Arrangements for re-opening of the ChurchBy 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 practicePlease 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 4AE01925 740348/07778 859935vicar@daresburycofe.org.uk
Good afternoon everybody and I hope you and all your family are well.This week saw the Church of England’s Recovery Group issue its advice and guidance on how to conduct public worship, following the Government’s statement the previous week. I touched upon this in my email last week. There is a lot to work through, as I am sure you would expect, and the Facilities Team, who look after the operational side of the building, have begun to get things in order. Those of us who lead our worship have also started work on how we can worship together again.Although it’s early days, the following points have become clear: -1. We are going to have to limit the number of those who come to Church for a service. To be safe, respecting social distancing etc, we think we can safely accommodate 30 people and depending upon whether households/family groups come maybe 40; 2. To control numbers and to try to arrange seating as fairly as possible, we may need you to reserve a seat, either by telephoning the Vicarage or using an online booking system. 3. All of us feel uncomfortable about limiting seating, but we see no alternative within the constraints and layout of the building. Not only do we have to consider where the seats are but also how to safely come in and go out, as well as maintaining social distancing in all directions.4. For the time being, the content of the service will be along the same lines as that we have been using for the last 3 months on the Facebook live stream. We shall be continuing to stream at the same time. We have built up quite a following, and the firm advice is that it should continue. The Standing Committee has agreed to use the grant from the Diocese, which I mentioned some weeks ago, towards buying the necessary equipment (the Diocese clearly stated that the grant must be used for mission and evangelism, not to meet general running costs).5. Once we are in Church regularly, we eventually hope to have a Holy Communion service but this will depend upon many other safety factors being met. It may be not weekly.6. We are well aware that there will be many of you who would still feel uncomfortable about coming to Church whatever the arrangements. We hope the streaming will help you to keep in touch with your Church. The video of each Sunday service is always available on Facebook, where you will also find the daily services, and the Church’s YouTube channel. 7. Don’t forget the version of the service that is available through the telephone (01925 568220) from 2.00pm on Sundays, and throughout the week. The quality of the sound unfortunately varies because of the variable quality of our home internet connections but do keep listening on through the difficult bits.8. Also don’t forget our weekday services at 10.00am and 4.00pm. These will continue one way or another, even after the Church reopens.All this, of course, is for the future and we will keep you fully informed as we go along. At the moment we are working towards starting services in Church the end of July or the beginning of August. You may be wondering how our children fit into all of this. We are already sending out weekly emails to their parents and carers with worksheets etc. to use during the week and there was a Zoom session of the Sunday Group the other week. We hope to do more.We warmly welcome all children. They are part our Church community, and once the services begin again we shall need make special arrangements for them. Following the guidance, we will need to close off the children’s corner and remove all shared toys, books and pause group activities, but we hope to be able to use the individual liturgy boxes.There is a lot to take in here in what is an ever-changing situation. We appreciate your thoughts, support, understanding and prayers as we journey forward with God together. The text of this Sunday morning’s service is below. The Daniell Chapel will be open again this Sunday from 2.00 – 4.00pm. You can enter only by the external door. Please follow the advice about social distancing and using the hand sanitisers.With God’s blessing,David
Dear All,I hope you and your family are all well.Over the last few months, we have been focusing on our church and community life. It’s been easy to forget that we are part of a much larger Anglican church. So, no apologies for starting off this week’s news with a look further afield.For many years, we have supported USPG as a partner in God’s mission across the world. This week they wrote thanking us for our support in 2019 during which we raised £538.70, mainly from the Lent lunches. Thank you for your support last year. Unfortunately, this year we had to cancel our Lent lunches after only one because of ‘lockdown.’ So, our contribution is in danger of being much reduced unless we make a special appeal. That would be a poor reflection on our priorities as a church.They have written to me asking whether there are one or two members of our congregation who would be willing to act as parish contacts. I know there have been some in the past, but for the life of me I cannot remember who, for which I apologise profusely. Anyway, if you are interested in being a contact i can send you the role description and latest newsleter. It would be great if we could have two, or more, volunteers. Having more than one would help spread the load. Please let me know if you are interested.Thursday last week saw the installation of the new Archbishop of York. You may have seen some brief reports on the news. If you go to our Youtube channel here:- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfda6IN8rV3qSHiTKvTTvug?view_as=subscriber you’ll find two videos