Services in church can start again!

The government have given us the go ahead to open up our churches for Services. We shall, of course, have to adhere to all the usual social distancing and hand hygiene rules that apply – this will include spacing the chairs out and using hand sanitiser when we enter the buildings. However, the good news is that there isn’t a limit to the number of people we can have at a service. The bad news is that we won’t be able to sing in live services until further notice.

The Church of England guidance encourages us both to offer services in our buildings and also to continue with some things online for the moment, so that we cater for all the different situations people are in – for people who don’t have internet access, and for those who should not really be going out.

So from 12th July we’ll have a new Sunday morning schedule –

- 9 am – short live service at St. John’s (said Morning Prayer)

- 10 am – short live service at St. Mark’s (same as St John’s)

- 11 am – our service on YouTube (with lots of music).

The live services will have things like the Psalm and the Creed, while the online service will have the songs, the children’s spot and the full sermon. So, I’d like to encourage as many people as can to attend both a live and the online service, therefore getting the full range of things - but both the live and the online services will make sense by themselves.

CDs of the online service will still be available.

The rules for Communion are a bit complicated, but we will try to have a live communion service soon.

Next week will be the last week of both the churches opening for private prayer, but there will be an opportunity for private prayer after both services on a Sunday morning.

We will do our best as the situation keeps changing!            Thanks, Mark.