Posts by Nick Jackson

Parish Notices: 2 January 2022

Changes to our COVID precautions

To help reduce the risk of spreading Coronavirus you must wear a face covering at all times when in the church or Community Centre, except when receiving communion, eating or drinking, unless you are medically exempt.

We suggest that you continue to take precautions such as taking regular rapid lateral flow tests, keeping your distance, and being respectful of the wishes of others. You’ll still need to sanitise your hands as you enter the building, and avoid handshakes during the Peace.

If you have any symptoms of COVID-19, remember that you must self-isolate and get a PCR test. As always, we will continue to stream all our services live on our website and YouTube channel, as well as make them available to listen to later by phone or podcast.

As always, we are keeping a close watch on things such as infection rates, as well as guidance from the Government, NHS, and the Church of England, and we may make other changes to our safety measures in the future.

Catch up on our Christmas services

If you missed any of our Christmas services you can catch up with our Christmas playlist on YouTube.

The Rhythm of Life

Starting January 20 at 7.30 pm

Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.

Matthew 11:28-30

During the Covid 19 crisis, we’ve had to adjust to very different rhythms of life. As Christians, we believe Jesus should be at the heart of our rhythms of life, whatever our circumstances. This will have a far-reaching impact on our own wellbeing and the good of others – on our loving, living and learning. That’s why you’re invited to join the diocesan ‘Rhythm of Life’ venture. This will involve individual commitments, accessing resources and mutual support.

Coming up at Whitkirk Community Centre

Country Dancing

We are hoping to re-start this popular country dance class in January.  It will be held on 1st and 3rd Monday in the month, from 1.30 pm until 3.30 pm. Come along and give it a try for a good afternoon out among friendly faces – no experience needed!

Please contact Dorothy Howe on 0113 264 2569 for further information and to let her know if you are interested.

Continue reading “Parish Notices: 2 January 2022”

Parish notices: 26 December 2021

Changes to our COVID precautions

To help reduce the risk of spreading Coronavirus you must wear a face covering at all times when in the church or Community Centre, except when receiving communion, eating or drinking, unless you are medically exempt.

We suggest that you continue to take precautions such as taking regular rapid lateral flow tests, keeping your distance, and being respectful of the wishes of others. You’ll still need to sanitise your hands as you enter the building, and avoid handshakes during the Peace.

If you have any symptoms of COVID-19, remember that you must self-isolate and get a PCR test. As always, we will continue to stream all our services live on our website and YouTube channel, as well as make them available to listen to later by phone or podcast.

As always, we are keeping a close watch on things such as infection rates, as well as guidance from the Government, NHS, and the Church of England, and we may make other changes to our safety measures in the future.

Catch up on our Christmas services

If you missed any of our Christmas services you can catch up with our Christmas playlist on YouTube.

The Rhythm of Life

Starting January 20 at 7.30 pm

Walk with me and work with me -watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.

Matthew 11:28-30

During the Covid 19 crisis, we’ve had to adjust to very different rhythms of life. As Christians, we believe Jesus should be at the heart of our rhythms of life, whatever our circumstances. This will have a far-reaching impact on our own wellbeing and the good of others – on our loving, living and learning. That’s why you’re invited to join the diocesan ‘Rhythm of Life’ venture. This will involve individual commitments, accessing resources and mutual support.

Coming up at Whitkirk Community Centre

Country Dancing

We are hoping to re-start this popular country dance class in January.  It will be held on 1st and 3rd Monday in the month, from 1.30 pm until 3.30 pm. Come along and give it a try for a good afternoon out among friendly faces – no experience needed!

Please contact Dorothy Howe on 0113 264 2569 for further information and to let her know if you are interested.

Continue reading “Parish notices: 26 December 2021”

Making our orders of service more accessible

Our tagline begins with the words “where all find a welcome”, and we believe that this doesn’t just apply to the people greeting you at the door or to the people leading the service, but to the technology which supports us as well. That’s why when we heard from a member of our congregation with poor eyesight that our digital orders of service had given them a whole new way of experiencing services – by being able to scale up the text on their phone to a comfortable reading size – we decided to explore other ways we can make our orders of service more accessible.

We already try to make our website friendly for assistive technologies like screen readers (although we know we can do better, so we’re always making improvements), but we realised we could use the power of technology to put more accessible orders of service front and centre for a commonly sidelined disability: dyslexia.

Thanks to a typeface called OpenDyslexic which is designed specifically to combat some of the more common symptoms of dyslexia. Amongst other things, the letter shapes are all unique and have distinctive ‘heavy bottoms’ which help combat rotation and transposition.

Continue reading “Making our orders of service more accessible”

Parish notices: 19 December 2021

Changes to our COVID precautions

To help reduce the risk of spreading Coronavirus you must wear a face covering at all times when in the church or Community Centre, except when receiving communion, eating or drinking, unless you are medically exempt.

