St Cuthbert’s and WhatsApp

Like pretty much all of western civilisation these days, St Cuthbert’s uses WhatsApp. It’s so hard to ignore. But we hope that we use it in a way that doesn’t hurt anyone, and that all our conversations are good and wholesome.

To try and ensure this just a little, we are bringing all the WhatsApp groups that operate under the name of St Cuthbert’s Rye Park, into a single community. We are in the process of re-creating all the different groups, and inviting everyone to join anew. This will mean that as each person joins, we can remind them of the values that we hope we all share, that we will always be kind and inclusive, avoiding personal attacks of any kind, and keeping private information confidential.

So the thought police are moving in, are they?

You don’t have to join our new groups, you can carry on as before if you wish – but those old groups won’t be operating in the name of St Cuthbert’s, and no one will attempt to correct any mis-steps or badly spoken words there. By contrast, all that happens in the name of St Cuthbert’s will have a little bit of oversight from now on.

Hey! What about me??

It’s possible that I’ll forget to include one or two groups – so please let me know if I’ve overlooked anyone or anything. And sorry! It may well happen, especially with someone as fallible as me.

What if I’m not a member of St Cuthbert’s any more?

We have a group for you, called Friends of St Cuthbert’s. We’ll post news there from time to time, and keep you up to date with what’s going on.

We used to be able to post prayer requests. Why are you stopping this?

I’m glad you asked – this is one of the problems that prompted the change. Some people have said they would like prayer, but don’t want the world to know what their situation is. Putting something out there on a group where they don’t know all the members is a risk they don’t want to take. So – there’s a new group you can join, called simply Prayer. You can’t post on this group, it’s announcement only. By joining it, you commit to two things – to pray for the needs that are posted there, and to having your name visible so that everyone knows who will hear what is posted to the group. And nothing will be posted there unless the answer to the question “Can I put this on the Prayer group?” is “Yes.”

I’ve got another question? How can I ask it?

Comments have been enabled on this page, so type your question and I’ll get back to you. Or speak to me anytime in real life.

Yours with love,

Nick