Newsletter 14 April 2023
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His Royal Highness, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
It’s with great sadness that we heard the news of the death of His Royal Highness Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, today. We give thanks to God for his extraordinary life of dedicated service.
Some of our churches will be open for private prayer over the next few days to allow anyone who wishes to come and and give thanks for Prince Philip, the chance to do so.
- Upton Parish Church will be open 9:30am – 1pm on Sunday 11th April (including a service at 9:30am).
- St James, Welland will be open 10am-5pm on Sat 10th and Sunday 11th.
- St Gabriel’s, Hanley Swan will be open 10am-5pm Sat 10th-Tuesday 13th April.
- The Hook Church, open 10am-6pm, Sunday 11th and Thursday 15th.
- St Mary’s, Hanley Castle, open 10am-6p:30pm, Sunday 11th to Tuesday 13th.
Government guidance is that books of condolence represent an infection risk so we are discouraged from having them. Instead there is a national national online book of condolence, prepared by the Church of England, which can be signed here.
Church administrator news
In mid September, our administrator Clare Bell is moving on to pastures new. She’s been in the role for 12 months, been a real blessing to us, and we’ll miss her presence enormously.
But her departure creates an opportunity for someone, and it could be you!
If you’d like to know more, download an application form here.
Vicar’s Update – 19 June 2020
Dear Friends,
I have some good news. At long last, we’re ready to reopen three of our eight churches for occasional private prayer! Some of you I know are very excited about this – so please get the word out!
Before I tell you the dates, let me say a big thank-you to Carol Hutchings, Helen Owens and John Martin, the three Church Wardens who have worked so hard to get the buildings ready to reopen. Credit must go to their cleaning teams too! Carol, Helen and John are acting as what the government call “venue managers” – the people responsible (on behalf of the church PCCs) for all aspects of Covid-19 safety within the buildings. I’m very grateful to them for this work, and I hope you will all help to make their lives easier by obeying the various Covid-19 safety guidelines in church, as well as volunteering to help with the cleaning if it is safe for you to do so.
So, starting from Tuesday 23rd June, you can visit one of our churches at the following times:
- Mondays 10am-noon St James’ Welland (NOTE, Not MONDAY 22nd JUNE)
- Tuesdays 10am-noon St Gabriel’s, Hanley Swan
- Wednesdays 10am-noon St Mary’s, Hanley Castle
- Thursdays 10am-noon St James’, Welland
- Fridays 5pm-7pm St Gabriel’s, Hanley Swan
- Saturdays 10am-noon St Mary’s, Hanley Castle
To help keep you safe, the buildings are being cleaned before and after each opening period, and the three-day gap between each building opening will act as an additional “safety buffer” in which the scientists tell us any virus particles that the cleaners have missed will die.
Notwithstanding that, please help us keep the buildings clean and safe by minimising the things you touch while in the building, using the provided hand gel, observing social distancing, and following all safety instructions in the building.
Please do not enter the building if you are experiencing any of the key Covid-19 symptoms:
- a new continuous cough.
- a high temperature.
- a loss of, or change in, your normal sense of taste or smell (anosmia)
It’s also possible that we may need to close one of the buildings occasionally for a funeral, or because we haven’t been able to maintain cleaning safety. We’ll do our best to inform you of this.
As yet we have no guidance on whether on when our buildings can reopen for regular worship. Whenever this is, it is extremely unlikely that services will return to the patterns we were experiencing before the Covid-19 outbreak. When the word comes to restart, we’ll need to go slowly and safely for a period of time, seating capacity will be significantly reduced in all our buildings, and we’ll be encouraging you to travel to each other’s services. We’ll let you know further details after the government let us have further details!
As we don’t anticipate everyone will want to (or be able to) return to church at once, we will also need to explore ways to keep some of our online services going for the forseeable future.
Briefly, a few other bits of news. And remember, please also scroll down through the rest of this email to see details of readings for this Sunday, links to some fun things we’ve spotted this week, and our updated prayer list.
1) Church finances – please help out!
Like all small charities, your local church is suffering a significant financial shortfall as a result of lost income from collections and special fundraising events we’d have run through the summer.
Whilst there’s still some hope we might be able to run a few events in the open air later in the summer, we do face a very challenging future financially. If you are in a position to give an additional gift at this time, it would make a huge difference.
To make this simpler, we’ve set up a new GIVING page on our website (https://hopechurchfamily.org/giving), with all the information you’ll need to give a one-off, or regular gift to any of our churches.
2) Services on DVDs and CDs
Every week I produce the services on DVD and CD for a small number of folk across the area who don’t have internet access. It’s been a lovely way for them to stay in touch. If you know of anyone else who would be helped by this ministry, please let me know. And can I say a big thank-you to Alison, John and Robina, who are helping with distribution in Ripple and Welland!
3) Get Togethers
We can’t meet physically as church at the moment (but I hope those of you who can, have enjoyed some small social gatherings since the rules were eased last weekend) but Zoom continues to be a good tool to help us keep in touch and meet with a crowd of folk! If you’ve not tried it yet, and have a computer, do give it a go – it’s possible to leave the video off and just talk, or even just to listen in to others chatting.
