On Tuesday Boris Johnson announced that Places of Worship will be able to hold religious services again from 4th July. This is fantastic news and a really positive step forward as we look forward to the recovery of our normal church life. As it says in Hebrews: "...let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the Day approaching!" (Hebrews 10:25) We should be longing to be able to meet together again for our mutual encouragement.
However, it is important to realise that this is only a step forward. Although we are still waiting for the details, we know there will be a number of restrictions on what we can do in a church service for the time being. Singing will not be allowed, we are encouraged not to interact with members from other households, we will need to keep 2m apart and the total numbers at any one service are likely to be restricted.
This is likely to be the case until September, when hopefully the restrictions may ease some more and we will be able to do more together as a church. Also, in order for there to be Sunday services at St. Luke's there will be some new measures we need to put in place that we don't normally do. For example if the numbers allowed at any one service are restricted (possibly to 30), then it is likely that we will need 2 or 3 different services at different times on a Sunday with a team of volunteers for each one.
We have the beginning of a plan to make this happen and it may be that there will be the opportunity to attend a service in church on Sunday 5th July. However, as we are still waiting for the details of what is allowed it may be that we will delay it for a week, until 12th July, to ensure everything is set up and properly in place.
We are aware as well that there will be a number of people unable or unhappy about returning to church whilst there is still the possibility of infection from Covid-19. This is perfectly understandable. As a result we will continue to ensure there are online services available throughout the summer, either pre-recorded or livestreamed. Indeed, we hope to continue with this indefinitely!
In the coming week or two we will be in contact to ask people to let us know (probably via questionnaire) what they plan to do about attending church services, what times they are happy to attend and whether they can help with a volunteer role. Please do respond promptly when you receive that so that we can begin to turn plans into action and welcome people to gather together!
