Arrangements for re-opening of the Church
By the grace of God, we are hoping that we will be able to re-open the church for Sunday morning worship from 2nd August. What follows are details of how things will be organised. We have followed Government and Church of England guidance and advice as we understand them at 18th July as they apply to our particular situation. Obviously, things may change beforehand and if that happens we shall endeavour to let you know. We are aware that we may not get things right from the very beginning. We shall need to learn and reflect on our experiences Sunday by Sunday and make adjustments as we go along. We ask for your understanding and patience.
No one should feel under any pressure to attend. We each have a different approach to risk which, as a Christian community we should acknowledge and respect. There is no right way and no wrong way.
We shall be continuing with the live stream on Facebook. By attending you will be giving your consent to being seen. The camera we shall be using will, for most of the time, be showing the back of you heads but there is a risk that your face may be briefly seen.
There will only be one service each Sunday. It will be at 10.30am. It will be Morning Prayer and the content and style will be along the same lines as the Facebook livestream service we have been following over the last few months. In time we hope to be able to have Holy Communion, but that will be after we have got used to the way things work out, and it may not be every week.
There will only be enough seats for 30 people. This is to ensure that wherever possible we keep 2 metres apart. If you come as a family group or bubble it may be possible to allow for a few more.
To be able to manage and control all this, we ask you to either book online using Eventbrite or have telephoned the Vicarage (01925 740348) by no later than 4.00pm on the preceding Saturday afternoon. All Tickets are free. Eventbrite is a web based ticketing system and you can find some details here:- https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/organizer/overview/
You can book from your web browser by searching for Daresbury Church or through their app which can be downloaded from Google Play, Apple Store or similar. No more than 25 seats will be available through Eventbrite and seats will be available on a month by month basis.
To give everyone a chance, please do not try to book a seat every week. We shall be keeping an eye on availability. Don’t be surprised if you get a telephone call asking you to come another time! This is going to be a very difficult juggling process and booking early is no guarantee of getting a place! You can of course turn up on the day, but you may have to wait to see what’s available. Please be patient as we are sure you will be.
When you arrive, we ask that you enter through the South porch. There will be hand sanitisers in the porch. We ask that you keep at least 2 metres away from those in front of you. There will be at least three stewards to welcome you and help you to a seat.
Once you have a seat, please stay sitting down. We have tried to, and need to, avoid, pinch points and people colliding into each other.
We shall be producing some paper copies of the service, but it would be helpful if you could print off your own version at home and bring it with you. You might like to bring your mobile phone, tablet or other portable device and use it in the same way as you have been. We hope to have words of the service on the digital screen. The code for the Guest Wi-Fi network is Daniel616. Please do not try to logging into any of the other networks your device may find.
Whoever is leading the service will be wearing a full clear face mask. They will be standing at the lectern. Gloves are optional. At present face coverings are not required. However, we are expecting further advice and guidance on this in the next few days and it may change. We will also ask you to give us your contact details and record your attendance for 21 days. We may need to hand the information over to the NHS or other Government body in the event of someone attending Church later developing symptoms. By coming to a service, we assume that you have given your consent. Obviously do not come to Church if you are already feeling unwell.
At the end of the service we will be asking you to leave by the Lewis Carroll Centre door. You will be directed when to go.
Thank you very much for reading through what is a very dry document. There is a lot of complicated information to give out at this time which needs to be shared as widely as possible. We are conscious that there are some Church members who are not online so we would be very grateful if you could share a copy of this with them. We shall be sending this out by post to those we know about but please let us know of those who may slip through the net.
Thanks to those members of the Facilities Team of the PCC ( Doug Johnson, Phil Geddes, Steve Lander, Graham Lancaster, Mark Longstaff, Simon Lomas, Gill Younger, Stuart Wigley and Pam Taylor Floyd) who have worked to get us to this position and who will be continuing to monitor events and develop our plans and practice
Please do not hesitate to contact us should you require any further information or help.
With God’s blessing,
Revd David Felix
<span style="font-size: 1rem;">All Saints Vicarage,</span>
Daresbury Lane,
Daresbury. WA4 4AE
01925 740348/07778 859935