COVID-19 and St. Thomas’ Church

As the country has battled against the COVID-19 pandemic, we hope that you and your families have stayed safe and well.

19TH JULY 2021 UPDATE

As restrictions lift in England, the Church of England has offered new guidance to churches.

St. Thomas’ guidance is as follows:

• We will keep sanitizer at the entrance.
• We will keep a record of who attends, for track and trace.
• We will ask people to continue to wear masks during the service for the time being.
• At the Peace, the priest will encourage people to continue to sign, rather than make physical contact with each other.
• We can resume congregational singing!
• Wine, in the common cup, will be offered to everybody at communion, but receiving only the bread is of course still an option. (The bishops specified that individual cups are not allowed)
• We will be moving back to using the high altar, so the congregation can come and either stand or kneel at the high altar to receive (we will need the kneeling cushion back).
• The lectern can go back to its normal place, and readers and intercessors can come up to lead from the lectern.
• We will add a couple more rows of chairs both sides of the centre, but keep the lady aisle specifically distanced.
• Coffee after the service can take place in church. At this point, those who are not comfortable with mingling can make their way outside, and those who wish to stay for coffee can remove their masks for coffee time.

The biggest change to note is that you no longer need to book for Sundays – you can just turn up.

Q: Do you have any in-person events I can attend?

Yes! We are running the Wednesday 10am Eucharist and the Sunday 10am Eucharist – just turn up if you’d like to attend. You can also come along during the week on Mondays or Thursdays between 11.30am and 1.30pm to spend some time in prayer in the Church.

If you have coronavirus symptoms:

• a high temperature
• a new, continuous cough
• a loss of, or change to, your sense of smell or taste

PLEASE DO NOT ATTEND CHURCH IF YOU HAVE ANY SYMPTOMS.

If you develop symptoms after attending church, you must let us know.

Q: What precautions are being taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19?

We take this very seriously at St. Thomas and have a number of precautions in place.

[UPDATED 19TH JULY]

1. Hand sanitiser – you must use the sanitiser on the way in and the way out of the Church.
2. Face masks – these are mandatory during services unless you are covered by the Government exemptions.
3. Social distancing – we would like everyone to be aware of others whilst in the Church, and if someone is choosing to keep their distance, please respect this. We are keeping the Lady Aisle with socially distanced seating for those who prefer it, but the main body of the Church seating will return to pre-pandemic spacing. It is entirely your choice how close you’re happy to be to others, and we expect everyone to respect each other.

Q: I’m still shielding and I don’t feel able to attend in person. What can I do?

We understand that some people will not feel able to return to Church physically yet, and this is fine! We are still here for you if you need us. We have a team of people who keep in touch with members of the congregation, and if you would like to chat, you can reach out to our clergy via the Contact page.

We also have a downloadable resource for praying at home.

Download Prayer Resources (PDF format)

Q: Livestreaming – how do I participate?

On Wednesdays and Sundays, we livestream the 10am Eucharist on our Facebook page. You don’t need to join Facebook to watch it, just visit the page. You can also watch past livestreams!

Rev. Cat also posts a weekly video on Youtube – head over to her YT channel and give them a watch.