We suggest that you continue to take precautions such as taking regular rapid lateral flow tests, keeping your distance, and being respectful of the wishes of others. You’ll still need to sanitise your hands as you enter the building, and avoid handshakes during the Peace.

If you have any symptoms of COVID-19, remember that you must self-isolate and get a PCR test. As always, we will continue to stream all our services live on our website and YouTube channel, as well as make them available to listen to later by phone or podcast.

As always, we are keeping a close watch on things such as infection rates, as well as guidance from the Government, NHS, and the Church of England, and we may make other changes to our safety measures in the future.

Our Christmas services

Take a look at our Christmas Services page to see what’s happening when and where.

Festival of Lessons and Carols

This evening at 6.00 pm

St Mary’s Church Choir will sing arrangements of new and traditional carols along with a selection of well-known carols for everyone to join in with. Lessons are read by members of the local community, and tell the story of God’s relationship with humankind from the beginnings of the world up to the birth of Jesus.

Christmas food bank donations

As the festive season is upon us, food banks are more appreciative than ever of donations. Our local Leeds South and East Foodbank is currently looking for donations of:

  • Chocolate selection boxes
  • Biscuit selection boxes
  • Mince pies
  • Tinned meat, particularly:
    • Chicken in white wine sauce
    • Stewed steak
  • UHT milk

As always all donations of food, toiletries and money are gratefully accepted. Last year the Leeds South and East Foodbank provided over 12,500 food parcels to those most in need. Details of all the ways you can help are on their website.

The Rhythm of Life

Starting January 13

Walk with me and work with me -watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.

Matthew 11:28-30

During the Covid 19 crisis, we’ve had to adjust to very different rhythms of life. As Christians, we believe Jesus should be at the heart of our rhythms of life, whatever our circumstances. This will have a far-reaching impact on our own wellbeing and the good of others – on our loving, living and learning. That’s why you’re invited to join the diocesan ‘Rhythm of Life’ venture. This will involve individual commitments, accessing resources and mutual support.

Coming up at Whitkirk Community Centre

Country Dancing

We are hoping to re-start this popular country dance class in January.  It will be held on 1st and 3rd Monday in the month, from 1.30 pm until 3.30 pm. Come along and give it a try for a good afternoon out among friendly faces – no experience needed!

Please contact Dorothy Howe on 0113 264 2569 for further information and to let her know if you are interested.

Continue reading “Parish notices: 19 December 2021”

The impact of streaming

Advent is a time for looking forward, but it’s also a time for taking stock and reflecting. Given it’s the end of the year, it’s also a great time for us to do some maths and figure out the environmental impact of our service streaming.

In the last year, people watched around 3,200 hours of video on our YouTube channel. Streaming an hour of video online causes around 36g of CO2 emissions. This means our streaming was responsible for around 0.12 tonnes of carbon emissions.

We’re committed to reducing our impact (in fact, the PCC recently approved a whole new policy and strategy on it), so we decided to offset these emissions. Unfortunately, the company we use for offsetting can only offset in minimums of half a tonne at a time. So we decided to round up, and offset a full tonne to make sure we were also mopping up streaming from 2020 which wasn’t included in the total, as well as cover any unaccounted-for costs in equipment purchases (where we’ve previously offset larger items, but not some consumables).

Next, we counted up the number of likes which people had given our content in the last year – 153 overall – and we’ve funded the planting of a tree for each one, which you can see in our forest. These trees will continue to absorb carbon into the future, as well as boost the local ecosystem.

We hope to repeat this exercise every year, not only making streaming our services carbon negative, but helping to build greener future for everyone.

You can read more about our commitment to the environment, and discover what else we’re doing across the Church.

Parish notices: 12 December 2021

Changes to our COVID precautions

To help reduce the risk of spreading Coronavirus you must wear a face covering at all times when in the church or Community Centre, except when receiving communion, eating or drinking, unless you are medically exempt.

We have also paused the decision to reintroduce the Common Cup as part of our Eucharist.

We suggest that you continue to take precautions such as taking regular rapid lateral flow tests, keeping your distance, and being respectful of the wishes of others. You’ll still need to sanitise your hands as you enter the building, and avoid handshakes during the Peace.

If you have any symptoms of COVID-19, remember that you must self-isolate and get a PCR test. As always, we will continue to stream all our services live on our website and YouTube channel, as well as make them available to listen to later by phone or podcast.

As always, we are keeping a close watch on things such as infection rates, as well as guidance from the Government, NHS, and the Church of England, and we may make other changes to our safety measures in the future.

Our Christmas services

Take a look at our Christmas Services page to see what’s happening when and where.

Messy Church Christingle service

Today at 4.00 pm
Starting in Whitkirk Community Centre

Come along to this traditional celebration – suitable for all ages – and turn a humble orange into the light of the world!

