Join Live (or Catch Up) On Facebook

Over the summer we’ll be carrying our Sunday morning services on Facebook.

If you can’t be in north London to join us in the building, join us online - and if you can’t tune in at 11am, catch up with the service later.

With lots of people away, the broadcast will be cheap and cheerful…up close and personal with whoever is leading, speaking or presiding

Wherever you are in the world or in your life, you’re welcome at St Luke’s.

____
Sunday 11:00am Facebook Live
https://www.facebook.com/StLukesHolloway/

Catch up on Easter

Miss some of the services over the Easter period? Here’s a quick guide to catching up.

See all the beautiful artworks exploring ‘inspiring people’ in our Good Friday service of meditation and watch the whole 30 minute service produced and directed by Jif, Millie and Meg.

Watch Free As A Bird by Charlie Shepherd, a short film directed by Adrian Pearson and listen to Bobby Baker remembering her friend and one-time tutor, the painter Albert Herbert.

On Good Friday evening John and the choir led a beautiful Good Friday ‘light into dark’ service and on Easter Sunday we celebrated the good news that Christ is Risen.

Notice of a petition for a faculty

St Lukes would like to install double glazing in the church office and in the Vestry.

The Petition is available to view here

If you would like to see the installers product brochures, please click the following:

Church Brochure

Warmer

Quieter

Series 10

Series 45

Locks & Handles

Coupling Details

Fixing Details

Online Survey Results

A Massive thank you to all everyone who took the trouble to complete the online survey. It is really helpful when planning to have some sense of the prevailing mood and whether our provision is sustainable. Although one thing increasingly evident is that wellbeing and attitudes to online content are very changeable. Particularly with fluctuating restrictions and their implications.

There were 82 respondents including 2 who are new to St Lukes during lockdown. This will no doubt be weighted towards those of us who are comfortable online. Our current electoral roll is around 140 so we might of captured the views of around half our congregation? Most had been to the online 11:00am Sunday service. A third had been to zoom morning prayers and a third to the zoom quiz.

A quarter of viewers are watching alone and 15% are watching with kids and or teenagers. Which means that on average, for every screen view, there are 1.9 folks watching.

A large majority of folks said they valued most seeing Familiar Faces, followed by Connection, Inclusivity and Variety. Some also mentioned Morning Prayers, Music and the simple fact that it happens. Many said thank you which is really appreciated by those of us putting services together.

Once this crisis is over 79% would be interested in some kind of online presence although not necessarily weekly. Other than an occasional high quality online service or morning prayers, ideas included:
A Coffee / Social / Book / Film / Newbie club.
A Midweek / Bible / Home group.
An Evening / Iona / Quiet service.

So if you feel like you can make happen or contribute to any of the above, please do get in touch.

Once again,

Holloway Prison

Consultation on the Draft Masterplan for the redevelopment of Holloway Prison opened last Friday. Go to the Community Plan for Holloway website for details: https://plan4holloway.org/views/

Please have a look and make your comments - it's really important that as many people as possible respond. There will be around 2,500 people living in the new development and of course it's important that the development is good for them, their neighbours and the environment.

First impressions are summed up in my letter to the Islington Gazette:

Holloway Prison Over-Development

Peabody have launched their consultation on the future of Holloway prison, which is lacking in detail but gives a worrying idea of what is proposed. I am seriously concerned about the poor quality of homes that will be created by the proposed high-density redevelopment - resulting in many homes with poor daylight and dangerously prone to overheating, and heavily overshadowed windy streets and parks.

The documents indicate up to 12-storey tall and deep buildings densely packed together, targeting 1,050 homes. The most Islington council has considered for this site is 900 and this was already thought to be too dense.

The proposed design is likely to result in many homes not receiving adequate daylight. The developer, Peabody has not published figures yet but, from the initial presentation, informed estimates suggest there could be in the region of 100 homes without adequate daylight.

The proposed form  and layout of the apartment blocks means that approximately only 20% of the homes have good cross ventilation. This leaves hundreds of homes at risk of overheating, unless air conditioning is proposed which is expensive for tenants and environmentally damaging.

The height and density means that neighbouring homes and even the large central park will be heavily overshadowed and may experience windier conditions. This must be a high quality outdoor green space that this part of Islington so badly needs.

The environmental assessment process is also neglecting to study impacts on health and wellbeing of future residents, and climate change. Peabody need to up their game and seek a higher quality of design. At this early stage, now is the time to establish a design that can deliver the required quality for all.

Jonathan Ward

Contact: jonathanbward22@gmail.com for more information.

White Allyship Training

I’ve been thinking about the events of the past week and thought it might be good to share resources from the white allyship training session we did in 2018. The first from Paul Kivel and the second from the Collective Liberation Project. Thanks. Grace

6 ways to engage in Anti- Racist Practise

1) Learn about the history of racism, colonialism, whiteness
and intersectionality
→  Take responsibility for your own continued learning. Do not expect Black/Brown people to educate you. There are many resources available on these topics including books and documentaries.

2) Listen to Black & Brown people’s experiences of racism
→ Listen attentively to people of colour when they talk about racism. They are the experts.
→ Do not interrupt, play devil's advocate, get defensive or compare their experiences to your life. This is hurtful. 
→ Acknowledge that you do not have the same lived experience.
→ Take the initiative to research your questions and queries.

3) Work with white people in your community
→ Every day aim to challenge ignorant comments amongst your family and friends.
→ Use your privilege to interrupt racism when you see it happening.
→ Instigate conversations about racism with your peers and strategise about what you can do to dismantle it.

4) Assume racism is affecting everything, all the time.
→ Notice which people are in positions of power in your office/ school/ organisation.
→ Who is present and who is missing? Which voices dominate decision making/ How are people treated differently?
→ Support the just redistribution of power in the spaces you access.

