We are following the latest guidance from the Church of England, which means that our traditional services are currently still suspended.
- Regular weekly services inside church cannot take place.
- The church building is closed, even for private prayer.
- Christenings, funerals, and marriage services cannot currently be held.
However the life of our church goes on, in serving the community and offering a number of online and dial-in worship options. Please read on!
Coming out of lockdown
It seems likely that it will be some months before we are able to return to what most of us would consider to be a ‘normal’ way of being in church. It is impossible to know the exact dates when restrictions will be relaxed but we know that we will return to our building in a phased way. It is likely to involve the following steps:
- The first step will involve our vicar being allowed to start going into church alone to record some elements of services for us to watch at home.
- Later, the church building is likely to first reopen to the public at specific times for individuals to visit for private prayer on their own.
- At some point we will be able to start offering some small wedding and funeral services with limits on how many people can be in the congregation.
- Other small church services, such as Christenings, again for a limited number of people, may be able to take place some time after that.
- Larger services may then be allowed but it is likely there will still be restrictions on how many people can be in church and how far apart we need to be. Some elements of our services may also be limited such as singing and sharing the chalice at communion to prevent the spread of infection.
- Eventually we hope to return to church without restrictions on how our services can take place.
Worship while our church building is closed
Until we are able to progress all the way through these steps we will continue to share worship together in new and creative ways:
- Every Sunday there is a new recorded service available to watch at home on our website and from the St John's YouTube page
- Every Wednesday we have a Dial-in Communion service which people can go to by video call or telephone.
- Our ABC Church service for adults, babies and children continues to meet by Zoom video call.
- We have a weekly home group which is also meeting by Zoom video call.
Find out more
You can contact us if you would like to find out more, or to discuss the Christian faith or if you have any enquiries that we may be able to help you with.
- You can speak to our churchwardens by email: churchwarden@stjohnsfarsley.org.uk
- Or you can speak to Rev Sue McWhinney: sue@stjohnsfarsley.org.uk