Gathered church
Following the conclusion of Lockdown-2 earlier this week and despite being in Tier-3 we are pleased to be able to welcome you in our church buildings for one congregation each at St Paul's at 0830 and St Peter's at 1030 from this Sunday, 6th December. We want to be a people who respond to Gods leading and guidance in these days as we navigate this 'new normal' in our gathered and scattered church life with ongoing online provision at 0930 am each week..
We are so grateful for all of those who have faithfully contributed week by week to online church - those of you that have stepped outside of your comfort zones to lead a children's piece or share something of your story, we are so thankful and encouraged to see God at work in and through you. Everyday faith stories have been of particular blessing as we have shared with one another week by week Gods presence in our lives and world. Online church will continue as ever at 0930 on Facebook and on youtube, for those unable to attend church in person. We are really encouraged at the usefulness, reach and the response of our online offerings.
We plan to open the back hall and lounge up at St Peter's in order to facilitate as many as possible who want to attend the services.. The same talk will be shared across our different gathered and online church congregations. Our online services will be available from 0930-onwards in order to accommodate longer in-person services held at 0830 at St Paul's, Swanley Village and 1030 at St Peter's Church, Hextable; both in-person services will follow the same format and will last for 45 minutes. Given COVID restrictions and government guidelines, it will be necessary to book ahead by Wednesday at 5pm for our St Peters 1030 congregation. We are pleased to have the capacity to welcome approximately 45 at St Paul's, and 70 at St Peter's at present, with these numbers being revised each week in the light of the bubble sizes being booked in. Please be assured that gathered church is COVID compliant with a one-way system, physical distancing of chairs and hand sanitiser ever available. We are also pleased to be able to have the toilets available for use.
We need to stress the phrase 'offerings' as these are not going to be like the services we had before COVID. Gathered church will be a hybrid of the all age and everyday faith video segments that we currently appreciate online as well as an in-person worship sounds, a preach, bible reading and prayers. They will be more reflective in person and missing the many participative elements that we treasure in our charismatic evangelical tradition. This will be the 'format for the next few months whilst we seek to best serve you as a church family. As we never want you to miss out, our online services via Facebook will remain at 0930 am.
With the busyness of everyday life, especially at this time, we hope this continues to help encourage and sustain you in your journey of faith. Again this will be reviewed over the coming months as the evolving scene settles! We appreciate your prayers at this time and hope to see many of you in person soon.
