Zoomtivity yesterday, for which we were delivered a goody bag of cow mask, halo, crown and tea towel, as well as gold (choc) frankincense (candle) and myrr (hand cream). Good interactive fun.
Our Place did a fun Zoomtivity yesterday morning as well - all prerecorded clips of families acting out various scenes in their homes and gardens. The wise man travelling round the kitchen table followed by the family dog was a particular highlight.
Our outdoor Carol Service in yesterday afternoon's pleasant sunshine (TBTG) attracted a crowd of 19 adults and 2 children, about 50% of the attendance at the previous years' Carol Service in church. Although there were no instruments available, the a capella singing went well, I am told.
The Christmas Eve Crib Service is going ahead (with *Christingle Kits* for the youngsters), but FatherInCharge is also going ahead with a Midnight Mass at 11pm despite pleas to have it as part of, or immediately after, the Crib Service (a *First Mass of Christmas*).
He says, not without justification, that a change at this late stage would be confusing, the Midnight Mass having been widely advertised for 11pm - there's enough confustication around Christmas already...
We may not be able to live-stream the 11pm service, but I hope we'll be able to film the Christmas morning Mass.
Er - surely a Midnight Mass at 11pm is an oxymoron - unless (a) that is its advertised finishing time or (b) the word "Midnight" is surrounded by greengrocers' quotation marks.
Er - surely a Midnight Mass at 11pm is an oxymoron - unless (a) that is its advertised finishing time or (b) the word "Midnight" is surrounded by greengrocers' quotation marks.
Or Fr .... says .... mass .... really ..... slow....ly.
Er - surely a Midnight Mass at 11pm is an oxymoron - unless (a) that is its advertised finishing time or (b) the word "Midnight" is surrounded by greengrocers' quotation marks.
A previous church (in the UK) used to hold a Midnight Mass starting at 11pm. It began with a half-hour medley of seasonal hymns, and the service proper began at 11.30, which put the mass itself shortly after midnight.
After the service finished, there was a glass of bubbly and a mince pie, and everyone shogged off about 1am.
It's a useful shorthand, although more and more churches seem to be having a *First Communion of Christmas* (or whatever) earlier in the evening.
I think the latest any of my local (US) churches go is a 9pm kickoff (for both Christmas and Easter). But they also tend to do weird things like holding a Compline service at 5pm, so ...
5pm would be a bit early even for winter Compline in a mediaeval monastery!
Some English churches (of the Anglo-Carflick perswasion) did at one time make something of a fetish of trying to ensure that the Gospel (the Johannine Prologue) was read at midnight.
Not quite sure why this was considered so important, but Our Place used to achieve it by starting the service sharp at 1145pm, and making short work of the Blessing of the Crib.
With no music or carols, and perhaps only a dozen in the congregation this year, the whole thing might be over by midnight!
Er - surely a Midnight Mass at 11pm is an oxymoron - unless (a) that is its advertised finishing time or (b) the word "Midnight" is surrounded by greengrocers' quotation marks.
A previous church (in the UK) used to hold a Midnight Mass starting at 11pm. It began with a half-hour medley of seasonal hymns, and the service proper began at 11.30, which put the mass itself shortly after midnight.
Aren’t “the service proper” and “the mass itself” the same thing?
Our church has a nice courtyard that opens toward a street that’s one way on our block, and then ends and empties onto a main thoroughfare. We have received permission to close our block on the afternoon of the 24th so that we can have an outdoor service at 4:00, weather permitting. Because of the logistics, there will be no Communion.
Well, we required online registration for this service, and it filled up in 2 hours, so a second service at 5:30 is now planned. It is also full.
5pm would be a bit early even for winter Compline in a mediaeval monastery!
Some English churches (of the Anglo-Carflick perswasion) did at one time make something of a fetish of trying to ensure that the Gospel (the Johannine Prologue) was read at midnight.
Not quite sure why this was considered so important, but Our Place used to achieve it by starting the service sharp at 1145pm, and making short work of the Blessing of the Crib.
