Following Saturday's announcement of a new lockdown, St Mary of Charity is sadly having to suspend all services and private prayer in the building. The church will be closed until we are advised that we can legally open again and it is safe for us to hold services together.In the meantime, our Benefice services, which have been broadcast from the Benefice YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMIZEPR1RNbRwrEw62n9zjg) since the end of March/early April, will continue to be available. If you are aware of a friend or relative who is not online but would like to be able to see these weekly services, please email 4favershamchurches@gmail.com for further information.Although we are very sorry to have to take this step, the health and well-being of our congregation and the public are extremely important to us and it is essential for us to do everything we can to help protect each other. Please continue to follow the guidelines - maintain a good distance between yourself and anyone outside your household; wear a mask when in shops and enclosed public spaces and wash/sanitise your hands whenever you come into contact with anything outside.
Dear Church Family,I am pleased to tell you that The Benefice has started to re-open its church buildings.We shall be holding Holy Communion in rotation in our churches around The Benefice once a month. St Mary of Charity will be the second Sunday of the month therefore this coming Sunday, 12 July will be our first Eucharistic service, followed by the other Sundays of the month when we shall have All Age Worship and Morning Prayer. All these services will commence at 10 am.Church will also be open for private prayer weekly, commencing Wednesday, 15 July between 11 am and 2 pm - a volunteer will be available during that time. We will ask you to leave your name and contact details so that in the event of a visitor on the same day testing positive for Covid-19, we will be able to trace anyone else who has been in the building. Your details will be kept for 21 days and will not be shared or passed on to any third parties.We shall need to implement a booking system for our main services, so could I ask you in the first instance to let me know if you will be joining us on Sunday, 12 July, also if you are a single person joining or how many there will be in your "bubble."There will be social distancing children’s work available, do join us. Following this first week I shall be in touch hopefully with an online system for future bookings. We are very privileged to have the facility for an overspill TV screen.Please email 4favershamchurches@gmail.com to book your place.Looking forward to seeing you all,Every Blessing, Miranda Ford (Churchwarden)
We are, as of 16 March 2020, still holding our regular services. However, some of the church's activities have been suspended. There is no Parish Lunch (monthly on the third Wendesday of the month) until further notice. Little Fishes, which runs on a Thursday morning from 10 am until 11.30 am, has been suspended until after Easter, at which time we will review the situation. The National Council of Churches have advised that:We wash our hands on arriving at the church, and on leaving.We do not have physical contact when sharing the peace.We stand to take Communion.We have Communion in one form only - the host - and the priest leading the service will have the bread and the wine.Collection is a retiring collection only, the plate will not be passed among the congregation.There should be no refreshments served following the service.St Mary of Charity will be following these recommendations, and will be adopting any updates. We will have the portable sink available for worshipers to use on arriving and leaving the church.
Dear brothers and sisters, This afternoon, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have written to all Bishops in the Church of England to issue updated guidance to help prevent the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19). The full guidance is online, but essentially it is their view that, in light of the continued increase of COVID-19 cases in the United Kingdom, it is now necessary to suspend the administration of the chalice as well as physical contact during the sharing of the peace, blessing or "laying on of hands".We therefore advise that all priests should:-• Offer Communion in one kind only to all communicants (i.e. the consecrated bread/wafer/host, with the priest alone taking the wine)• Suspend handshaking or other direct physical contact during the sharing of the Peace• Suspend direct physical contact as part of a blessing or ‘laying on of hands’The Archbishops themselves will be following this guidance when they preside at the Eucharist, as will I - and we ask that you would do likewise. They also wrote to assure us of their prayers and thoughts as across the country, communities consider what steps they can take to care and support one another.It is clear that in these unsettled times, we must not let the fear of infection turn into a fear of one another. Our churches have a crucial role to play in offering a positive message of hope to those who are fearful, and in caring for the elderly, the vulnerable and the isolated as we give our attention to those most at risk. The situation is, of course, changing day by day - and the Church of England will continue to seek national advice and to update its guidance. Clearly, none of us knows precisely how the current situation will develop - so we need to continue to pray and work to be prepared for all reasonable eventualities. To that end, the Church offers this prayer for all those affected by the spread of Coronavirus:Keep us, good Lord,under the shadow of your mercy.Sustain and support the anxious,be with those who care for the sick,and lift up all who are brought low;that we may find comfortknowing that nothing can separate us from your lovein Christ Jesus our Lord.</span>I would like to add my thanks to those of our archbishops for all that you are doing to encourage one another, to care for one another and to provide resources to enable people to respond appropriately in these uncertain times.With blessings, The Rt Revd Rose Hudson-WilkinBishop of Dover and Bishop in Canterbury 10 March 2020