5) Respect Black and Brown Spaces
→ These safe spaces are needed for people of colour to heal emotionally and mentally. They are not a personal attack on you. Please respect their autonomy and encourage other white people to do the same.

6) Find ways to express your feelings safely (Affinity Group)
→ Racism and systems of oppression affect everyone emotionally, albeit in different ways.
→ Release your emotions! Peer counselling, meditation, dance and movement can be great ways to release complex emotions about these issues.
→ If you are white, express your feelings to other white people you feel safe with, ideally in an affinity group. This is a space for people of a shared identity to support each other educationally and emotionally. It’s a great format in which to develop anti racist practise.

Resources

Anti-racism organisations with Educational Resources

www.raceequitytools.org

www.showingupforracialjustice.org

www.collectiveliberation.org/

www.whiteawake.org/

Books

Mike Davis, ‘Late Victorian Holocausts: El Nino Famines and the making of the Third World’

John Newsinger, ‘The Blood Never Dried: A People’s History of the British Empire’

Reni Eddo-Lodge, ‘Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race’

David Olusooga, ‘Black and British: A Forgotten History’

Michelle Alexander, ‘The New Jim Crow’

Paul Kivel, ‘Uprooting Racism’

Nell Irvin Painter, ‘The History of White People’ 

Noel Ignatiev, ‘How the Irish became White’

Dr Joy DeGruy, ‘Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome’ * (She has lectures on Youtube)

Rae Johnson, ‘Embodied Social Justice’ *

Ta-Nehisi Coates, ‘Between The World and Me’

PDFs

http://criticallegalthinking.com/2017/10/31/britain-empire-never/ [British colonialism]
http://nationalseedproject.org/white-privilege-unpacking-the-invisible-knapsack
www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/whiteaffinitygroup.pdf

Documentary/ Film

Black and British: A Forgotten History *BBC iPlayer*

Generation Revolution (2016)

The Hard Stop (2015) 

The 13th (2016) *Netflix*

The House I Live In (2012) *Netflix*

The Colour of Fear (1994)

Training & Consultancy:

www.thecollectiveliberationproject.com
thecollectiveliberationproject@gmail.com

~ Be patient with yourself!

This is work that lasts a lifetime ~

Easter at St Luke's

Easter & Holy Week

Maundy Thursday Supper 9th April
With your family or phone those you love.
Watch via zoom at 9pm

“This year we will all miss being able to gather and share a meal. If you would like to have some sense of sharing together, while remaining apart, this is the recipe for the vegetable soup I made for the supper last year. I’ll be making this on Thursday evening before we gather for the online vigil. - One of each: onion, stick of celery, clove of garlic and large carrot, all finely chopped. One medium potato (peeled if you want), chopped. Small handful of red lentils. Teaspoon tomato paste. Butter or vegetable oil, salt and pepper. In a saucepan, soften the chopped vegetables (not including the potato) in butter or oil for a few minutes. Add the potato and lentils then add enough water to cover. Simmer until the vegetables are cooked: potato squishes easily with a spoon against the side of the pan. Add tomato paste and salt and pepper to taste. Blend with a hand blender or mouli”.

Joy

Good Friday Passion Reading 10th April
Watch via zoom at 2pm in conjunction with

St Luke’s Creation at Easter
Art from our own community on the website
Available from Thursday

Easter Day Dawn Service
Sunday 12th April
Watch on zoom at 5:30am

Easter Day Service
Sunday 12th April
Watch our live stream at 11am

Easter Message for Children
Click here to read

A Letter from John

My dear sisters and brothers

I hope that this letter finds you well. I know many of you will be anxious for yourselves and those that you love - I also know that you are keen to support others in your neighbourhood. Thank you for all that you are doing and have done to support the most vulnerable.

The times we are living in are changing rapidly, we at St. Luke's are trying to ensure that we respond in the most appropriate and creative way whilst encouraging the well being of all connected with our community.

We are closing your church building to public worship. This is following instructions from both Government and our Bishops. We will, however continue to shine light and love and hope and enable St. Luke's to continue as a community of good news. We will need to find different ways of being, we have made a start on what this new way might look like. We also know that this will evolve as something won't work and you will come back to me with far better ways of being!

Our plans today are:

• To suspend all services of public worship with immediate effect. We will be live streaming a simplified service on YouTube at 11.00 on Sunday morning (Use this link to tune in, set a reminder or watch on catchup. Liturgy and Lyrics will be included) 

• To begin a service of morning prayer at 9.30 every day (not Sundays) - we would invite you to email your prayer requests to here and these will be prayed for at this time. For the time being the church will be open at this time and therefore an opportunity for you to come and light a candle - we will need to monitor this and ask that we maintain social distancing etc. 

• We know that we want to support our neighbours and church family, we have therefore divided up the electoral roll (our only database of members) into smaller groups and will be asking a member of that group to coordinate that local response. ensuring that everyone is contacted, perhaps setting up a WhatsApp group to aid local communication. Martin, the Churchwardens and I will communicate with those coordinators and contact others as appropriate. I know that not all our family are on the Electoral Roll - if this is you please do send your contact details to Tina with your permission for us to contact you in this way. 

• We would encourage you to give to Foodbanks, contact those nearby (especially those you know are in high risk categories) to see what we can do practically, to be a people of prayer, especially joining us in spirit (if not in person) at our 9.30 time of prayer.

We will have more updates - please do read these as they come, we will try to keep them as concise as we can. These plans, as I said will continue to evolve, please be prepared for more church emails than just the regular once a week!

I know that this community has been a beacon for many of you in the past, I know that you will ensure that it continues to be so in the present difficulties.

Much love

John