Dear Congregation and Friends of St Mary,
Newsletter. Please find attached this week’s Benefice Newsletter and associated documents.
Opening Up of Churches. You will see from the Newsletter that the Benefice is now beginning to open up our churches for both private prayer and public worship. It will be a slow and cautious process, and we will endeavour to go at the pace that our congregations are comfortable with. For St Mary that means we will open for private prayer between 10am and 3pm this coming Tuesday and from the following week it will be on Wednesday 17th March for the next few months. We will then open for public worship from Sunday 5th April with Holy Communion for Easter Day. I look forward to seeing you then! Due to the forthcoming building work taking place in St Mary from the beginning of June, Norma and Paul are hoping to be able to lead services in St Mary for every Sunday in April and May. This will depend upon the availability of both clergy and LLMs but I hope to be able to confirm this shortly.
Benefice Wardens’ Meeting. A Benefice Wardens’ meeting was held last Wednesday evening by Zoom. Norma has asked us all to consult with our congregations on two issues as we begin to open up our churches: first, what we have missed during the current lockdown (and what we haven’t); and, second, if it were possible to amend our Sunday service timings, is there a preference for a time for St Mary? I would be grateful if anybody who wishes to make a comment could let me know by next weekend so we could discuss at the next PCC meeting. Thank you.
Mrs Sylvia Frankham – RIP. I am sure you will all wish to join me in offering condolences to the Frankham family on the death of Sylvia. Her funeral will be streamed live and details are contained in the Newsletter.
Online Services. As usual the details of the Benefice online services for this Sunday can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/shrivenhamandashbury/.
Best Wishes,
Dennis
Church Warden St Mary The Virgin, Longcot
Longcot Village 