Dear St Michaels Church Family,
Yes – its time for another update from the vicar…..
Responding to Discrimination
I want to start this week by making comment on the various demonstrations we have seen and the increased dialogue around racism over the last couple of weeks in response to the tragic death of George Floyd. One of our core values as a church is inclusion. The church should be a place where all are welcome and where all are treated equally. Reading many articles on racism over the past few days, it saddens me that there is still so much of it about, and it represents a much wider problem of discrimination within our world and our society. Jesus’ ministry was for all. Throughout the gospels we see Jesus breaking down social divisions and barriers and challenging worldviews that had supported discrimination for generations. The Church, St Michael & All Angels Parish Church, should be a place for all, and a place where all are treated equally. It is my hope and prayer, that it is also a place where conversation between opposed views can happen, with kindness, honesty and love. Open, respectful and honest dialogue will be one of the ways discrimination is overcome.
If you have been the victim of discrimination at St. Michaels, by me or any other members of the church, I want to apologise. We are all human, we all fall short of the glory of God, and where I or the church have fallen short of God’s standard of equality and respect for all, please accept my apology.
The diocese of Chester are wanting to organise a conversation to listen to those people who identify as black and minority ethnic in our congregations and to listen to how the recent events and their own experiences have shaped their faith and trust in God, the church and society in general. If you would like to be involved in this, please can you let me know by next Tuesday (16th June)
There will be much more conversation and action required over the coming days and months – our job as a church, is to be God’s voice of love, of peace and of forgiveness in the wider movement to bring discrimination to an end.
Reopening the Church for Private Prayer
You will no doubt have seen that the government has announced that places of worship can open for private prayer from Monday 15th June. Last Sunday, I shared a video explaining my position on opening the church and you can view that here https://www.bramhall.church/news-updates/reopening-our-buidling
The PCC Standing Committee have a plan in place and we hope to be able to open next week. The only dilemma in the grand plan is getting hold of all the necessary cleaning equipment, which is proving a slight challenge as every shop, church and other organisation are all after the same stuff at the same time. (It is now all on order). Once all the cleaning stuff is in place the church will be open. Here is a guide to what that will look like and how you might be able to help.
The church will be open every day from 9am to 12pm and from 3pm to 6pm.
There are 34 chairs within the church space with some as doubles and with some as singles. In essence what this means, is that we will only be able to have 34 people in the church at any one time from a maximum of 24 different households.
The space is open for private prayer only. There will be no public services, and those gathering to socialise will be asked to take their conversations outside. I will resume saying Morning and Evening Prayer from within the church rather than at the vicarage.
There will be a dynamic cleaning routine in place, ensuring chairs are cleaned after each use, and doors are wiped down multiple times a day.
The Parish Centre, including the toilets will remain closed for Health and Safety reasons.
If you feel safer wearing a face mask when outside your house, please don’t feel you have to remove it when in church.
If you wish to read the bible or use prayer resources in church, you will need to bring your own with you.
How you can help.
We are looking for volunteers to be present in the church space when it is open. We would like to have 1 person per opening session, meaning we will need a rota of 14 people. Their role will be to clean the chairs and wider building whilst also ensuring the safety of the building. These volunteers will have access to a toilet.
Initially what we are asking is for you to commit to the same session every week which will reduce the administration burden on me in organising a rota. If you are willing to be involved please email me and mark the subject as OPEN CHURCH VOLUNTEER.
We will also need those folk who hold keys to the church to support the unlocking and locking of the building at 12pm and 3pm.
If you have set of keys and would be willing to do this, please could you email me and mark the subject as OPEN CHURCH KEY HOLDER, with a suggestion of which day(s) and time(s) you would be able to help.
Those folk who have keys don’t feel they can help, may be asked to return their keys temporarily, to enable others to support this role.
Please only offer to help if you feel safe to do so. There is no expectation on anyone to put themselves forwards.
Later this week I will send out a further update to confirm when reopening will take place, and attached to that email will be various prayer resources you might find helpful as we enter this new phase of life responding to the pandemic.
Voluntary Site Manager Appointment
For many years the grounds of St Michaels have been cared for by all sorts of volunteers not least in the shape of the grounds team, and I want to put on record my thanks to all of them for the hard work they have put in, and for many of them, long to continue to put in, as soon as they are allowed to again. Recently the Wardens and I have been advertising for a Voluntary Site Manager who will work with us, to keep on top of the many jobs that need doing around the grounds, to liaise with the mowing team and to begin to develop a wider plan of how we maintain and care for our site over a longer period of time. I am delighted to announce that Peter Glover, who has attended St Michaels for many years, and was married here just over a year ago, has agreed to take on this post. I look forwards to working with him and others in continuing to care for our grounds and develop them for use in the future. Do pray for him, and when he asks for some help, say yes!
Worshipping at St Michaels
A number of folk have asked when will services resume. The House of Bishops have drawn up some guidelines but not committed themselves to dates and have said it will be at the discretion of the each diocesan Bishop. Until such time as the Diocese choose to communicate with their parishes, I can’t offer any further insight. However, I will continue to create a recorded service which will premier at 10am each Sunday morning and then be available to watch in the days and weeks after. You can find these videos (dating back to Easter) in the following places:
Our website: www.bramhall.church. The latest video will be on our home page, with previous worship behind the visible link – Worship Resources
Our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/bramhallchurch
Our You Tube Page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh8Ve25UiBfXwpdumWDod7Q (If we reach 100 subscribers, we will be eligible for our own personalised URL)
Mark Hackney has also launched a Midweek service on Zoom which takes place every Wednesday at 10.30am, the login details of which can be found on SMT. I am currently speaking with colleagues to work out how those without internet can dial into this service via phone for free. I hope to have some news on this in the next couple of days.
I hope the contents of this update is encouraging and helpful, as mentioned before, as soon as I can confirm the opening date, I will be in touch again.
God Bless,
Calum