With no music or carols, and perhaps only a dozen in the congregation this year, the whole thing might be over by midnight!
IME an 11.30 pm start means that we reach the Peace just as it has become Christmas Day, so that for the Thanksgiving and by the time people are receiving communion it is Christmas Day
That seems sensible, providing the prayers don't go on too long...otherwise you get people whispering Happy Christmas to each other whilst they should be engaged in solemn intercession.
As regards the earlier Crib Services, there are indications in our latest email from the Diocesan Office that these may have to be very strictly controlled, which is not the norm at such events, IYSWIM! Further guidance is scheduled for tomorrow...
The term 'Midnight Mass' comes from the pre 1950s Catholic rule that Mass could be held only in the morning - generally speaking between one hour before dawn until one hour after midday. One hour before dawn could be interpreted fairly liberally. On Christmas Day there were three Masses celebrated 1. in the middle of the night 2.at dawn 3. during the day.
The midnight Mass could not start before midnight and the day before was a fast day. - this is still shown by the dishes traditionally chosen in traditionally RC countries for the meal on Christmas Eve.
Since the mid 1950s RC Mass can be celebrated at anytime and the Midnight Mass has become the First Mass of Christmas often celebrated long before midnight on Christmas Eve.
Non RC churches were not bound by these rules.
Few people nowadays will remember in RC churches the three Masses being celebrated by each priest in rapid succession 1. missa de angelis 2.missa de pastoribus 3.missa in die with the Prologue of St John as the Gospel 'of the day'.
Am I right in thinking that, in mediaeval times (and probably mostly in monasteries etc.), the first service of Christmas Day would actually be Matins (and Lauds) starting at midnight?
(IIRC that occurs in one of the Brother Cadfael books...)
Not Vespers the night before? I thought that, as a vigil, it went with the following day.
By the same token, I always understood that Christmas Eve, at least after sundown (in keeping with the Jewish roots of such things), is liturgically Christmas, not Advent.
(My father would correct us if we referred to December 24 as “Christmas Eve.” “Not until sundown,” he would say.)
You are right, BF, about Matins, which would technically be the first service of Christmas Day( and the reason why Midnight Mass in German is called popularly Christmette and not Messe ).
You have to remember that the Hours were often anticipated and could well have been sung before midnight.( Think of None,office at the 9th Hour, giving the word Noon in English)
NT is also correct in saying that the Christmas cycle ,just like every Sunday and major Feast day begins liturgically with the First Vespers of Christmas (and the reason why the traditional Lutheran Christmas Eve service taking place at onset of darkness is called Christvesper.)
The Latin Roman Missal does not mention Midnight Mass but simply says:
Ad primam Missam - in Nocte during the night
Ad secundam Missam - in Aurora at dawn (in galli cantu)
Ad tertiam Missam - in die Nativitatis Domini on the day of the Lord's birth
Our church has a nice courtyard that opens toward a street that’s one way on our block, and then ends and empties onto a main thoroughfare. We have received permission to close our block on the afternoon of the 24th so that we can have an outdoor service at 4:00, weather permitting.
Weather did not permit. We had heavy rain all day and a tornado warning this afternoon. And because the service had filled up within an hour or two, we’d added a second service at 5:30.
Our Place always has a week of prayer at the beginning of January and this is being conducted online this week. It's really working surprisingly (I don't mean that to sound patronising) well. We have meetings four times a day, are following the Celtic prayer order of services and having space in small groups for open prayer about designated things every day. There is also a suggested prayer walk route around the town.
I was commenting to Mr Nen that the daily rhythm is actually really helpful (meetings at 6.30am, 10.30am, 7.30pm and Night Prayer at 9.30pm) and if we (who have each other and are pretty much as busy as we would be if things were normal, just not going out so much) are finding that, it must be even more so for those who are feeling cut off and isolated.
