Coronavirus - COVID-19. 17 March 2020


Dear All –

I am trying not to bombard you with emails but this is of course a fast-changing landscape.

We have now received instruction from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to suspend all public worship. There will, therefore, be no services at St George’s until further notice.

That means no services on Wednesdays or Sundays, nor any other special services that we were planning such as our Evensong on Friday April 3rd to celebrate our 50th anniversary. John Symond’s memorial service next week has also been postponed.

There will also be no Wednesday or Friday morning coffee with immediate effect, nor any other social activities at the church until you hear further.

In their letter, which you can read HERE, we are asked as Christians to continue our daily prayer life and to help the vulnerable.

I have asked Anne Morgan (who has already done lots of work with Lesley on this) together with her pastoral team to put together a plan to reach out to those members of our church who, as a result of there being no more services, may be feeling particularly lonely or isolated. If you would like to assist (you don’t need to be part of the pastoral team) please contact one of the following :

a.morgan@stgeorges.church

l.handy@stgeorges.church

c.gadd@stgeorges.church

j.hood@stgeorges.church

It may be joining the telephone service or it may be delivering provisions in due course, we shall have to see how this develops. Just indicate your willingness to assist at this stage and Anne and Lesley can start the planning.

Fr Colin is away until the weekend so please call me (07943 633734) or drop me an email in the meantime should you wish to discuss anything.

Our church services are of course an intrinsic part of our lives so I am very sorry to bring this sad news, particularly given this current situation has the potential to last for many weeks. We will sit with Fr Colin to see what prayer and other resource we can make available to you to use at home. You will also see from the letter that the Archbishops invite us to take part in a day of prayer this Sunday (Mothering Sunday), and to place a lighted candle in your window at 7PM.

There will also be regular posts on our website (www.stgeorges.church) and on our Facebook page (@STGWATERLOOVILLE).

Please look out for your neighbours, and for each other, and keep well.

God bless,

Chris