We are delighted to see that the Covid infection rates and other important numbers in our area are going down steadily. Our community appears to be in a significantly better position than we were at the beginning of the year and we are giving thanks for this.
However, there is still a need for caution whilst a national lockdown is still in place (even though this does not prevent public worship). We committed to reviewing our worship plans at the end of January and so our Standing Committee met this week to agree a way forward.
We are keen to re-introduce public services gradually and carefully and so this is now our plan to bring us back to in-person worship and a more normal pattern of services at St Martin’s over the next month:
We will remain closed for in-person worship until Lent.
We will re-open for gathered worship at 7pm on Ash Wednesday evening (17th Feb), when there will be a special Eucharist to mark the beginning of Lent, which will include a Covid-safe imposition of ashes. This service will be in-person only and not live-streamed.
We will continue with one in-person service at 11am on Sundays (also live-streamed) for the rest of February as well as an in-person Communion service at 10am on Wednesdays. Wednesday mornings will not be live-streamed once we come back to gathered worship.
This means that the next month of services will look as follows:
| Sunday 7th February | 11am All Age Worship (on Facebook Live only) |
| Weds 10th February | 10am Morning Prayer (on Facebook Live only) |
| Sunday 14th February | 11am All Age Worship (on Facebook Live only) |
| Weds 17th February | 10am Morning Prayer (on Facebook Live only) |
| 7pm Ash Wednesday Eucharist (in-person only) | |
| Sunday 21st February | 11am All Age Communion (in-person and on Facebook Live) |
| Weds 24th February | 10am Holy Communion (in-person only) |
| Sunday 28th February | 11am All Age Worship (in-person and on Facebook Live) |
We would encourage those who can access services online to continue to do so from home during February, creating space in church for those who cannot access the internet or for whom this might be their only interaction with others during the week.
All of these plans will be reviewed in light of the local infection rates and other factors. If the situation locally gets worse, we may choose to remain closed for public worship and continue to livestream only.
Assuming our plans for February stay as they are, we will then review again at the end of the month, to see if any further changes to take us closer to a more normal pattern of services can be made in March.
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