Good Morning,
I hope you are well, I wanted to share a few things with you – so here is update 15.
Closure of Church Building
I keep saying that it is my intention to make St Michaels as safe as possible for everyone, and because of this, I am needing to temporarily close the church over the next couple of weeks. Since I arrived at St Michaels just over 3 years ago, a reoccurring issue in our monthly Health and Safety reports has been the wooden flooring in church, with loose tiles and some tiles now being uneven. With rearranging a lot of the furniture in church, the hazard has only become worse. Following the PCC meeting last week, work has begun today on renovating the floor which will consist of sticking down loose blocks and then sanding and refinishing the whole floor. For this to happen it does mean that I am having to cancel the opening of church for private prayer on Wednesday 15th and Friday 17th July. The church will however be open for private prayer on Sunday 19th between 3pm and 6pm. If work continues as planned, the church will be completely closed next week for the sanding and refinishing. This does mean that the floor will look superb and even better will be safe for everyone when we resume worship on the 2nd August. If you have taken the opportunity each week to use church for private prayer and are now asking the question, ‘where will I go?’, there is always the labyrinth on the back field or the memorial gardens.
Funeral for Anne Ross
Despite the above, Anne Ross’ funeral will take place on Tuesday 21st July at 12.30pm at St Michaels. Due to the restricted number of people allowed to be present, please only attend if you receive an invitation from the family. I expect the funeral to finish around 1pm, so if you wish to pay your respect to Anne, you are invited to stand along Robins Lane from just before 1pm. The hearse, following the service at St. Michaels, will then make its way up Robins Lane, towards Bramhall Lane South, for a private committal service at Stockport Crematorium.
Searching the Archives
There is a project we need to undertake as church that requires searching through our archived material. I am looking for someone that would be willing to go through our archives, in an efficient but detailed manner on my behalf to complete this project. If you are interested in more information, could you let me know.
Confirmation of Election of the Bishop of Chester
The new Bishop of Chester will have his election as Bishop confirmed tomorrow in a service that will take place completely online. The new Archbishop of York will also be involved. You can watch this service at https://www.chester.anglican.org/confirmation-of-election/confirmation-of-election.php. The service will start on Wednesday 15th July at 11am.
Reopening of the Parish Office.
We will be reopening the Parish Office on Monday 20th July. To start with the office will be open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings and will be staffed by Karen. I am absolutely delighted to be welcoming Karen back to work, as it marks another step in the right direction of our journey of recovery. Hopefully in the autumn we will begin to un-furlough other members of staff too. With the office reopening, we are required to ensure that our building and particularly the office meets government guidelines and is COVID secure. So below are some guidelines I would ask all of us to follow:
Please contact the office by phone or email where needed.
Please only visit the office if absolutely necessary.
If you visit the office, please observe all social distancing measures that have been put in place to keep us and the office staff safe.
Do not go behind the office desk at all. This is our administrators space, even if they are not there, nobody should be entering into the space due to the risk of transmission.
Be patient. There is a fair amount of stuff that needs catching up with, as well as beginning to navigate the minefield that is understanding guidance about hiring out our buildings and creating a booking system for our services.
Thank you in advance for your support and help!
Any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I hope to release more details about booking for services next week.
With every blessing,
Calum