It has been announced today by the Prime Minister that from the 8th August face masks will be mandatory in church and enforceable by law. We'll clarify this further once we have fuller details from the Church of England and the Diocese.
Following the new rules set by the government, the Church of England has now updated its guidelines. It is now advising that all those attending worship in church should wear a face covering. While it is not compulsory, we would encourage all those attending services at St. John's to wear a face covering during worship from this Sunday (July 26th) if possible. Thank you for your understanding.
Now we are back in church it isn't possible to record the parish mass for showing on Sunday. The church needs to be kept empty for 72 hours prior to the Sunday parish mass, otherwise we have to clean the church.
We are currently looking into alternative ways of bringing the Sunday service to you live. In the meantime, we will be recording each Sunday's gospel and sermon for you in the Vicarage and posting it each week at 10am on Sunday.
Most of you will be aware that the government has now said that we may return to worship in our churches for public worship from the 4th July.
We are aiming to be ready to re-open for our weekly Sunday mass from the 5th July. We are currently assessing what it is we need to do to get the church ready. It will not, of course, be 'back to normal' as there will be restrictions in place. We will be ensuring that social distancing is observed and that sanitisation facilities are available. For the time being there will be no singing. We'll be able to give a clearer picture of how things will work once we have received any fianl instructions from the C of E and the Diocese on reopening.
We are also planning to restart our Thursday morning 10am mass from 9th July, again with all necessary precautions in place. Having services on Sundays and Thursdays will mean we can have three days between each service. The only exception to that is for any funerals or weddings we might have, in which case the church will be cleaned before and after each of those services. We are still waiting for permission to restart baptism services.
Coming back into church will mean a change to what we have been offering online, as we cannot film in the church on Saturday and then hold a service on Sunday. Not everyone will be able to come back to church, of course. And so we are looking at what other options there are for us to provide spiritual support for those who won't be able to return to church yet, so you can still join with us each Sunday.
The Bishops, Archdeacons and Dean of the Diocese, together with our Area Minority Ethnic Anglian Concerns Committee (MEACC) leads, are calling the people of the Diocese to observe two minutes’ silence at 11.00am on Windrush Day, Monday 22 June.
Bishop Christopher writes: “I rejoice at and take pride in the diversity within the Diocese of Southwark which I see as God’s gift and blessing. We have stood strongly with the Black Lives Matter campaign and we want also to lament past and present injustices and wrongs, celebrating the gifts and talents of people of Caribbean heritage and the many ways they have enriched our churches and parishes.
“As we spend two minutes in silence let us contemplate the lives lost in the slave trade; lament the racism and racial inequality built into our national systems and structures since that time; and consider what action we can take to confront racial injustice today.
“Let us make Windrush Day 2020 a day when we as a Diocese pledge to change structures of inequality in the Church as we seek to implement our vision of increasing the diversity of lay and ordained leaders in our parishes and institutions.”
You might find it helpful to use the prayer written by the Dean for Black Lives Matter at the end of the two minutes’ silence:
God of all, who loves each of us for who we are, to whom each life matters, who counts the hairs on our head, who knows when a sparrow falls; teach us to love as you love to respect, to honour, to care and to protect each of our sisters and brothers, that your embracing, including kingdom may come now and your love be known. Amen
The Revd Andrew Moughtin-Mumby, Rector of St Peter, Walworth, will be leading the National Online Service from St Peter’s at 9.00am on Sunday morning (21 June) and he will also lead a one-minute silence during that service. We are delighted that he has been asked to do this and hope that you will encourage those in your congregations to tune in or watch it later on the Church of England website at www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/church-online
Some will find it helpful to have an image upon which to focus as they contemplate the work that we can all do to ensure equality in our Church. We have put together a montage of images which might help with this. They are of the Revd Dorothy Penniecooke, who was part of the Here I Am celebratory exhibition in 2019; The Southwark Trinity Icon, commissioned in 2018 by Bishop Christopher, which has a boat above the head of the Caribbean Elder on the right hand side; and Eileen Walkin receiving the Lancelot Andrewes medal from Bishop Christopher earlier this year. You might find it helpful to focus on this as you pray for equality and give thanks for all that the Windrush generation and their descendants have brought to our Diocese and our nation.
Bishop Christopher hopes that you and your congregations will join in marking the silence at 11.00am on Monday, or, if this is not possible, spend some time during Monday lamenting, giving thanks for and praying for all those of Caribbean heritage in our wonderfully diverse and vibrant Diocese.
Members of Junior Church were asked to pray in an extreme place - and others in the congregation took up the challenge as well. Here are some of the results.
The Royal School of Church Music are holding a special event on 14th June, and we will be joing in with the Big Music Sunday Service on the day at 6pm.
Why not join in this great celebration of church music? Full details of the event are here:
Music Sunday — 14th June 2020
Join us in celebrating the role of music and musicians in church life
The RSCM will post a link to the live-stream on their website on the day.
If you would like a copy of the music for the day so that you can join in download it from our website here:
Big Music Sunday Service
We are live streaming on Facebook the Church of England's Prayer During the Day twice a week during lockdown.
If you would like to follow the text go the the Church of England's Daily Prayer page and scroll down to select Prayer During the Day.
The good news is that from this Sunday, May 10th, we are allowed to stream the service from the church. so, no more furniture removals in the vicarage to get everything ready.
We still wait, of course, for the time when we can all gather together for worship, but it is good to be able to celebrate the Lord's Supper from the Lord's house.
The May edition of The Bridge, the Southwark Diocesan Newspaper, is now available to download and read.