Vicar’s Update – 19 June 2020

admin-hopechurchfamily-org19/06/2020

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://www.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.

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

Prerecorded, (stream at your convenience)

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

Every Day except Sunday

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

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