I expect it would be too much to ask for it to continue over lockdown and I don't know how widely supported it would be as time went on. People tend to make it a priority if things are led by those in leadership; by members of the congregation, not so much.
Our Place's response to Lockdown 3 is to carry on as before, with Sunday and weekday Masses, the Sunday service being livestreamed on FB.
The guidance/rules/diktats permit this, but, as has been said often before, just because something is permitted does not mean that it is necessarily safe! I don't quite see how holding daily services - and imploring people to attend them - squares with the admonition *Stay At Home*. The onus is very much on each minister and PCC to ensure that their church's risk-assessment is still valid (if that's the right word).
In all fairness, numbers attending Our Place are vanishingly small (even on Sundays), and we have enough space (and chapels) to ensure that reasonably-safe areas are used on a rotation basis. I see that on next week's notice-sheet, FatherInCharge has added a stern warning to people NOT to linger chatting in the church, or in the porch, after services...
Whether or not this situation will continue during L3 remains to be seen. If the number of infections rises, I wouldn't be surprised to find us receiving a directive from the Bishop to close again.
After a lot of discussion yesterday, and following a similar decision by the parish church, we have decided to suspend worship pro tem. Not all the Diaconate (=PCC) wanted that, but they were willing to abide by the majority decision. TBH I think we had no choice, especially as the Welsh Government advice is very much along the lines of "You can but we'd very much rather you didn't", our Denomination is now exhorting all churches to close, and my wife was getting really frightened for me personally.
Our Place's response to Lockdown 3 is to carry on as before, with Sunday and weekday Masses, the Sunday service being livestreamed on FB.
The guidance/rules/diktats permit this, but, as has been said often before, just because something is permitted does not mean that it is necessarily safe! I don't quite see how holding daily services - and imploring people to attend them - squares with the admonition *Stay At Home*.
Quite. I'm very grateful Our Place hasn't taken this line. Our premises are currently the local food bank, an excellent use for them.
After a lot of discussion yesterday, and following a similar decision by the parish church, we have decided to suspend worship pro tem. Not all the Diaconate (=PCC) wanted that, but they were willing to abide by the majority decision. TBH I think we had no choice, especially as the Welsh Government advice is very much along the lines of "You can but we'd very much rather you didn't", our Denomination is now exhorting all churches to close, and my wife was getting really frightened for me personally.
Under the circumstances, I think you have made very much the right decision. Will you be continuing to livestream Sunday service, even if it's just yourself present?
The First Minister of Scotland said on Monday evening that places of worship should close on Friday 8th Jan except for weddings and funerals with very restricted numbers. Our parish priest had planned four Masses for today - one on the morning and one in the evening in each of the churches. This would give up to 80 people the possibility of attending Mass for the last time for the foreseeable future.
At the same time the First Minister on Monday evening said that no-one was to leave the house unless absolutely necessary and explained on Wednesday with an apology that this took precedence over the closure of churches on Friday. Many 'last suppers' have had to be cancelled at short notice.
To be fair to her she may have meant that from Friday only weddings and funerals could be celebrated, but it did not come over as this.
Walking around Edinburgh today it seemed that huge numbers of people have had essential reasons to leave the house (myself included !)
Our place has very wisely suspended all public worship for the time being. Clergy will prerecord the Sunday mass from church, and it will be open for 'private' prayer briefly each morning. If I was in charge, and had the energy to organise it, I think I would draw up a rota of volunteers to attend a daily mass (probably only one person at a time). However in the circumstances I think the PTB at our place have done the best thing.
After a lot of discussion yesterday, and following a similar decision by the parish church, we have decided to suspend worship pro tem. Not all the Diaconate (=PCC) wanted that, but they were willing to abide by the majority decision. TBH I think we had no choice, especially as the Welsh Government advice is very much along the lines of "You can but we'd very much rather you didn't", our Denomination is now exhorting all churches to close, and my wife was getting really frightened for me personally.
Under the circumstances, I think you have made very much the right decision. Will you be continuing to livestream Sunday service, even if it's just yourself present?