- Sunday 21 June, 10-11am, Coffee and Chat.
4) This week’s Online Events
Click the links on the list below to take you direct to the event at the appropriate time.
Sunday 21 June
Live at 9:30am
- Church Family (modern music version) – Join in the planned premier post on the Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/hopechurchupton) from 9:27am, feel free to comment and chat using the links on Facebook.
- Service of Spiritual Communion – Live – 9:30am. LIVE – using Zoom. Follow on-screen instructions to join in. Download service sheet here.
Prerecorded, (stream at your convenience)
- Sunday Service (traditional hymn version) – PRERECORDED so you can watch anytime from midnight on Sunday (also avaliable through our Youtube channel).
- Church Family (modern music version) – PRERECORDED – watch anytime from midnight on Sunday at www.hopechurchfamily.org/virtual or through our Youtube channel or join the live Facebook Premiere at 9:30am.
Tuesday 23 June
- 8pm, the Quiz is back! With a new prize structure, and loads of fun general knowledge rounds, suitable for children and adults alike. You need access to a computer with a webcam to join in, via Zoom. Click this link to join.
Wednesday 24 June
- Service of Spiritual Communion – Live – 6:30pm. LIVE – using Zoom. Follow on-screen instructions to join in. Download service sheet here.
Every Day except Sunday
- Daily Prayer – a short service of prayers and readings.
Services for Sunday 27 June
- Service of the Word (traditional) – PRERECORDED available from midnight
- Church Family (contemporary)– Facebook Premiere at 9:30am and PRERECORDED available from midnight.
- Evensong (available from 6pm)
We long for the day when we can all gather together again, but in the meantime, stay safe, stay prayerful, and God bless!
Rev’d Barry Unwin
Coronavirus and Church
It’s been hard to ignore Coronavirus in the media this week. I, therefore, wanted to write a brief update for you all with a few thoughts on how we approach the subject as churches. This is not meant to alarm you, and will instead I hope set out some sensible precautions we can all take to minimise any risk of infection in our communities.
I am basing what I say in part on NHS guidance given to my children at school today, which included this poster which has been produced by the NHS for educational settings, but which I think is relevant to our church communities . It helpfully answers two key questions for us.
How likely am I to catch the virus?
- You can only catch the virus if you have been in close contact to a person who has the virus.
- The chance of being in contact with the virus is currently low in the UK. As of 28 February, there are only 19 confirmed cases in the UK. This means you’d have something like a one in 3-million chance of meeting a person in the street with the disease! As far as I know, there have been no cases of Coronavirus reported in Worcestershire.
How should I minimise the risk of spreading the virus?
- Don’t go to China, or any of the affected areas.
- If you need to cough or sneeze, catch it with a tissue, and bin it.
- Don’t share items that come into contact with your mouth, such as cups and bottles.
- Wash your hands regularly with soap and water or a hand sanitiser. Try not to touch your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.
Much of this advice translates directly to our church context, however, it is worth now asking the specific question:
What does this mean for services of Holy Communion?
First, there’s no reason to panic!
Public Health England said on 25 February,
Whilst in places of worship, there is no need to avoid other worshipers who are well or to change normal faith practices – this includes taking wine from the communal chalice.”
There has never been a medically proven case of disease transmission via the communion cup. The Anglican Church of Canada has published a paper on this subject stating,
no episode of disease attributable to the common cup has ever been reported. Thus for the average communicant, it would seem that the risk of drinking from the common cup is probably less than the risk of air-borne infection in using a common building.”
Therefore, the Church of England has issued the following guidance: (and my comments on each point are included in red)
- Long-standing government advice has been that ‘In a pandemic, it makes good sense to take precautions to limit the spread of disease by not sharing common vessels for food and drink.’ HOWEVER, COVID-19 has NOT been declared a pandemic. (We should, therefore, continue meeting and proclaiming the Lord’s death until he returns – 1Corinthians 11:26! )
- Churches should already be following best-hygiene practices that include advising parishioners with coughs and sneezes to refrain from handshaking during The Peace and, to receive Communion in one kind only. (That is, to receive bread/wafer only, and not the wine).
- There is no Government advice that suggests the use of the Common Cup should be suspended.
- Churches should have hand-sanitizer available for parishioners to use. (I have bulk purchased these and will make them available in our churches when they arrive next week.)
- Priests presiding at the Eucharist, communion administrators and servers should wash their hands, preferably with an alcohol-based (minimum 60%) hand-sanitiser. (This is in addition to the practice of ritual hand washing that some priests include as they prepare communion.)
- Intinction (dipping the wafer in the wine) is not recommended (even by celebrants or communion-administrators) as this represents an infection transmission route as well as a risk to those with certain allergies. (It brings the hands into closer contact with the wine, and also risks wafer crumbs getting into the wine which can be a problem for those with gluten intolerance).
I believe that if we all follow these sensible guidelines, the risk of infection will be minimised, and in a year or so, we’ll look back upon Coronivirus as we do on Swine Flu – a nasty bug we managed to avoid with good infection control!
Barry Unwin
28 Feb 2020
Latest Vicar’s email
I recently circulated an email updating everyone about this Sunday’s benefice service at Hanley Swan. To read it, click here
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