Messenger April May 2020

REMAIN - BREXIT - CORONAVIRUS
WHAT’S NEXT?!
By now you will know that all Church of England church services have been
suspended. Archbishops of Canterbury and York have written that, far from
“shutting up shop”, the Church must face the challenge by becoming a radically
different kind of organisation, “rooted in prayer and serving others”.
The Archbishops hope that church buildings may, where practical, remain open
as places of prayer for the community, observing social distancing
recommendations. It is understood that funerals and weddings can still go ahead,
but the advice is that these should be scaled back as much as possible, and that
social contact be avoided. Advice about baptisms is still being considered.
The Bishops write: “Being a part of the Church of England is going to look very
different in the days ahead. Our life is going to be less characterised by attendance
at church on Sunday, and more by the prayer and service we offer each day”.
You will see in this issue that all the diary and service pages have been taken out
and also a number of events where people gather. A number of them have either
been cancelled or postponed. There will still be some errors so please check if
you are unsure.
Already one house group in the team have decided to continue to meet. Before
you become alarmed they are going to use Skype* (see below). Please let us know
what you might be doing.
Meanwhile the BBC aim to broadcast a weekly Sunday morning church service on
BBC One, subject to outside broadcast capacity. On top of that, the broadcaster
has also said it’s exploring how to support “other religions and denominations,
including in the run-up to Ramadan.”
The virtual church service will take place on Sunday mornings across local radio
in England, initially led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.
Rev Alison Sowton is unavailable at the moment so please contact the wardens,
numbers listed below:
Team Wardens
Peter Maslen St Michael’s 01225 708142 maslen.family@btinternet.com
Margaret Willis St Andrew’s 07960 480887 willis_frank@hotmail.com
Stanford Cole St Barnabas 01225 702393 stanfordandruth@tiscali.co.uk
Weddings - Bapisms - Funerals -Administration
Annette Hucknall 07907 481999 r.i.hucknall@blueyonder.co.uk
Team payments- donations - questions
Ian Mclean 01225 705440 mtmfinance@btinternet.com
All team contact numbers can be found on page 42.
*Skype is used to make free video and voice one-to-one and group calls, You can
use Skype on whatever works best for you – on your mobile, computer or tablet.
3 MESSENGER APRIL MAY 2020