We've not been livestreaming; instead since last March I've been prerecording a simple service (words only) which has gone live on Facebook on Sunday mornings, together with links to a couple of hymns. We've also provided written "hard copy" transcripts which are distributed to a few by hand. We'll keep doing all that but are thinking of doing something on Zoom on Sunday mornings, to provide a bit of personal interaction.
We're in one of the handful of remaining tier 3 areas so at the moment we're continuing with public worship which is also livestreamed on our Facebook page.
BTW we're in Wales: our Alert Level (=Tier) hasn't changed since before Christmas, but the Covid infection rate has. We're not opening for private prayer: it would need stewarding and it's not part of our tradition. More to the point, churches here are only allowed to open for public worship and for community service activities (eg Foodbanks).
We're in one of the handful of remaining tier 3 areas so at the moment we're continuing with public worship which is also livestreamed on our Facebook page.
It's always a difficult call to make. CofS is getting round to producing more services and elements of a service to be centrally available, so maybe your IM wants to be able to take advantage of that.
Why they have taken till now to do this, I don't know, but I gather that the ministers' forum on Facebook (which I do not subscribe to, valuing my sanity) has been loud in lamentation at this new lockdown - again, why, I don't know: you would have thought they would have managed to develop local patterns for out-of-building worship by now.
We made the decision not to stay open. Everything here is virtual with the exception of hot meal delivery and providing food boxes for needy families. Demand for the latter is off the scale.
Both these are very low risk but desperately needed
Our (C of E) church is suspending services during January and continuing with online only. Decision made by the PCC, following a "suggestion" from our bishop. Our rector gives the following reasons:
★ Our community (and congregation) has an older demographic and we want to play our part in protecting the vulnerable
★ We are dependent on a number of volunteers for our services, many of whom are in the vulnerable category
★ We are aware how easy it is for bad feeling to develop within a community when a household or organisation do something that is viewed as not being within the spirit of our fight against the virus - so given that all schools are shut we would rather give out the message that we care about the health of our local community.
This decision will be reviewed at the end of the month, and our building remains open for private prayer (limited days / times). Also interesting to note that, apparently, physical attendance at services has declined since they first restarted.
Hmm. I sort of agree with that, and would feel easier in my own mind if Our Place were to be closed again - although attendance (as I have said before) is not too bad, under the circumstances. Over the past few years, our demographic has changed, and we are now a comparatively youthful congregation, with young families, couples in their 20s, and some students (well, in normal times, anyway).
The nearby Community Centre, and an infant/primary school, are both closed - I'm not sure what's happening with the pre-school Nursery, run by a private firm, which meets in our Hall.
OTOH, I can sort of appreciate FatherInCharge's desire to keep public worship going, as we are now (I understand) one of the few churches in our area still open on a regular basis.
Latest news is that the Mayor of London has declared a major emergency, and has asked the government to require places of worship to close. We aren't in London, but we aren't far away, and there are several parishes in this Diocese which do fall within the London boundary.
It's always a difficult call to make. CofS is getting round to producing more services and elements of a service to be centrally available,
I'm confused about what this means? By "elements of a service to be centrally available", do you mean "anyone in Scotland can watch a TV show / youtube broadcast / whatever of the same service?"
It's always a difficult call to make. CofS is getting round to producing more services and elements of a service to be centrally available,
I'm confused about what this means? By "elements of a service to be centrally available", do you mean "anyone in Scotland can watch a TV show / youtube broadcast / whatever of the same service?"
I assumed it meant recordings of parts of the service e.g. hymns, prayers, readings etc. able to be pasted into the offering from a local church and combined with locally produced material.
Exactly. Ministers and Interim Moderators will be able to access them to use in video services. There were three complete services offered by the Moderator from Dec 27th (I used one of them) and now we are told that people, not specified, will be putting elements of services together so that we can use them if we want to, either to pull together a whole service from them, or to use, say a prayer, in with what we are putting together ourselves. The link to these is not publicly available.
