This week we celebrate the first anniversary of our online Wednesday evening Compline (Night Prayer) and discussion group at St Mary’s Banbury.  Compline is an ancient monastic service which dates back to the 6^th century.   It was introduced in the Rule of St Benedict as an opportunity to review the day and offer it in thanksgiving and prayer back to God.   For this weekly service we have a regular congregation in our Zoom Room, but are also joined by many visitors from this country and abroad.  An unexpected blessing of the past year resulting from the pandemic has been the opportunity to share meetings, services and experiences across the world.  Zoom really has made the world a smaller place!

Here at St Mary’s Church, we have an opportunity to meet up with other people on a regular basis.  Last April in the early stages of the first lockdown, the Holy Spirit moved us to offer a weekly online service of Compline via Zoom on Wednesday evenings, followed by a discussion group in the Zoom Room.  Blessed as we are with some remarkable technological experts in St Mary’s congregation, we decided to live-stream the service on Facebook at 8 pm, and then “come off-air” for the subsequent discussion group.  After a quick catch-up with the individuals in the group, we use Table Talk cards as a basis for our weekly discussions.  Remarkably since our first Compline on 22^nd April 2020, we have consistently had a Zoom Room congregation of over 20 people, which I am quite sure would not happen at in-person weekday Compline in church! Our regulars check in from around Oxfordshire, as well as from across England, south west Scotland, the Scottish borders, and Norway.

As a member of the Community of the Cross of Nails international organisation which is based at Coventry Cathedral, I attend a similar group who meet online every 1^st Friday in the month to share the Litany of Reconciliation.  We have an update with CCN partners in Germany, Austria, Hungary, South Africa, the Netherlands, Belgium, North America, and the UK.  I am gradually becoming familiar with the regular and new faces which appear on the Zoom screen each month.  It is such a pleasure to feel that we are able to connect as a Christian community, and to hear each other’s challenges and joys.

Since the New Year, St Mary’s has developed Wednesday evenings further.  Every 3 to 4 weeks, we invite a “guest speaker” to attend Compline and then share with us some of their life and experiences in their current setting, related especially to their church context.  The first week I asked my father (retired in Scotland) to talk to us about his 60 years as a priest with particular reference to the Ministry of Healing.  Subsequently we have welcomed visiting speakers from Germany including a previous CCN volunteer from Coventry Cathedral and a CCN member based in Berlin, as well as a CCN partner located in Brussels.  Our group relishes hearing about life in other countries, especially while we are unable to travel.  The wonders of modern technology have allowed us to benefit from the amazing network nurtured by CCN.  This sense of building a relationship with fellow Christians across the globe is extraordinary.

And if you find quiet Night Prayer helpful to concluding a busy Wednesday, do join us in the Zoom Room or listen on Facebook.  You would be most welcome.

Sarah Bourne, Chaplain for the Arts – 21^st April 2021          sarahbourne@banburystmary.org.uk

This has been adapted from an article first published on Coventry Cathedral’s website under its Community of the Cross of Nails heading in March 2021.  

Our next visiting speaker after Compline will join us from the Netherlands on Wednesday 28^th April at 8 pm.