It’s been a busy and fruitful summer, and now we are about to celebrate the season of Harvest across the parish. We’re back in church for services on Sundays, keeping up our pattern of providing daily prayers in the form of audio clips, and have had a really successful summer sharing activity packs with our families all over the Plain. But now we get to do something wonderful- get back to leading Collective Worship in our church schools in person! For the past year we’ve recorded a weekly act of worship/thought for the week and these are posted online for our pupils to enjoy. But we’ve so missed being able to ask questions, and hear the wonderful answers children provide. We’ve missed marking the great seasons of the church year, and we’ve missed being able to simply spend time in the classroom, listening to the children as they read, or helping them with their RE. It really feels as though things are beginning to come back to life- even as the autumn is around the next bend!
Author: Eleanor Rance
Coronavirus in 2021
It’s been a long time since we’ve had a moment to update our website, for which huge apologies! In coming weeks we hope to update some of our photos, and add more news stories. While it may appear as though we’ve been asleep during the past year in fact the opposite is the case, and we’ve lots to share with you!
But for now, an important update about Coronavirus and our villages in January 2021
Church life continues, but much of it is online, by phone or letters/booklets distributed through your doors. We have made the important, though tough, decision to suspend worship in our church buildings as of 4th January. This is because we felt it wasn’t possible to be able to assure you that it was sufficiently safe.
So worship has moved back to Zoom on Sundays, at 10.30am and again at 6pm.
Monday to Saturday we offer prayers for the community and the world. The daily prayers are recorded as an audio clip and can be received from us by email on our dedicated mailing list.
On a Tuesday morning, you can join us on Zoom for Morning Prayer at 9.15am.
As Lent is fast approaching, we have made the decision to host our annual Lent course online this year. This will also be accessible via Zoom, and we will produce a set of ‘scripts’ for those who cannot join us online. In addition during Lent we will upload a daily reflection to our YouTube channel which you will be able to find at your own convenience.
Our churches do remain open for individual, private prayer every Wednesday between 1pm and 4pm and every Sunday between 9am and 12noon. If you decide to make use of this opportunity, please ensure you wear a mask, use hand sanitiser as you enter and leave the church, sign in (or use our NHS Track & Trace QR codes) keep a 2m distance from others, and only sit in the readily identifiable seats inside. And of course, if you have symptoms of Coronavirus, or have been told to isolate, please do not come to the church.
If you’d like to know more, sign up for our daily prayers, our weekly notices, or to join any of our zoom worship, please contact the church office. The easiest way to do that from here, is to use our contact page.
Take care, and we hope to see you soon!
A very different Church community
We, in common with all Anglican churches across the nation, are currently sharing our worship and prayer virtually, while our church buildings remain closed and we stay at home. But that is not to say that there is no ‘church’ on Salisbury Plain. Far from it! These are a few of the things we are doing instead:
We are sending out daily audio clips of Prayers, with a recorded set of readings and a reflection on Sunday.
We have created printed booklets for those who do not use the internet/computers, and sent an e-file to those who do.
We have also put together a booklet for families to use to help with worship at home, and to think creatively about Easter.
We have begun to host worship using Zoom every Sunday, ranging from more formal services such as Compline or Evensong to more interactive things such as Family Service and Bible Studies.
We have encouraged people to place crosses in their homes and gardens on Palm Sunday as a sign as we recall Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, and light candles on Sunday evenings in prayer
In our villages cairns have been created during Holy week, with people leaving a single stone or pebble at the church during the course of their daily exercise. These were transformed into Easter Gardens over the Easter weekend.
We continue to support those who are grieving, currently being able to share the orders of service for funerals with those who cannot be present, and offering phone support to those we cannot be with in person
We continue to serve our communities with many people signing up as volunteers to help those who are stuck at home.
We continue to be the Church, the Body of Christ.
If you are anxious about a loved one in this parish, please feel free to make contact with us, and we will do all we can to help you.
Church with a conscience?
The temperature has just plummeted on Salisbury Plain and it is always a stark reminder to us of what life is like for those who are homeless in this country at this time of year. Because of our promixity to Salisbury, the parish have long been supporters of both the Trussell Trust, and Alabare. But what does ‘support’ really mean? Do we really make a difference?
The things we think are important are: offering shelter. Occasionally people have taken shelter in the porches of our churches or even inside- where temperatures aren’t always much better. At this time of year, we’d rather they were properly indoors and so we try to ensure we work with local colleagues to offer decent shelter overnight.
Celebrating Christmas in the Parish 2019
We all have our favourite type of service to mark this very significant festival in the Church Year. So hopefully as you look through our events section, you’ll find something that you’d like to attend. Whatever you are doing over the next few weeks, here or away on holiday, with family or friends, please be assured of our prayers and best wishes for a Peaceful Christmas and a very Happy New Year!
Here is our listing of Christmas Services which you can also see in the Calendar: