Covid-19 Update - 22nd July 2021

On 17th July we received 12 pages of guidance from the Church of England regarding the way forward following the announcement from the Government of their plan to remove virtually all legal restrictions from Monday July 19th.

A summary of the update is below.  Please visit our Covid-19 page for further imformation.

1. Although social distancing is no longer a legal requirement, we still need to "space ourselves out" as much as possible.  Although all pews at St Peter's will be "open" , we will be putting "crosses" within every pew to encourage people to sit 1m (not 2m) apart from anyone not in their "household". At St Leonards, we will place chairs 1m apart.

2. Congregational singing will be reintroduced from Sunday 25th July.

3. Everybody attending services in either church (unless they have a medical exemption) should wear a mask over their nose and mouth at all times while in the building, and especially while singing

4. Everybody should use the Hand Sanitiser provided on entry into and exit from the building.  

5. Everybody with a Smartphone should continue to "check-in" to the venue using the NHS Covid-19 App and QR codes on display, and we will continue, at least until 16th August, to collect names of those attending services, and phone numbers for any visitors

6. We will continue to ensure that several doors are left open during services to maintain good ventilation.

7. Regarding refreshments, I know some people are keen that we return to this, as it is an aspect of our fellowship which people are missing.  However, we are dependent on the availability of people to serve these. When there are people available and whenever the weather is suitable, we will serve refreshments outside after the service.  Whether outside or inside, refreshments will need to be served on a "table service" basis, rather than people congregating at a counter.  We are therefore hoping to slowly reintroduce refreshments over the coming weeks, but occasionally this may not be possible

8. With regard to the reintroduction of Bellringing, we hope to make a decision in the next couple of weeks

9. We continue indefinitely with the streaming of at least one Sunday service per week, so that we are still ministering to those who still do not feel comfortable to return. 

10. Holy Communion will move to a system of "Simultaneous Administration" where the person presiding dips the wafer in the wine for each communicant.

God bless
Robert