Posts by Nick Jackson

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”

Wake Up


Sermon Year C – Advent Sunday
Jeremiah 33.14-16, Luke 21.25-36
Revd. Matthew Peat

You have just held aloft the world cup for England or bowled the perfect googly at Lord’s to win the ashes.
Won bake off! or the Monaco Grand prix.
Written the perfect bit of computer code or won the nobel prize for chemistry.
Designed a new gadget that will change the world or are simply on a white sandy beach with palm trees in the background and a glass of champagne in your hand.

But then this wonderful moment is interrupted by this strange buzzing sound, or perhaps voices or music, or “This in the news at 6 o clock on Sunday 28th November”.

Our dreaming is interrupted by the cruel sound of the alarm clock calling us to wake up.

For a moment you are lost, a little bewildered as the boundaries between dream and reality are blurred but eventually you realise you it was just a dream.

Some of us have vivid dreams. Dreams that are remembered and recalled the next day. Some of us never remember our dreams. Yet we all dream.

And if we don’t remember our night dreams, we have dreams in our waking hours too. Dreams
about who we think we are, what we hope for and what we want to do.

Of course we need dreams but sometimes even in a small way we can build lives on them.

They become a kind of elusive fantasy as we imagine a life that is always somewhere else, and never happens for all sorts of reasons.

So that we never really live in the present.

Into this talk of sleep and dreams and fantasy, in the midst of the dark and cold nights of November and December when we wrap ourselves in our duvets and don’t want to get out of bed comes the season of Advent.

An alarm clock season, calling us to be alertness and to be ready as we think of Christ’s coming.
St. Paul memorably plays with the imagery of being awake and asleep in his letter to the Romans when he writes of how ‘it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep’ .

The collect for Advent Sunday draws on Paul’s language as through it we are invited to ‘cast away the works of darkness and put on the armour of light’ When? ‘now’ the collect goes on ‘in the time of this mortal life.’

Advent is the alarm clock season, a call to wake up…..now!

Continue reading “Wake Up”

Parish notices: 28 November 2021

Reintroducing the Common Cup

From today, you can once again choose to take communion as both bread and wine. You can read our full update on this, or watch the video.

If you would prefer to only receive communion in one kind (as bread only) this is also considered to be full communion by the Church of England.

Real Advent Calendars

We’re once again selling the only Advent calendars to tell the Christmas story – Real Advent Calendars. Available from James for £4.50 each.

You can also pick up one of our selection of books, or an Advent candle to mark the days as we approach Christmas.

Our Christmas services

As we rapidly approach the season of Advent, it’s time to let everyone know about 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

Christmas Not-Just-A-Coffee Morning

Saturday 4 December at 10.00am

It’s not a full-blown Christmas Fair, but it’s so much more than a coffee morning! Come join us for a cuppa and some cake, or if you’re feeling a touch more festive you can enjoy our mulled wine. Browse a selection of stalls perfect for smaller gifts and stocking fillers, take your chance with our famous Christmas Raffle, and sing your favourite carols around the piano.

The Sword in the Scone

Wednesday 8 to Saturday 11 December at 7.15 pm
Great seats available Wednesday and Thursday, only a few seats left Friday and Saturday

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.

Continue reading “Parish notices: 28 November 2021”

Reintroducing the Common Cup

Matthew talks about reintroducing the Common Cup to our worship at St Mary’s

From Advent Sunday (Sunday 28 November) we’ll be reintroducing the Common Cup at Whitkirk. This means that if you want to you’ll be able to take communion in both kinds – both bread and wine – as part of taking communion during our services.

If you’d like to take communion in both kinds, we’d appreciate it if you could mention this to one of our stewards so that we can consecrate the right amount. Don’t worry if you forget, this is just to help us get a better idea of numbers.

If you’d still rather take communion in one kind only, you can continue to do so and this is still considered by the Church of England to be taking communion in full. All you need to do is take the bread as you usually would, and then return to your seat.

You are free to start or stop taking communion in both kinds whenever you want. As with all changes to our worship during the pandemic, we’re keeping a close eye on things like infection rates as we make our decisions, and we may make further changes in the future.

An update from your PCC: November 2021

The Parochial Church Council meets regularly throughout the year to discuss and make decisions on all kinds of issues relating to the Church at Whitkirk.

We think it’s essential that the parish know what their PCC is talking about, which is why we’ll be sharing these updates after each meeting. We won’t go into the nitty-gritty details of what we discussed but will give you an overview and a summary of decisions. This is a summary of the meeting held on 16 November.

  • We decided to reintroduce the Common Cup from Advent Sunday, with it being made clear that people do not have to take part if they do not feel comfortable.
    • This decision has been temporarily paused due to the latest infection rates and emergence of a new variant of concern.
  • We made some updates to the contract for maintaining the Church’s grounds, increasing fees in line with inflation and clarifying how often we review things.
  • We agreed to invest in some new secured equipment storage.
  • The Church’s finance team gave us an update on our income and expenditure, along with some estimates and targets for the year ahead.
  • Updated text for our new Environmental Policy was proposed and approved, and this policy has been adopted by the PCC.
  • We heard an update from our safeguarding officer about adopting the latest version of our Safeguarding Policy, and on some updated training which PCC members must complete.
  • We looked at an updated structure for the PCC and its various subgroups, and continued to work towards a revised structure following the upheaval of the pandemic.
  • We discussed upcoming events and courses.
  • A note of thanks was discussed and agreed on for West Yorkshire Police for their assistance with road closures for this year’s Act of Remembrance.
  • Thanks were passed on to members of the PCC and congregation who have donated items towards the Christmas “Not Just A Coffee Morning” raffle and stalls.

If you have any comments, or if you’d like to raise an issue for the PCC or one of its committees to discuss, then please let us know!