St Cuthbert’s Weekly update 27 March 2021

Yesterday, the government issued some new guidance for places of worship, and I wanted to pass it
on to you, together with a reminder of when we are opening the church again.
New guidance
I have been waiting for some guidance over whether singing is permitted in church every since
January. Now it has come, and we are told that “a single small group of singers will be allowed to
perform, or rehearse for performance, only where essential to an act of communal worship.” You
can read the full Church of England Guidance here and the government guidance on which it is
based here.
Last year we had a small choir singing on Sundays, and I am thinking about returning to this
pattern once we restart worship on Sunday 18th April. The question is whether their singing is
“essential” and perhaps we should say that singing is part of the essence of our worship! I’ll be
discussing this question with Dorothy and Marcus, and I’ll let you know.
Meanwhile, I’ve decided to try an outdoor service on Easter Sunday morning. It will be just a 30
minute service, held on the grass outside the church hall. People will need to be socially distanced,
but we will sing an Easter hymn! If you would like to come, please let me know – I’ll be limiting
numbers to a maximum of 30.
We will also be opening for Thursday communion on Maundy Thursday, with all the social
distancing restrictions that we got familiar with last year. Join us if you can (and would like to) at
9.30am, and if you wish to stay seated quietly in church afterwards, we will be doing the traditional
stripping of the altars. Please don’t forget that if you want to chat to someone, you need to go
outside!
Don’t forget also that the church is open in Holy Week for private prayer, between 1pm and 3pm
from Monday 29th March to Friday 2nd April. Thank you to those who have volunteered to staff the
church and be available to pray with anyone who comes in, and of course clean afterwards.
On Good Friday at 2pm we will screen the film that Josh Wilkins and I made last year, and it will be
available again on our Facebook page.
Easter Praise
Following the success of the drive-in carol service (which became an online event at the last
minute) Churches Together are organising a special online service for the evening of Easter Day:
7.30pm on 4th April.