Christmas food bank donations

As the festive season approaches, food banks are more appreciative than ever of donations. Our local Leeds South and East Foodbank is currently looking for donations of:

  • Chocolate selection boxes
  • Biscuit selection boxes
  • Mince pies
  • Tinned meat, particularly:
    • Chicken in white wine sauce
    • Stewed steak
  • UHT milk

As always all donations of food, toiletries and money are gratefully accepted. Last year the Leeds South and East Foodbank provided over 12,500 food parcels to those most in need. Details of all the ways you can help are on their website.

The Rhythm of Life

Starting January 13

Walk with me and work with me -watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.

Matthew 11:28-30

During the Covid 19 crisis, we’ve had to adjust to very different rhythms of life. As Christians, we believe Jesus should be at the heart of our rhythms of life, whatever our circumstances. This will have a far-reaching impact on our own wellbeing and the good of others – on our loving, living and learning. That’s why you’re invited to join the diocesan ‘Rhythm of Life’ venture. This will involve individual commitments, accessing resources and mutual support.

Coming up at Whitkirk Community Centre

Country Dancing

We are hoping to re-start this popular country dance class in January.  It will be held on 1st and 3rd Monday in the month, from 1.30 pm until 3.30 pm. Come along and give it a try for a good afternoon out among friendly faces – no experience needed!

Please contact Dorothy Howe on 0113 264 2569 for further information and to let her know if you are interested.

Continue reading “Parish notices: 12 December 2021”

Oops: A trifecta of problems

Yesterday, we had three separate things go unexpectedly wrong during our services. Here are our explanations as to what happened, why it happened, and how we’re making sure it doesn’t happen again.

10.00 am Eucharist: No audio reinforcement in the church

What happened?

We didn’t switch on one of our equipment racks in the church before the start of the service, meaning that we had no radio microphones, in-church speakers or inductive hearing loop for the first few minutes.

Why did it happen?

We were distracted during our preflight checks by an unrelated problem with our video mixer, meaning we missed a check step for this equipment. Powering on this equipment rack is usually done by someone outside of the tech team, and we didn’t notice that it hadn’t happened.

How are we making sure it doesn’t happen again?

We’re moving the responsibility for this job to the technical team, and changing the wording in our pre-service checklist accordingly.

10.00 am Eucharist: No audio at the beginning of the video stream

What happened?

There was no audio on the live video stream at the start of the service.

Why did it happen?

We were distracted during our preflightchecks by an unrelated problem with our video mixer, meaning we didn’t properly switch on our audio mix at the start of the service.

How are we making sure it doesn’t happen again?

We’re moving towards always using a set of prerecorded, automated steps to begin a service, so we can’t forget to take this action again.

Choral Evensong: Low video quality at the beginning of the stream

What happened?

The beginning of our video stream for Choral Evensong was in lower quality than we usually stream.

Why did it happen?

As part of resolving the problem with our video mixer which led to issues in the morning service, we inadvertently reset some parts of our streaming configuration to their (low quality) default.

How are we making sure it doesn’t happen again?

We’re documenting this problem, so that anyone experiencing it in future has a single playbook they can use to fix it. This playbook includes making sure streaming settings are properly restored.

Bonus round: What went wrong with the video mixer?

We don’t know. But we did write about it publicly, and figured out how to fix it.

Parish notices: 5 December 2021

An update on our coronavirus measures

In light of recent developments, we have paused the decision to reintroduce the Common Cup as part of our Eucharist. We also request that you wear a face-covering whilst in our church and Community Centre unless you are medically exempt.

We suggest that you continue to take precautions such as taking regular rapid lateral flow tests, keeping your distance, and being respectful of the wishes of others. You’ll still need to sanitise your hands as you enter the building, and avoid handshakes during the Peace.

If you have any symptoms of COVID-19, remember that you must self-isolate and get a PCR test. As always, we will continue to stream all our services live on our website and YouTube channel, as well as make them available to listen to later by phone or podcast.

As always, we are keeping a close watch on things such as infection rates, as well as guidance from the Government, NHS, and the Church of England, and we may make other changes to our safety measures in the future.

Our Christmas services

Take a look at our Christmas Services page to see what’s happening when and where.

Messy Church Christingle service

Sunday 12 December at 4.00 pm
Starting in Whitkirk Community Centre

Come along to this traditional celebration – suitable for all ages – and turn a humble orange into the light of the world!

Coming up at Whitkirk Community Centre

The Sword in the Scone

Wednesday 8 to Saturday 11 December at 7.15 pm

Whitkirk Arts Guild give the legend of King Arthur a twist in their annual family pantomime. Complete with knights and a king, a witch and a wizard, a dragon, and oversized baked goods. Book your tickets online, pick up a flyer in the Community Centre, or call 0113 212 0066.

Country Dancing

We are hoping to re-start this popular country dance class in January.  It will be held on 2nd and 4th Monday in the month, from 1.30 pm until 3.30 pm. Come along and give it a try for a good afternoon out among friendly faces – no experience needed!

Please contact Dorothy Howe on 0113 264 2569 for further information and to let her know if you are interested.

Continue reading “Parish notices: 5 December 2021”