The Easing of Covid Restrictions for Worship

The PCC has decided upon a balanced approach to the easing of covid restrictions following the latest Government advice and guidance from the Church of England. If you would like to read the guidance for yourself you can do so here: COVID 19 Guidance from the 19th July 2021 v1.0.pdf (churchofengland.org)

We agreed that it is not sensible to suddenly lift all restrictions, but to begin to ease some as we come out of lockdown. We are entering a transitional phase and thank you for bearing with us these past 16 months and all the changes we have made.  We will review how it is going in September and welcome your feedback.

Here is a summary of what has been agreed at the PCC to take effect from August at the 10am Parish Communion:

• We still request that people wear facemasks to our services, unless you are exempt.
• Please sanitize your hands when you enter and leave the church.
• We will no longer have a booking system. We will facilitate a one metre distance between different households. (We may need to start up the booking system again if the numbers are too great, but August is often a quieter month).
• We will still record the names of people attending our worship for test and trace. You may wish to use the QR code at the door if you wish.
• The doors will remain open throughout the service to allow ventilation.
• We will not use servers or have a procession as yet, but hope to reintroduce this later.
• The congregation can sing the sung parts of the Eucharist liturgy together, softly whilst masked. The choir continues to sing at Communion and we sing together outside at the end of the service. We hope to restore our congregational hymn singing when infection rates drop.
• We continue to share the Peace by waving!
• We continue to receive Communion in one kind (wafers) using the existing protocols of hygiene, but will again use the words of administration as people receive.
• We return to coming up for Communion in a line, as we did before, but mindful to allow space between people.
• There is a retiring collection at the door (rather than passing around the bag).
• We continue to live stream the service for those who prefer to join us at home.
• We continue to clean daily the high touch areas in the porch.
• When Sealights returns in September they will join us for Communion.

The 8am Service

We will keep  two metre social distancing and every other pew closed. This enables people to attend church who prefer to have more space. The Tuesday service also has lots of space to spread out.

Coffee after the service

We will start this up again in August. Initially there will just be cold drinks offered, but please bring your own flasks of coffee/tea if you wish. Weather permitting we will have some tables outside as well as in the hall (with doors and windows open). We ask that you wear a face mask when you move around inside, but can take these off when seated. We will need volunteers to make this all possible, so please speak to Revd Jane if you can help.

Our 10am Sunday service is also live streamed and can be seen on on our You Tube page CLICK HERE

Or our church Facebook page CLICK HERE

If you would like to receive our newsletter each week by email contact cogsenews@gmail.com to be signed up. This is the best way to stay in touch and see the booking details.

Donate to the Church

If you’d like to donate to the Church of the Good Shepherd online CLICK HERE. Thank you!

You will find information here about how to arrange a baptism, wedding or funeral at our church. You can read a copy of the Monthly Letter and and see our weekly notices, handed out at Sunday morning services and a special page about social and fundraising events that are coming up. You can also view a copy of the current and previous parish magazine, ShoreLine.