A message from our vicar, Tulo Raistrick.
Dear all,
You may well have heard in the news today that the Church of England has decided to suspend all public worship with immediate effect. As a result there will be no services in church on Sunday. Also, any other church services, meetings, activities and committees that were due to take place are now postponed.
This will feel very strange for us all. However, over the next few days we hope to do a number of things to continue to increase our social and spiritual closeness whilst ensuring our physical distancing.
In terms of worship and prayer:
- The daily emails will continue as a means of giving us all a common sense of daily worship and prayer together. Let me know if you don’t receive these already and would now like to receive them.
- The church will be open for personal prayer every day from 9am to 7pm. If you do come into church, please observe the hand hygiene rules and maintain 2 metres distance from anyone else who is praying in the church.
- We hope to provide resources for prayer and worship for Sundays, so that wherever you are, we can all join together in Sunday worship. If technology allows, and we can work out how to do this, over the next few weeks we may try having a live on-line Sunday morning service.
- The Church of England nationally will be producing on-line resources that we will provide links to.
- The prayer chain will remain active, so please let Christine or myself know if there is anything that you would value others praying for.
In terms of social support:
- We will be drawing up a list of volunteers available to deliver food and other items to someone’s doorstep. Let me know if you are willing to help.
- We will be setting up a phone chain, where we each aim to ring and be rung by a different person each day to reduce our social isolation. This is for everyone as we will all need support and conversation over the coming weeks. Again, let me know if you are willing to be part of this.
- We want to offer support to those who through illness or self-isolation are not able to buy food and other items. Please let me know if this would help you. Again, this applies not just to those who are over 70, but to families and households who are needing to self-isolate for 14 days.
I’m sure there will be other ways of us “being church” in a different way over the next few weeks, and if you have any ideas please do let me know.
These are challenging times. Let us pray for the government and the medical and scientific advisers as they make decisions affecting the health and well-being of our nation, and for all those involved in front-line care. And let us pray for one another, that during this time of uncertainty we may know our God as our strength and rock, in whom we can trust.
Please do reply to this email if you want to get involved in any of the above ways, and please don’t hesitate to ring me if you would like a chat. I will be in touch again soon.
Every blessing,
Tulo