Priory Church of St Peter

PARISH OF DUNSTABLE in the Diocese of St Albans

The Priory Church of St Peter - St Augustine of Canterbury - St Fremund the Martyr - St Katherine of Genoa

Dear Friends

Following guidance today from the Church of England, we are sad to have to let you know that all public

activities in our churches are being suspended from today. This means that there will be no services,

meetings, events or gatherings in any of our four churches until further notice. The only exception to this is

the foodbank at St Augustine’s church, which will continue to operate.

We have already spent some time preparing for this, and will now start to put things into place so that we

are able to continue our shared life of prayer and worship in other ways and continue the mission and

ministry to which God has called us here in Dunstable. Thank you very much to all who have already

offered to help with this huge undertaking.

Further details will follow. Meanwhile, please be assured that the Church of England is still very much ‘open

for business’ in Dunstable, even if it will be less visible for a while.

We will continue to pray daily for our parish, and we encourage everyone to pray for those particularly

affected by the virus, as well as for our town and the whole world at this critical time.

As suggested by our Archbishops, we will be keeping this coming Sunday – Mothering Sunday (22nd March)

– as a day of prayer and action, remembering especially those who are sick or anxious, and all involved in

our health service. Along with the United Reformed Church and other denominations, the Archbishops are

calling on everyone to place a lighted candle in their window at 7pm on Sunday as a sign of solidarity and

hope in the light of Christ that can never be extinguished; please do join us in doing that.

The announcement from the Church, with a link to a letter from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York is

here: https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/news/archbishops-call-church-englandbecome-

radically-different-public-worship

With our love and prayers

Rachel Phillips, Rector

Tim Davis, Team Vicar

Ricky Turner, Team Vicar

News and notices