Vicars letter

February 2021

Click for the Vicars letter from January 2021

Your church remains open, but ...

Yes, your church remains open, but for individual private prayer only, and, with a heavy heart, communal worship has been moved online once again. At the beginning of January, the Prime Minister made an announcement regarding England going into lockdown again, but surprisingly places of worship could stay open for public worship. I was then in discussion with the churchwardens of both parishes about this, as we had significant reservations about remaining open for public worship with the presence of the new, virulent strain of the Covid virus:

• The majority of our congregations are in a vulnerable category, either through age or because of other underlying health conditions.
• We are close to receiving the vaccine (probably over the course of the next two to three months)
• We have a duty of care for our congregations, for those ‘on duty’ at services, for our parishioners and for our families, as well as for ourselves.
• The Ministry Leadership Team had reservations, for personal reasons, about their availability to lead/preach at live services; we therefore have a much-depleted team to call upon for services.

For all these reasons, we came to the conclusion that it would be more sensible to reduce the risks for everyone by having online services rather than continue with live public worship. The standing committees of the Parochial Church Councils agreed with this.

I wrote to the Bishop asking her permission to suspend public worship at our churches during the national lockdown, and this was granted immediately. With effect from 5 January, we suspended public worship, and have permission to do so until 28 March. We will review this mid-February and recommence public worship when it feels right to do so.

We are recording a service and this is available, online, every Sunday morning (plus a time of fellowship, with coffee, on Zoom after the service).

St George’s remains open for individual private prayer seven days a week and will be heated for two one-hour periods every day (10-11am and 2-3pm) so that the church is more comfortable. Revd Ylva and I will diary some of our time to be at St George’s if you wish to meet and talk (see the church website for details).

I know this will be of considerable disappointment to some, and we are not taking this action lightly. If you hold the view that ‘the church should never be shut’, then please remember that there will also be others who hold passionately to the view that ‘it’s about time public worship stopped’.

The virus is serious, and the country is in lockdown to try and break its spread. We need, as the local church, to be part of helping with that break so that, with help from the vaccine, we can all get back to a more normal life sooner rather than later. Whatever your thoughts about this, whatever your neighbour’s thoughts, please, please, please remember to care for your neighbour. That is faith in action. God bless.

Revd David Commander, Rector

T: 01580 240658 E: david@dc-uk.co.uk