I imagine that would be particularly useful for music, both in terms of availability of decent recordings and all the rights and broadcast issues being sorted centrally.
I imagine that would be particularly useful for music, both in terms of availability of decent recordings and all the rights and broadcast issues being sorted centrally.
All the local churches are seperate charities so I think we'd still need our own CCLI licences and do our own reporting.
The Church of England has been making hymns etc. available which are recorded to professional quality, but which local churches can use for live-streaming.
I imagine that would be particularly useful for music, both in terms of availability of decent recordings and all the rights and broadcast issues being sorted centrally.
Broadcast rights for copyright material is a costly minefield. Not a problem for congregations that only use trad hymns, but a headache for those that use more modern stuff.
I heard today that Blackburn and Derby Cathedrals have both suspended public worship, and that my own local Cathedral (Rochester) is closed to visitors and worshippers except for an 11am Sunday Eucharist.
Up the road in London, Mr Khan has said that he deliberately absented himself from Friday Prayers today, as he continued to press the PM to order places of worship in the city to close.
At Our Place, our organist has now decided to Stay At Home, as has my fellow-Reader, but FatherInCharge continues to implore people to come to the daily Mass!
I heard today that Blackburn and Derby Cathedrals have both suspended public worship, and that my own local Cathedral (Rochester) is closed to visitors and worshippers except for an 11am Sunday Eucharist.
Up the road in London, Mr Khan has said that he deliberately absented himself from Friday Prayers today, as he continued to press the PM to order places of worship in the city to close.
At Our Place, our organist has now decided to Stay At Home, as has my fellow-Reader, but FatherInCharge continues to implore people to come to the daily Mass!
How will he (FiC) respond if/when your church becomes a Covid19 spreader? How would the PCC react as responsible Officers should an outbreak be traced to inadequate safety measures in the church, a weak risk assessment or protocols that haven't been followed in the building?
We are asked to be sensible and stay at home. What kind of example do we set when we "implore" people to come out? Short term gain may well lead to long term desertion.
I heard today that Blackburn and Derby Cathedrals have both suspended public worship, and that my own local Cathedral (Rochester) is closed to visitors and worshippers except for an 11am Sunday Eucharist.
Up the road in London, Mr Khan has said that he deliberately absented himself from Friday Prayers today, as he continued to press the PM to order places of worship in the city to close.
At Our Place, our organist has now decided to Stay At Home, as has my fellow-Reader, but FatherInCharge continues to implore people to come to the daily Mass!
How will he (FiC) respond if/when your church becomes a Covid19 spreader? How would the PCC react as responsible Officers should an outbreak be traced to inadequate safety measures in the church, a weak risk assessment or protocols that haven't been followed in the building?
We are asked to be sensible and stay at home. What kind of example do we set when we "implore" people to come out? Short term gain may well lead to long term desertion.
This is not a time for mavericks but for leaders.
I entirely agree, and think that our best bet is to have just one service a week (whilst we can), like the Cathedral.
I've waited until this weekend to see if we receive any further direction from Head Office (which AFAIK we haven't) before telling FInC of my concerns. Whether or not he will do anything is a moot point, of course.
I've waited until this weekend to see if we receive any further direction from Head Office (which AFAIK we haven't) before telling FInC of my concerns.
Are you a Church Warden or a member of PCC? If so, then I think you have a moral duty to do so.
After what was said before, I don't think Bishops will dare tell churches to close.
Comments
The Christmas Eve Crib Service is going ahead (with *Christingle Kits* for the youngsters), but FatherInCharge is also going ahead with a Midnight Mass at 11pm despite pleas to have it as part of, or immediately after, the Crib Service (a *First Mass of Christmas*).
He says, not without justification, that a change at this late stage would be confusing, the Midnight Mass having been widely advertised for 11pm - there's enough confustication around Christmas already...
We may not be able to live-stream the 11pm service, but I hope we'll be able to film the Christmas morning Mass.
