Notices

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IMPORTANT - Public Worship in Churches

Dear Walmer and Cornilo parishioners,

We hope that all is well with you and that the current Lockdown and impending Tier 3 protocols are not causing you any difficulties - if you have any concerns or need any help please do get in touch.

Carolyn Wood, Steve O’Connor and I met yesterday (by Zoom…..) to discuss the possibilities of opening Walmer and Cornilo churches for public worship again.

Because of our concerns for everyone’s health and welfare, and having discussed our concerns with the benefice churchwardens, we feel that it is not right to open our churches yet for public worship but to continue with the pattern of private prayer as we have during Lockdown. We will review this after the next national review of Tiers happens on the 16th of December.

We realise that this will be disappointing for many of you and we hope that the following information helps you to understand why we have come to this conclusion.

There were a number of factors we took into consideration.

• Although there is a national improvement in the number of C-19 cases there is still a very high number of cases locally (especially in Walmer - 721 in 100K for 25/11 - as high as anywhere in the country!)
• A local doctor’s surgery has had to close because of C-19 infections among staff
• Local schools are still shut or have whole year groups out because of infections
• Local Residential Care Homes are tightening their restrictions on visiting
• Some other local churches are also staying closed for the time being
• Members of our own church community either have tested positive for C-19 or have been exposed to the virus while in hospital - please do keep them and all affected by C-19 in your prayers
• And that our halls and other public spaces must remain closed in Tier 3

While we can make our churches reasonably Covid secure we feel it would be irresponsible for us to ‘invite’ people to our churches, especially when many of our congregants would be considered vulnerable and the infection rate is so high. We hope that this will only be for a further couple of weeks and that we will be able to hold public worship at Christmas.

In the meantime the online audio services produced by Jean Winn with contributions from many of you across our benefice will continue along with the Zoom worship for Breakfast church and Download each Sunday; there is a daily audio reflection for Advent, our regular weekly study groups on Zoom and we are planning a video 'Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols' and a Zoom Christingle.

Please also note that it is the government’s advice that those who wish to form extended bubbles with family or friends over Christmas should not be socialising unnecessarily with others in the weeks leading up to Christmas

We hope that this helps and look forward to the time when we can worship together again safely and in good conscience. 

Seth, Carolyn, and Steve.

Advent reflections

On Monday – Saturday throughout most of Advent we will be emailing out a 5 min daily reflection for you to listen to whenever you wish.

Christmas tree wanted

This year at St Saviours we have decided to use an artificial Christmas tree instead of a ‘real’ tree.  If you have a medium to large artificial tree that you could lend to us, that would be very much appreciated.  Please contact Jane Lopacka at janelopacka@gmail.com 

Church Finances

Thank you so much for your generous donations to church funds.  Donations can be made by cheque, payable to ‘Walmer PCC’ or direct to our bank account

Bank details: 

Account name: Walmer PCC 

Sort code: 52-30-23

Account No:  61236985

Please mark your transaction ‘Donation’

Thank you ever so much. Seth.

Pastoral Care - If you know of someone who is ill or housebound, please speak to the ministers, wardens or parish office and we can arrange to make contact with them.  Also, please feel free to pass on a copy of this news-sheet to neighbours or friends who might be interested in it.

KENT TOGETHER – Helpline launched by Kent County Council

A 24 hour helpline has been set up to support vulnerable people in Kent who need urgent help, supplies or medication.The helpline – called Kent Together – provides a single, convenient point of contact for anyone in the county who is in urgent need of help during the Coronavirus outbreak. It is a collaboration between KCC, central Government, District, Borough and local councils, the voluntary and community sector, the NHS, emergency services and other partners to ensure help is at hand for vulnerable people.It is also the place to report your concerns about the welfare of someone else.You can telephone: 03000 419292 for help or go online using the link below.

Kent Together - click here

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Rural Roundup - Please click here to read the latest edition