Following the death of His Royal Highness, Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh, our sincere condolences and prayers are with Her Majesty the Queen and the Royal Family, as they mourn the loss. In the coming week, Sidmouth Parish Church will be open for private prayer every day from 10am-4pm, as well as the normal Sunday opening. <span style="font-size: 1rem;">The Government has advised that in order to observe current Covid-19 precautions, physical condolence books should not be offered at this time. </span>We invite people to offer their condolences through the online book opened by the Church of England at https://www.churchofengland.org/remembering-his-royal-highness-prince-philip.
<div>During Lent we will be offering several ways to engage with the season. Those who receive this bulletin by hand will be receiving a special pack of Lent resources. For those who are able to access online services, please join us for any or all of the following. For more information, please contact Matt.</div><div>- Ash Wednesday Eucharist live-stream: 10am, 17th Feb (see link below)</div><div>- Lent Book Groups via Zoom (starting Mon 22nd Feb - see more detail below)</div><div>Mondays at 3pm, Tuesdays at 11am, Wednesdays at 7.30pm</div><div>- Compline (sung) via Zoom: Thursdays at 8pm, starting Thurs 18th Feb</div>During Lent we will be running 3 weekly online book groups across the Mission Community; to which everyone who is able to join is most welcome. An opportunity to get together with a coffee each week for about 45mins and to gently share any responses to the text. We will be looking at Rowan Williams' short book of reflections: Candles in the Dark: Faith, hope and love in a time of pandemic (SPCK, 2020). You may wish to purchase a copy of the book (widely available online). Alternatively, Matt would be happy to place an order on your behalf. Meeting days/times are shown above – if you can let Matt Selman (01395 515 076) or Laura Selman (01395 206 456) know which day you would like to join we would be grateful. Zoom meeting links will be circulated by email.More more detail see our website at https://www.sidvalley.org.uk/sidmouthparishchurch.htm
<div>Our PCC on Wednesday night and have decided to suspend public worship at St Giles and St Nicholas until further notice. <span style="font-size: 1rem;">This means that there will be no 'in-person' morning services at church this Sunday, nor Morning prayer on Monday. We will, however, remain open as before for private prayer (without stewards) this Sunday afternoon between 2pm & 3.30pm and again on Wednesday between 10am and 3.30pm. These decisions will remain under review.</span></div><div>Please note that, as during the November lockdown, <span style="font-size: 1rem;">a 10am Sunday service will continue to be available online</span></div><div>via our website at https://www.sidvalley.org.uk/sundaystreaming.htm</div><div>I am conscious that some of us will be very relieved and some of us very disappointed at the decision to suspend public worship. We have taken considerable steps to reduce the risk of COVID transmission in church and local infection rates are currently understood to be relatively low. However, as a PCC we also recognised that things can change very quickly and given the national emergency we were keen not to act too late.</div>
