Dear Reader,

Greetings to you all from here at The Rectory. I hope this letter finds you well and making the most of the current situation that we find ourselves living through.

I thought that I would take this opportunity to tell you about the things that your church is doing at the moment and how the shape of things might look in the coming months.

Our church buildings are closed, but the church is the people of God and we are finding new ways of connecting with our communities. We are holding two services a week via telephone conference calling. Many of my colleagues have moved to online services but I decided to opt for using the telephone as not everyone has access to the internet. We hold a service every Sunday morning at 10am and also morning prayer on a Wednesday at 9.30am. To join in all you need to do is dial 0330 336 0036 then enter the pin number 268048.

On a Monday morning at 10.30am we hold a coffee morning via Zoom. If you would like to join us just send me an email, then I can send you the link. My email address is [email protected]

We regularly email out links to resources, pastoral care is provided via the telephone and soon we will be starting a bible study group. We are developing new ideas to help people sustain and feed their faith, please do contact me with any suggestions that you may have.

Looking ahead our Bishop has now set out the steps that we might take towards our eventual reopening. It is thought that within the coming months we might be able to hold within the church small one-off services such as weddings and funerals. It is thought that Sunday worship might be able to resume later in the year, but obviously this is all pending on government advise. When we can use our buildings again, things will be very different, social distancing will need to be in place, we will not be able to give out service sheets, singing will probably not be permitted and the potential for receiving Communion is a very long way off. People have asked me about the church being open for private prayer, unfortunately this is not permitted at this time. When the Bishop announces any changes, I shall pass the information to you.

Finally I make an appeal for help. Our income is greatly reduced, and you will appreciate that maintaining our fine, historic buildings is very costly. Please would you consider making a small regular donation via direct debit to help us? If you feel that you can help, then please speak to your Warden for details. For any further information regarding church, please do give me a call, my number is 771338.

May God bless you all.

Rev Andrea.