Or Fr .... says .... mass .... really ..... slow....ly.
A previous church (in the UK) used to hold a Midnight Mass starting at 11pm. It began with a half-hour medley of seasonal hymns, and the service proper began at 11.30, which put the mass itself shortly after midnight.
After the service finished, there was a glass of bubbly and a mince pie, and everyone shogged off about 1am.
It's a useful shorthand, although more and more churches seem to be having a *First Communion of Christmas* (or whatever) earlier in the evening.
I think the latest any of my local (US) churches go is a 9pm kickoff (for both Christmas and Easter). But they also tend to do weird things like holding a Compline service at 5pm, so ...
Some English churches (of the Anglo-Carflick perswasion) did at one time make something of a fetish of trying to ensure that the Gospel (the Johannine Prologue) was read at midnight.
Not quite sure why this was considered so important, but Our Place used to achieve it by starting the service sharp at 1145pm, and making short work of the Blessing of the Crib.
With no music or carols, and perhaps only a dozen in the congregation this year, the whole thing might be over by midnight!
Well, we required online registration for this service, and it filled up in 2 hours, so a second service at 5:30 is now planned. It is also full.
IME an 11.30 pm start means that we reach the Peace just as it has become Christmas Day, so that for the Thanksgiving and by the time people are receiving communion it is Christmas Day
As regards the earlier Crib Services, there are indications in our latest email from the Diocesan Office that these may have to be very strictly controlled, which is not the norm at such events, IYSWIM! Further guidance is scheduled for tomorrow...
The midnight Mass could not start before midnight and the day before was a fast day. - this is still shown by the dishes traditionally chosen in traditionally RC countries for the meal on Christmas Eve.
Since the mid 1950s RC Mass can be celebrated at anytime and the Midnight Mass has become the First Mass of Christmas often celebrated long before midnight on Christmas Eve.
Non RC churches were not bound by these rules.
Few people nowadays will remember in RC churches the three Masses being celebrated by each priest in rapid succession 1. missa de angelis 2.missa de pastoribus 3.missa in die with the Prologue of St John as the Gospel 'of the day'.
(IIRC that occurs in one of the Brother Cadfael books...)
By the same token, I always understood that Christmas Eve, at least after sundown (in keeping with the Jewish roots of such things), is liturgically Christmas, not Advent.
(My father would correct us if we referred to December 24 as “Christmas Eve.” “Not until sundown,” he would say.)
You have to remember that the Hours were often anticipated and could well have been sung before midnight.( Think of None,office at the 9th Hour, giving the word Noon in English)
NT is also correct in saying that the Christmas cycle ,just like every Sunday and major Feast day begins liturgically with the First Vespers of Christmas (and the reason why the traditional Lutheran Christmas Eve service taking place at onset of darkness is called Christvesper.)
The Latin Roman Missal does not mention Midnight Mass but simply says:
Ad primam Missam - in Nocte during the night
Ad secundam Missam - in Aurora at dawn (in galli cantu)
Ad tertiam Missam - in die Nativitatis Domini on the day of the Lord's birth
(I must admit I thought Christmette was a typo for Christmesse!)
I was commenting to Mr Nen that the daily rhythm is actually really helpful (meetings at 6.30am, 10.30am, 7.30pm and Night Prayer at 9.30pm) and if we (who have each other and are pretty much as busy as we would be if things were normal, just not going out so much) are finding that, it must be even more so for those who are feeling cut off and isolated.
I expect it would be too much to ask for it to continue over lockdown and I don't know how widely supported it would be as time went on. People tend to make it a priority if things are led by those in leadership; by members of the congregation, not so much.
The guidance/rules/diktats permit this, but, as has been said often before, just because something is permitted does not mean that it is necessarily safe! I don't quite see how holding daily services - and imploring people to attend them - squares with the admonition *Stay At Home*. The onus is very much on each minister and PCC to ensure that their church's risk-assessment is still valid (if that's the right word).