in the playlist headed Church of England showing the service and which maybe of interest. By the way you’ll also find a playlist of videos for families which may help you and your children explore our faith during this time when the church is closed.We are well on the way to be able to open the Church for Sunday worship. The Facilities Team have been looking at how we can best arrange the seating and keeping a safe distance. We think we have a solution based on the points I outlined in last week’s email. I shall be talking to the Standing Committee about all this on Thursday. Please hold that meeting in your prayers, asking that God guide us in our planning and discussions.Don’t forget that the Daniell Chapel is open for private prayer every Sunday from 2.00 – 4.00pm. We had more pilgrims last week than the previous week, so keep spreading the news.Tomorrow’s service is also attached. I know that Gill circulated it earlier today but just I case you missed it……To finish I want to go back to where I started by looking at the bigger picture. I have spent most of today in a Zoom meeting of General Synod. We heard many encouraging and uplifting stories from parishes all over the country as to how they are responding to Covid-19. God has been good to all of us as each parish, ours included, has responded to the challenges in our different ways and contexts. Afterwards I came across this prayer which I’ll leave with you:-O God, beyond all time and space, eternal, unchangeable: Have pity upon our ignorance and upon the confusion of our efforts. Help us to understand the anxieties of others and to know our own limitations. By thy Holy Spirit raise us above all strife and prejudice, scorn and bitterness, that in the calm light of thy manifold wisdom we may be drawn together in a common will to serve thee and set forward thy kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. AmenWith God’s blessing,David
I hope you are all well and have had a good week.Although the Prime Minister announced earlier this week that Churches can open for worship from 4th July, we are still awaiting further advice from the national Church. You'll find the response from the Bishop of London here:-https://www.chester.anglican.org/news/reopening-of-buildings-for-public-worship.phpHere is what Bishop Keith wrote to clergy on 26th June which sets out the position as I understand it at the time of writing ."The Government has yet to publish its guidance, and the Church, therefore, has also yet to respond. Nevertheless, we wanted to write to you to confirm that this is the current position [i.e. that churches can open from 5th July] as we appreciate there are still many questions unanswered. We will communicate any updates via the diocesan website and the Coronavirus Briefing as soon as we can over the coming days. We are very aware that not all church buildings will be ready to hold regular services on 04 July and it is important that this happens only when you have confidence that you can do so safely. As has been the recurring theme to the guidance in recent weeks, it is permissive not prescriptive."We are planning to open the Daniell Chapel this Sunday from 2.00pm-4.00pm for private prayer. The Church won't be open for Sunday morning service until at least 19th July because more needs to be in place first. I'll try to keep you in touch as we go along.I learnt this week that Beryl Smith, the wife of my predecessor Revd David Smith, has just died from cancer. Their daughter, Sarah, told me that:-“My mother, Beryl Smith, passed away [on 23rd June] at Northampton General Hospital after a short illness, she was 86. She was at Daresbury Parish with my father, Rev David Smith who served as vicar 1987-1998. My husband and I had our wedding blessing service at Daresbury in ‘93.Mum and dad moved to Northants on his retirement in 1998 and we were fortunate to have them living in the same village as we did, seeing our children grow up and take a full part in church life here in Nether Heyford and the surrounding parishes. Dad died in Sept 2018 from cancer and despite missing him immensely, mum continued to make a life for herself and enjoy the social events of the village as much as she could, given that her own health was a bit frail and she had limited mobility. When we heard the news that her treatment would become palliative care on Monday [22nd June], we were allowed to visit mum as much as we wanted which was good. On my first visit, by God’s good grace the chaplain arrived at the same time so we could share in a final service and anointing; I noticed mum was able to mouth some of the Lord’s Prayer even though she was unable to properly speak by then. The chaplain had known dad well, they both went back over 20 years so that made the situation more personal. The shared service gave mum a lot of comfort and having had all the family speak to her either directly or by video phone, she passed away peacefully the following day.”We should also note the deaths of Elsie Taylor, Pam Taylor-Floyd’s mother, and Brian Booth, both of whom passed away peacefully. May they rest in peace and rise in glory.This Sunday morning 10.30am service is at the end of this email as usual, along with other useful publications.The Bible Study Group on Wednesday night and Coffee Morning on Thursday are still very popular. Joining details are the same but do contact me if you’ve lost them. If you have problems in getting in at the time, please call my mobile 07778 859935 and I’ll help you.Don’t forget the service will be available on the telephone from Sunday 2.00pm and throughout the week on 01925 568220. You can also watch the service again on Facebook, where you will also find all the weekday services. You can now watch the Sunday services on our YouTube channel from Sundays 2.00pm. Just search for Daresbury Church.With God's blessing,David
