Church opening times for private prayer (from 20th June)

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As I wrote last week, we spent this week considering whether we felt it would be possible to open our churches for private prayer without putting people at risk. The following decisions have been made:

Calstone and Yatebury will be open at the times they were open before Lockdown.
Cherhill will be open at normal times, but from Sunday to Wednesday each week (starting tomorrow, Monday 15th).
Heddington and Compton Bassett do not feel they can open safely yet so will remain closed for private prayer.

All the decisions were taken using the Church of England’s risk assessments, and will all be reviewed on a regular basis. This is for private prayer only. Any other use is still prohibited by the government.

The churches which are open have posters with guidelines on how to use the church safely. Could you please follow those guidelines – nothing in them should be a surprise given what we hear in the news all the time, and since our churches do not have running water, could I recommend that you wash your hands thoroughly before and after coming to the church.

We hope that this small improvement proves a comfort to some, and doesn’t put anyone at risk. Please revisit this page for future updates.

Online services will continue for the foreseeable future.

With blessings

Matt (for the various PCCs)

Churches to partially re-open (update 7th June 2020)

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You are probably aware that the government has given permission for places of worship to reopen for private prayer from Monday 15th June. This is great news for all of us,

It is now up to individual PCCs and clergy to decide when and how it is safe to do that in each church. Some churches will feel that they cannot meet the necessary requirements to keep people safe, and will continue to remain shut. Others will open, but with limitations on how or when the churches can be used in this way.

Next Sunday, I will post an update with the decisions of each PCC, and (if the decision is to open the church) some general guidelines on how we can use the buildings safely.

Please bear with us as we try to find a balance between opening up your buildings for you to use, and not wanting to put anyone at unnecessary risk.

With blessings
Matt

Pentecost service

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The service for Pentecost is now live via Youtube or the Online Services section of the website.

There is a version to download, but for copyright reasons I cannot include all the songs. You will find the video here on Saturday evening.

Blessings

Matt

Ascension Day service – updated 21st May

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***UPDATE***

Apologies to anyone who tried to watch this live. My computer claimed it was streaming, but I have since discovered that nothing was uploaded. I recorded the service, so will make an unedited version of it available as soon as possible.

***UPDATE***

This Thursday (21st May) is Ascension Day. Traditionally in Oldbury Benefice we have a service in St Mary’s, Calstone at 7.30am, followed by breakfast. Obviously that is not possible this year, so instead I will (attempt to) live-stream a short service from St Mary’s churchyard at that time. If you want to follow, you will need to go to YouTube and look for “Oldbury Benefice”. You should find an Ascension Day service set to go live on Thursday at 7.30am. Do watch if you can. If you want to click on a direct link, I think it might be here.

This is the countryside, so it is possible that the internet fails us – in which case I apologise in advance! Also, I haven’t got the means of showing you the words on the screen, just what the camera sees, so you might want to download this to join in.

I regret that public gatherings (and therefore public services) are still not permitted, so this is not an invitation to you to come and join me in person, just virtually.

Blessings

Matt