Church Services during lockdown

A message from our Rector:

I hope and pray that for all of us 2021 will bring some lasting relief from the Coronavirus that has overshadowed so much of life throughout 2020. Of course, the opening days of the new year have been anything but ‘happy’ for so many as the worrying new variant of the virus, which it seems is highly transmissible, has seen the country put back into a new ‘lockdown’ as rates of infection increase rapidly. The statistics for our own area make for troubling reading.

My prayers are with all of those who are suffering with the virus but also with the staff of our over-stretched hospitals, those whose livelihoods have had to be curtailed and with parents who must now juggle work, and child-care and home teaching! For churches unlike in previous ‘lockdowns’, we can meet for worship, provided all due processes and procedures are adhered to, to ensure the safety of everyone.

And we have been good at doing that. But I have still found myself very troubled by the statistics for the rate of infection and the evidence that seems to confirm that the new variant of the virus can be passed on so easily – even it seems by those who are displaying no symptoms at all. I have thought and prayed about this and discussed it with John W and Nigel and we have agreed that good sense suggests that it would be prudent to suspend our meetings in church for now and to return to holding our Sunday morning service via Zoom. This has not been an easy decision given my belief that worship, and praise are powerful weapons for believers to use in any struggle. However, we can still be together and worship together via Zoom in a way that just twelve months ago would have been unimaginable.

If you’re anything like me you are probably getting a little bit tired of commentators, columnists, and TV journalists (not to mention politicians) talking about ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ or using analogies to trains coming to the end of tunnels! But there is light. There is the light of Christ to guide us where we seek His will and pray for His guidance, love, and protection. And there is the promise too of the new vaccines that may bring us all a measure of relief. For that, let’s all pray! For now, I have agreed with John W and Nigel that we will review the situation again, early on in February, when hopefully vaccine roll-out and ‘lockdown’ will have reduced the current threat level.

If you would like to join our Zoom services, please email HomeWorship@ardinglychurch.net and we will send you the login details each week.

Please note that the Church remains open for private prayer on Thursdays and Sundays each week.