⚠️ O V E R R I D I N G ▫ A N N O U N C E M E N T ⚠️
CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND'S TEMPORARY SUSPENSION OF PUBLIC WORSHIP.
🛑 With effect from 17th March, 2020, following advice from H.M. Government, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York directed that public worship be suspended. Churches were allowed to reopen for private prayer from 19th June, and for public worship from 4th July. However, in response to the second surge, H.M. Government has ordered a second national lockdown returning places of worship back to the private prayer level again with effect from 5th November. The Cabinet Office has provided the following guidelines:
🛐 As before, during this second lockdown, St Ambrose church will be open for private prayer, offering a non-liturgical exposition of the Blessed Sacrament concluding with an unspoken Benediction on Sundays (10 a.m.) and Thursdays (8:45 a.m.).
☣️ Following a safety audit with the Diocese of Winchester the Covid-19 measures we have adopted stringent safety precautions including
· separate entrance and exit doors,
· 21-day track-and-trace monitoring (via a register and/or livestream recording),
· sanitiser stations,
· an internal one-way system with floor signage,
· roped off rows,
· availability of facemasks (now mandatory unless exempted),
· recording everyone who visits for track-and-trace purposes (records kept for 21 days),
· a touchless thermometer-gun,
· no offertory processions or collections (please use the wallsafe or collection bucket),
· no singing,
· no refreshments afterwards (socialising is best done outdoors, weather permitting).
🌍 Whilst our normal regular services are still shown here, they are consequently on hold until circumstances permit their full resumption. Likewise, concerts and organised trips to Glastonbury, Hilfield, St Silas, etc. have been cancelled. The Priest-in-Charge, Churchwardens and PCC, had added new ways of electronic access with scheduled premiere messages and livestreaming from the church through Facebook, YouTube and A Church Near You, email updates, Twitter, and meetings via Skype and Zoom.
🧔 Fr Adrian Pearce, the Priest-in-Charge, continues to offer a weekly address (about fifteen minutes long) scheduled for 10 a.m. every Sunday - the time of our normal main Sunday Mass - which can be seen on Facebook and YouTube (including via the "A Church Near You" website). We are also livestreaming the 10 a.m. Sunday Exposition on Facebook. Please do tune-in if you are able, and join with other members of our congregation, for these few minutes every week. Fr Adrian - who can be contacted on 01202 911569 or [email protected] - continues the Daily Office, including Mass, in private and says Evening Prayer at 5:30 p.m. in the church. Prayer requests for inclusion at these times can be telephoned or emailed to him. You may wish to join him and others, communing spiritually wherever you are, in a network of prayer.
🧔🏼 The Rev Canon Roy Matthews is an active retired priest in Highcliffe who often assists at St Ambrose Church. Fr Roy draws on his long pastoral experience providing insights and guidance here, on our YouTube channel, and via WhatsApp. To join his email circulation list just drop him a line at [email protected] and, to connect via WhatsApp, please include your mobile phone number.
🏪 Many thanks to all who have supported our local Food Bank with weekly transfers via the church. These were suspended while the church was closed have now begun again (so you can leave non-perishable food donations in the basket in the church if you are attending).
☎ Concerning ongoing, shared pastoral care (and whilst GDPR rules forbid disclosure of contact details without express consent), those who are already in possession of other's 'phone numbers are encouraged to keep in touch by telephone and to offer help, especially with the elderly, frail and lonely, and those known to be in need.
[Last updated: 31st October, 2020]