From today, 17th March, all public acts of worship, groups and non-essential meetings run by All Saints have been suspended as we respond to the request from the Archbishops to act responsibly in the light of the most up to date information from the government. This means all public events listed in the church diary, the Herald and notice boards are cancelled or postponed.

Whilst the advice from Public Health England is going to drastically change the way we all live and work, we are committed to continuing to be a church that prays with and for the local community and that seeks to care for people in pastoral and practical ways working in partnership with other faith and community groups. Therefore over the coming days please refer to our website, Facebook and Twitter pages for updates on how we will be working differently during these weeks and possibly months of social distancing and isolation.

We will be looking at creative ways of enabling us to continue a pattern of worship making use of technology and in the first instance Morning Prayer will be live streamed on our Facebook page Monday to Friday at 9.00am. Online forums for bible study and prayer are also in the pipeline so do please keep checking back here.

If you would like to receive regular email bulletins from us and your contact details have recently changed or you don't believe we have them please contact Caroline Lee on [email protected]. If you have had to self-isolate and would appreciate a phone call from our pastoral team or are struggling to get provisions please call Revd Wendy Dalrymple on 01509 268362 or email [email protected] and if you would be willing to help in supporting others please also get in contact.

We strongly advise everyone to follow the advice from Public Health England so we can all play our part in slowing the spread of the virus and protect the most vulnerable. As the Archbishops have written in their letter to all clergy 'being a part of the Church of England is going to look very different in the days ahead, our life is going to be less characterised by attendance at church on Sunday, and more characterised by the prayer and service we offer each day."

These are challenging times but we put our hope and trust in God our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer and in the powerful acts of human kindness that we know we are all capable of.