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Update 15

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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

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Update 14 - Reopening for Worship

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Dear Friends,

I am pleased to announce today that on Sunday 2nd August 2020 public worship will resume at St. Michael and All Angels Parish Church. I have put together a video which explains how this will work, you can watch this video on our website, youtube channel and facebook. The youtube link is https://youtu.be/0VOxGIAc2yc.

From the 2nd August we will hold 4 services a week, each with a maximum capacity of 36 people from 24 different households. The complication in number is because in church, we have socially distanced the chairs, and some chairs are in doubles and some are in singles. Our service pattern will be as follows:

  • 8am – Largely unchanged from before lockdown. A quiet service using the liturgy of the BCP on the 3rd Sunday of the month

  • 10am – This will follow the same format as our online services and remain largely traditional.

  • 6.30pm – A slightly more contemporary service.

  • Wednesday 10.30am – Largely unchanged from before lockdown.

Regarding the celebration of Holy Communion, the PCC have agreed that Holy Communion will be celebrated once a week and that will rotate around the different service times. Holy Communion will only be offered in one kind and if you choose not to receive, that is completely acceptable.

Currently we are not allowed to sing, due to the potential dangers in the spread of infection through singing. We will play recorded music at most of our services for people to listen to. Public Health England are currently undertaking studies to see how dangerous singing is, and the Church of England have produced guidance on how we will reintroduce singing when it is appropriate.

 We will be asking everyone to continue to observe social distancing, and will be putting up more hand sanitisers around our building to aid with the cleaning of hands. Currently the government guidance is not insisting on the wearing of face masks (although this may change in the next few days), but if you wish to wear a face mask in church, that’s fine. We will also be installing 2 digital screens at the front of church, for the prayers and readings to appear on during the service, which will mean we don’t need to hand out bits of paper as you arrive.

Due to the limited number of people we can safely fit in our building, people will be required to book in to attend services, and there will be an online booking system on our website, which will be launched in the next couple of weeks. We will also prioritise space for those not on the internet, who wish to worship with us. Karen will be coming back to work on the 20th July to facilitate this system. If you know of people who aren’t on the internet, but would like to join our worship, please can your forward their name and phone number to office@bramhall.church.

There are still a few details and practicalities to work through in the coming weeks, but I am really excited and looking forwards to worshipping alongside many of you in the near future. I have felt a real sense of grief at not being able to worship in person as part of a community – and part of that is because it is an important part of what it means to be a Christian and the Church. I, the Churchwardens and the PCC are committed to ensuring St. Michael’s is as safe a place as possible, so that as many of you as possible can join us in worship once more. I look forwards to welcoming you back soon.

If you have any concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me,

Regards,

Calum

Licensing of Revd Jess Piper

On Monday 29th June, at 7.30pm, Jess will be licensed to her new post as Associate Minister for Stockport & Brinnington. Due to churches still being shut, this will take place virtually, and she would like to invite you to join her as she marks the beginning of this new ministry. The service will be led by the Bishop of Birkenhead and will take place on Zoom, the details of how to access this are as follows:

 Please click the link below to join the webinar:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83371997256

If you wish to follow the order of service, you can download that here. Order of Service

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Update 13

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Good Afternoon!

I hope you are well. I promised a further update on Sunday and its now Tuesday and I still haven’t sent it – sorry about that. Here’s a few updates for you.

Prime Minsters Statement

The Prime Minister has announced today that weddings and public worship can resume from the 4th July. As with all the decisions so far, the official Church of England guidance may take a couple of days to filter through. Whilst I am keen to resume public worship in our church building, I wont make any final decisions, and therefore announcements on this, until the PCC have met to discuss this. There is a PCC meeting scheduled for Thursday 9th July, so please be praying for your PCC members, as we will have various decisions to make about how we return to public worship.

