St Mary’s has been open for Private Prayer for a few weeks now. We have the correct measures in place that allow us to offer you a safe place to spend some time in private prayer. It has been fantastic to see people face to face over the past three weeks and to have a ‘distanced’ chat with them! Please do come in confidence if you would like to.
Public Worship
The PCC unanimously agreed to apply to Bishop Keith for the dispensation of Canons B11 & B14 for August on the grounds of it being unsafe to open for Public Worship until better measures can be put in place to mitigate risk. This is mainly to do with the size and shape of both churches and the difficulty in maintaining 2m physical distancing. The application was duly granted by Bishop Keith (you can see a copy of his email here), so St Mary’s or St Luke’s will not reopen for Public worship until at least the 1st Sunday of September. The guidance for the legal side of not reopening for Public Worship and the dispensation is explained in this Guidance from the Church of England.
In the meantime, we will continue to offer Private Prayer sessions at St Mary’s and stream our services through July and August. I know not reopening in August will be disappointing for some people, but we have to consider the safety of people entering a very restricted space.
With all God’s blessings, Revd Mike.