation, zumba zooming, and support groups for carers in different situations.

You can read and listen to the moving, challenging and encouraging stories of Leeds carers here: https://www.carersleeds.org.uk/caring-during-lockdown/

Thank you to all the dedicated, wonderful carers out there – you are not forgotten. 

Carole Smith (MBC Seniors’ Worker) Shelley Dring (Children and Families Worker)

Shona Shaw (MBC Co-Minister) Graham Brownlee (MBC Co-Minister)

Many thanks to Jane Coates for sending us this list of all the pastoral care and support that is available for you here at MBC. This information will be update as circumstance change. 

With more than fifty people logging in for a practice run MBC’s first ever virtual Church Meeting is all set to go. Next Tuesday, June 9th with a 7.30pm for 8 start the 90 minute (approx) meeting will include break out discussions on what we are learning in lockdown and sharing the findings of an interim report titled Relating Well Together. In addition there will be catch ups re Youth work, deacon’s elections, staffing and finance. Many thanks to Phil Coates for providing this excellent screenshot of the practice. There is a separate article about the Church Meeting elsewhere on the website which can be accessed by clicking HERE 

There was also a new look for Oasis Cafe this week. Last Tuesday Shelley introduced Story Time, a short slot in which someone reads their favourite bible story. Opening the feature and making his debut was Sam Joyce (left) who had everyone gripped by his telling of the tale of Jonah being swallowed by a big fish. Other stories lined up are: Daniel and the lions den, The miraculous catch, Psalm 139 and Joseph and his coat. You can join Oasis Cafe at 11am on Tuesdays by going to www.facebook.com/moortots and you can catch on any you have missed on Youtube by visiting Family at Moortown

Elsewhere on the website there is chance to revisit the whole of our Pentecost service. However, such was the reaction that we couldn’t resist the temptation to give our Pentecost Dance/movement sequence another airing. From hula-hooping to lamb dancing and from pan banging to ballet it is universally agreed that we must find a way of bottling all this talent so that at some stage in the future, live, and in public we can reprise it. Above is a collage of totally random screenshot images grabbed during the performance, but if you would like to experience the entire spectacle again all you need to do is to click HERE 

Karen’s cross stitching ticks all the right boxes

As well as being MBC’s ace hula-hooper Karen Handley is also proving to be no mean crafter.

“I took up cross stitching some years ago,” says Karen “but hadn’t done a project for a while. Then I suddenly remembered that I still had both the raw materials and a frame that had been given to me by a friend after I had admired some of her work.”

Many thanks to John Kavanagh for sending in these pictures of how our busses now look. A maximum of 19 passengers per double-decker to ensure social distancing and at the time of writing a recommendation that everyone uses contactless payment and wears a mask.

And finally Some things never change. It won’t take me to remind you that over the last eleven weeks many things have changed. However, is there something in your life, some habit, some tradition that is so set in stone that no matter what this one thing carries on exactly as normal.

We are sending this for prayer, sharing, listening, comment and speaking out

Yesterday in our Church at Home service, we celebrated the Holy Spirit’s outpouring at Pentecost. The words of the prophet Joel are familiar to us but I do not know a time, when Joel’s words have stirred in me such sadness and guilt that I have stood in the way of others receiving God’s favour. For if I receive the blessing of Pentecost for myself and my household, I cannot ignore the challenge of Pentecost to share this blessing.

The anger and grief that is currently being poured out on the doorstep of the White House in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, is no localized phenomenon, it belongs at my doorstep too. For as a white woman, I am part of the status quo and have benefited from the status quo that has crushed and exploited those for whom the Spirit is poured out.

I am not asking you to condone violence, I’m asking you to stop and listen to our brothers and sisters. Not to judge or condemn but to openly listen. We keep being told our return to a new normal is a great opportunity for changing our ways. Could we commit to be a returning church that has the courage to be held accountable and the grace to listen, even if it makes us uncomfortable? Can we make space in our ‘new normal’ for those with a lived experience of racial oppression to find their voice amongst us?

Shona Shaw

In our Church at Home we celebrated a lockdown Pentecost, this is somewhat ironic. It is more than ironic that as we know the Spirit to be the breath of God among us we hear the cry of George Floyd and others – “I can’t breathe”. Joel prophesied that the Spirit would be poured out on all, Acts told what happened and Amos spoke of justice flowing like a never-failing stream. The experiences of black people, and also of women in Pakistan/India, and of those suffering domestic violence show that we are not dealing with isolated incidents. I am also aware of the greater effect of Covid among BAME communities. I believe that if the breath and justice of the Spirit is for all it must be for these people.

I too feel sadness and guilt that I have been too passive and been content to speak for myself rather than listen to others. I have enjoyed my privilege and so distanced myself from the pain. What is going on is stopping the flow of the Spirit.

In the coming days we may see headlines about violence in protest marches and the excesses of looting. I too do not condone these but to dwell on them is to focus on symptoms and not causes and to allow ourselves to become distracted from bringing real change for the better.

In making a statement, the first thing we can do is listen to the voices of those who experience and then move to be a community together and find a shared voice. As a white man I am ready to listen and through this act in a new way. I hope that our church will come out of lockdown to discover ways of being church. I hope that we will have the courage to adapt, the kindness to try out, the humility to lay things down and the imagination to experiment. Stories of oppression are interconnected but must be told specifically. I hope we will start listening with intent and I think it begins with matters of racial injustice that have been highlighted recently.

I believe that this is an integral part of the move of the Spirit and a witness to the risen Jesus Christ.

Graham Brownlee

Inspired by the huge online success of The Blessing UK a number of churches in Leeds have come together to make THE LEEDS BLESSING. This superb work which lasts just over eight minutes is performed by singers and musicians from across the city including some from here at MBC.

You can watch it in full here… let us know how many people you recognise.