Rector’s Weekly Update

The Beaminster Area Team
Weekly Covid – 19 Update Friday 2nd October 2020

I hesitate to write this, but there have been no new updates to Covid19 guidance for churches in the last week. We remain with all our protocols in place: limited to 30 for funerals, 15 for weddings and six for baptisms that happen outside the main service. However if anything changes I will let you know. Please do continue to observe social distancing in church, wear masks, record your details and scan the QR codes if you have the app, avoid mingling, and follow the one-way systems. It will be cold in church this winter as we need to keep the buildings well ventilated, so please dress accordingly. 

Thank you to the churchwardens who have confirmed the maximum number of people who can sit safely in the church observing two metre or one metre-plus guidelines. It is hard to fix a number as what we can’t predict is how many household bubbles might arrive, it is easier to judge with chairs and harder with pews. However, please do email Anne in the office with your predicted maximum numbers so we can plan effectively for the upcoming festival services. 

Congratulations to Fiona who was ordained priest last week at St Aldhelm’s, Radipole. She is now busy putting her new skills to good use, with plenty of communion services and an upcoming wedding. 

If you want to find out more about Advent windows then information is elsewhere on the site. The Church of England is also beginning to release resources around its Christmas campaign.

Messy Church is back online on Saturday 10^th October at 4pm on Facebook Live. You can order resource bags to accompany the online activity so you can complete the crafts at home. Message me by Sunday 4^th October and you can pick the bags up from St Mary’s, Beaminster on Sat 10^th October between 10 and 11am.

Please make sure that details of new churchwardens, new PCC members, and any outstanding paperwork following the APCM meeting in your church has been forwarded to Anne in the office. 

We continue to pray for each other; particularly for our local schools and governing bodies, for doctors’ surgeries and carers, for our shops and local businesses, and for those facing financial hardship. 

Social isolation is going to be a real challenge for some people during the next six months. Part of the answer is warm clothing so we can keep meeting outside, but perhaps we need to be more creative than that? I will be thinking and praying about what we can do now to facilitate social connection and mutual support. If you have any bright ideas which are Covid secure then I would love to hear them. 

Have a fabulous week, every blessing Jo

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