Wearing Face-coverings in Church
We have just received guidance from the Church of England that the wearing of face-coverings in church is recommended although not mandatory . Our feeling is that this is a matter that touches on personal responsibility and we noticed that the majority of the congregation at Weobley last Sunday felt comfortable wearing masks.
Finding Our New Rector
It has been decided that the interviews for the post of Incumbent of the Weobley and Staunton Group of Parishes will be held on 20th and 21st of October 2020. As Chair of our Group Benefice Council I have had lengthy discussions with the Archdeacon who has been in close touch with our Bishop. The Archdeacon explained that all the different ways of holding the interviews soon had been considered carefully but for legal and practical reasons covered by Covid 19 safety guidelines none of them was feasible.
The Archdeacon has assured us that when interviewing can begin again the benefices are scheduled in order of cancellation in March and Weobley & Staunton are scheduled to be first off the rank. Candidates for the post remain anxious to be interviewed but have indicated they are prepared to wait until the proposed dates in October.
This remains a lengthy and frustrating delay but, in the meantime, we should thank our clergy team for all they have done in making sure our service schedules and ministry are sustained during this interregnum.
Roger Marshall
Re-opening our churches – latest updates
Changes to the Government’s guidelines on worship in churches are now coming thick and fast and clearly July 4th is going to be a bit of a red-letter day. Services – under controlled but as yet unspecified rules – will be allowed again, and we know we can hold weddings with up to 30 guests.
Hereford Diocese is working on the detail of this and as soon as it is available to us all, it will be published here and in People & Steeple, and locally of course.
In the meantime, and in line with recent Government guidelines, we are looking at how we can open our churches for individual private prayer and will post details as they become better established.
Each parish will be adopting its own tailored schedule and so it is advisable to look under individual church tabs to see how each parish church is moving forward with its plans for opening its doors once again.
For updates on Weobley, Letton, Byford, Norton Canon, Monnington and Sarnesfield parishes please visit their pages on the ‘Churches’ tab.
Please visit our Week-by-Week tab for details of our weekly Zoom Services and accompanying service sheets. Below is a link for a little taster of one of our Sermons that Rev’d John Thewlis gave us for Trinity Sunday.
This Sunday – Sunday 28th – our Holy Communion at 10.30am will be led by Rev’d Peter Houghton.
Continuing to worship – in many different ways
Access to our churches, even in limited ways, is fine news and sets us off along the path to time when we can all meet again in congregational services. But we’re not there yet and prayer, worship, reading scripture and everything that sustains our spiritual life continues even if not in the church building.
Here are some ways in which we can all continue to be part of the worshipping life of the Church:
- Join in with the Revd Marcus Small, Rector of Eardisley each day with daily prayer (2)
- Listen to BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Worship at 0810 and all local radio stations in England at 0800
- Archdeacon Derek is open to prayer requests twice daily (3)
- The Taize community in France livestream their prayers everyday at 6.30 (4)
And we can use our imagination and creativity to come up with ways in which others can see that the worship of the church is continuing: we can pray for our families, communities, those with difficult responsibilities and for victims of the virus and its consequences
May we know the presence of God in the person of Jesus and in the power of the Spirit in these difficult times
(1) https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/
(2) https://www.facebook.com/pg/Eardisley-Group-of-Parishes-365700116958080/posts/?ref=page_internal
(3) https://www.facebook.com/groups/202978667601059/
(4) https://www.facebook.com/taize/
For more information please visit
https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-churches
Finding our new Rector
As many of you know, interviews for the post of Rector of our Group of Parishes were due to be held on Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th of May. Frustratingly, but understandably, these were postponed until an unspecified date ‘in the future’. Our first hope is that this date is in the near future but we can’t guess at that, save to say, the Archdeacon of Hereford and our Parish Representatives are in close contact about what might be done to re-convene these interviews at the soonest, safe opportunity.
A great deal of energy has gone into producing the documents and statements that ’sell’ our group of parishes to potential new incumbents and we must be thankful to those who put in the hard yards to get this all done. Good candidates have been attracted to apply and we must both hope and pray that they continue to wish to come to the Weobley & Staunton Group when the time for interview is announced once again.
As soon as we know more, we will share this with you and we hope for positive news before long.