In all fairness, numbers attending Our Place are vanishingly small (even on Sundays), and we have enough space (and chapels) to ensure that reasonably-safe areas are used on a rotation basis. I see that on next week's notice-sheet, FatherInCharge has added a stern warning to people NOT to linger chatting in the church, or in the porch, after services...
Whether or not this situation will continue during L3 remains to be seen. If the number of infections rises, I wouldn't be surprised to find us receiving a directive from the Bishop to close again.
Quite. I'm very grateful Our Place hasn't taken this line. Our premises are currently the local food bank, an excellent use for them.
Under the circumstances, I think you have made very much the right decision. Will you be continuing to livestream Sunday service, even if it's just yourself present?
At the same time the First Minister on Monday evening said that no-one was to leave the house unless absolutely necessary and explained on Wednesday with an apology that this took precedence over the closure of churches on Friday. Many 'last suppers' have had to be cancelled at short notice.
To be fair to her she may have meant that from Friday only weddings and funerals could be celebrated, but it did not come over as this.
Walking around Edinburgh today it seemed that huge numbers of people have had essential reasons to leave the house (myself included !)
All change! We're no longer meeting in person.
Interim Moderator made the final call.
Why they have taken till now to do this, I don't know, but I gather that the ministers' forum on Facebook (which I do not subscribe to, valuing my sanity) has been loud in lamentation at this new lockdown - again, why, I don't know: you would have thought they would have managed to develop local patterns for out-of-building worship by now.
Both these are very low risk but desperately needed
★ Our community (and congregation) has an older demographic and we want to play our part in protecting the vulnerable
★ We are dependent on a number of volunteers for our services, many of whom are in the vulnerable category
★ We are aware how easy it is for bad feeling to develop within a community when a household or organisation do something that is viewed as not being within the spirit of our fight against the virus - so given that all schools are shut we would rather give out the message that we care about the health of our local community.
This decision will be reviewed at the end of the month, and our building remains open for private prayer (limited days / times). Also interesting to note that, apparently, physical attendance at services has declined since they first restarted.
The nearby Community Centre, and an infant/primary school, are both closed - I'm not sure what's happening with the pre-school Nursery, run by a private firm, which meets in our Hall.
OTOH, I can sort of appreciate FatherInCharge's desire to keep public worship going, as we are now (I understand) one of the few churches in our area still open on a regular basis.
Latest news is that the Mayor of London has declared a major emergency, and has asked the government to require places of worship to close. We aren't in London, but we aren't far away, and there are several parishes in this Diocese which do fall within the London boundary.
I'm confused about what this means? By "elements of a service to be centrally available", do you mean "anyone in Scotland can watch a TV show / youtube broadcast / whatever of the same service?"
I assumed it meant recordings of parts of the service e.g. hymns, prayers, readings etc. able to be pasted into the offering from a local church and combined with locally produced material.
All the local churches are seperate charities so I think we'd still need our own CCLI licences and do our own reporting.
Broadcast rights for copyright material is a costly minefield. Not a problem for congregations that only use trad hymns, but a headache for those that use more modern stuff.
Worse, the copyright owners have opted out of CCLI.
Up the road in London, Mr Khan has said that he deliberately absented himself from Friday Prayers today, as he continued to press the PM to order places of worship in the city to close.
At Our Place, our organist has now decided to Stay At Home, as has my fellow-Reader, but FatherInCharge continues to implore people to come to the daily Mass!
We are asked to be sensible and stay at home. What kind of example do we set when we "implore" people to come out? Short term gain may well lead to long term desertion.
This is not a time for mavericks but for leaders.
I entirely agree, and think that our best bet is to have just one service a week (whilst we can), like the Cathedral.
I've waited until this weekend to see if we receive any further direction from Head Office (which AFAIK we haven't) before telling FInC of my concerns. Whether or not he will do anything is a moot point, of course.
After what was said before, I don't think Bishops will dare tell churches to close.