Jess’ Licensing as Associate Minister of Stockport and Brinnington

On Monday 29th June, at 7.30pm, Jess will be licensed to her new post as Associate Minister for Stockport & Brinnington. Due to churches still being shut, this will take place virtually, and she would like to invite you to join her as she marks the beginning of this new ministry. The service will be led by the Bishop of Birkenhead and will take place on Zoom, the details of how to access this are as follows:

 Please click the link below to join the webinar:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83371997256

Young People Quiz the Bishop-Elect of Chester

This evening at 7pm the new Bishop of Chester will hold two virtual gatherings with selected young people from the diocese. Young people will have the opportunity to ask the Bishop questions and play a few games with him. I’m delighted that a member of our youth group – Georgia Watson, will be involved. You can watch this session at 7pm by either using the following link and info, or by watching on facebook.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82113668873

Webinar ID: 821 1366 8873

Open Church

The church remains open for private prayer between 9am and 12pm and 3pm and 6pm every day. In my original email I stated the guidance that I had been issued. Since then, the government have relaxed things, so the only guidance I will offer is, if you choose to come down to church, please clean your hands and observe social distancing. The judgment about whether it is safe for you or not, is in your hands.

Pastoral Care Network

As lockdown began we launched, rather quickly, a pastoral care network to keep in touch with people and support those in need. I am very thankful for the members of the church who have helped on this. The wardens and I conducted a review of this yesterday and will be making some changes in the next couple of weeks. In the short term we asked for help from members of the PCC. Going forwards we want this network to be part of how we offer pastoral care at St. Michaels. There will be a need to change some of the groups, and some  of the group leaders may not want to continue. As a result, if you would like to be involved with the Pastoral Care Network, whether you are a PCC member or not, please would you let me know. We reckon we will need around 25-30 group leaders to make the network effective.

Produce Table

Every year, Robert Cryer and others do a sterling job growing vegetables and selling them in aid of our Newala link. Unfortunately we have had to cancel all fundraising activities for the foreseeable future – but we weren’t able to stop the onions growing in the allotment. So from tomorrow there will be a produce table available in the foyer of the parish centre. If you would like some fresh veg, do pop down to see what’s there and make a donation in return for what you take. There will be some gloves available – please put on gloves before handling any veg – and do remember to wash it (both the veg and your hands) when you get home.

Grant from the Diocese

The diocese have recently cashed in an investment dating back to World War 2 and have made a grant to every parish in the diocese of £2000. This is very kind of the diocese and one of the things on the agenda for PCC next month is looking at how we spend this.

Congratulations

Finally, congratulations to Sally and Phil Harwood who celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary and Fred and Doreen Donnan who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, both last week. None of them look old enough to have been married that long.

Thanks for taking time to read this email – Jess, Samuel and I hope you are well, and look forward to worshipping with you again, hopefully in the not too distant future.

God Bless,

Calum

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Update 12 - Your Parish Church is Open for Private Prayer

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Good Morning,

I’m pleased to confirm this morning that St Michaels Parish Church will reopen for private prayer today following government guidance and various changes to our building to make it as safe as possible. Whilst I hope many of you will find this helpful, I am required by the government guidance to encourage those who are considered vulnerable to continue to stay at home. This includes those who have a health condition and those over 70.

The church will be open for private prayer each day during the following times:

9am to 12pm

3pm to 6pm

you do choose to make use of St Michaels, unfortunately there is a list of do’s and don’ts that we have had to put in place.

  • If you have a continuous cough, a temperature, or loss of smell or taste please stay at home.

  • Please use the hand sanitizer to clean your hands on the way in and the way out.

  • Please observe social distancing of 2 metres.

  • In church, please only sit with someone from your household.

  • If you wish to light a candle in the prayer corner, please light the tealight from the main candle and replace it back into the sand.

  • If you wish to use a bible or prayer book, you will need to bring your own, and take it home with you.

The government and the Church of England have also said that small funerals can also now take place within the church. Before this happens though, further risk assessments will need to take place, which I hope will happen this week.

Attached are a number of resources you might find helpful in prayer. There is also the prayer labyrinth outside on the back field.

If you have any questions, concerns, or want to chat, please feel free to call.

Regards,

Calum

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Update 11

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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