In Building Services
Following a successful return to in building services on the 20th September, we look forward to our next in building service at 9am this Sunday, which we will also be streaming on Facebook and Youtube. We want to remind you of the government guidelines on maintaining good social distancing and limiting the numbers of people meeting together. We will continue to share our church services online, and encourage you to make the choice that is right for you, about whether to come to the building or to join us from home.
If you have any symptoms of covid, please do not come to the church building.
There are a few things that will be different when you come to a service at St Mark’s
- Entrance will be through St Mark’s Room, including hand sanitiser station and collecting track and trace contact details (which will be held for three weeks).
- Face coverings are required in a place of worship
- Congregational singing is not allowed
- Distribution of communion will take place outside at the end of the service
- We need to adhere to social distancing. To help with this we have markings on the floor outside the church and inside. You will be directed to your seat as you come in, with those arriving first being seated at the front of church. At the end of the service, we will leave from the back rows first. Given social distancing and seating, there will be a maximum number of people that can attend worship. At St Mark’s Church, this is up to 34 small house holds. If the church is full we will not allow additional people to enter, and you will need to join in the service online.
- We will not be opening the toilet or kitchen (except in an emergency!)
We need to ensure that our church building continues to be a safe space for people to gather, to worship and pray together. To help with this, we are also reducing some of the roles and activities that would usually be part of our worship. Within current guidelines, we won’t be having acolytes, robing choir, flowers, refreshments or hymnbooks within our services, and we need to keep those in the vestry to a minimum – this will be restricted access for clergy, technical, organist and churchwardens only.
Coming up…
- Sunday 27th September, 9:00am – The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity Communion service in church.
- Sunday 27th September, 10:00am – The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity Communion service – on youtube and Facebook, followed by coffee on zoom.
- Monday 28th September, 10:30am – Weekly discussion group on Zoom; please see below for full details.
- Wednesday 30th September 10:15-11:15am – Coffee Morning on zoom. Phone in or join us on the internet, all are welcome – you’ll need to make your own coffee.
- Wednesday 30th September – 6:00pm – 7:30pm – Weekly evening discussion group on zoom, note the new earlier times, logon for coffee and chat from 6:20pm; please see below for full details.
- Sunday 4th October, 9:00am – The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity Harvest Festival service in church.
- Sunday 27th September, 10:00am – The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity Communion service – on youtube and Facebook, followed by coffee on zoom.
“Being With” Course
Mondays 10:30-12:00 or Wednesdays 6-7:30
We are piloting the new “Being With” Course. This is an opportunity for those wishing to explore the Christian faith for the first time, those wishing to be baptised or Confirmed this year and those wanting to explore Christianity within the particular inclusive theology that we share. It’s a ten week course, that will take place on zoom online, starting on Monday 28th and Wednesday 30th September. As we join the HeartEdge network, and are one of the few churches across the country that have been invited to pilot this course, we’d love you to join the conversation. Please email vicar@penningtonchurch.uk to book a place.
Sunday Services – are you in our virtual congregation?
Every week our Sunday service is at 9:00am in the building, and 10am for an online specific service and is on our YouTube channel here – and our Facebook page too! We’d love to see your photos of you at home getting ready for the service – and now we’re live from the Lady Chapel, we’re hoping to see more of you in our virtual congregation. Please do share a photo of yourself for us to add to our wall by email to takepart@penningtonchurch.uk, it’s such an encouragement for us. After the service, you’re welcome to join us in zoom for coffee (you will have to brew your own!)
Facemasks – donations to New Forest Basics Bank
Across the New Forest, a team of stitchers have been creating thousands of scrubs and bags for our local hospitals. As facemasks are now required for public transport, and individuals are choosing to use them elsewhere too, the team are creating a fabulous array of colours and styles of individual face masks for adults and children. There are mask trees set up in Pennington, Lymington and other local towns and villages. You go along to a mask tree, select the mask you would like, and then drop in a donation to the New Forest Basics Bank. If you want to know the location of your local mask tree, please email debs.pope@gmail.com
Rachel’s art for sale!
If you’d like to purchase art that our priest Rachel has created and showed in our our worship recently, please check out our new Red Bubble shop. Profits from sales of these items all go to support the ministry of Pennington Church.
YouTube and Facebook
All our services can be found on our YouTube channel here. We also stream our services on our Facebook page too, here.
Heartedge
We’re part of the HeartEdge network of churches, and we are therefore able to participate in various events being run by HeartEdge. This is a link to the events taking place this week.
Join the Sunday service via Zoom
If there are people you know in our congregation who do not have access to the internet and would like to phone in and listen to our services, please share this information with them to join the Pennington Church zoom during the service and listen to the audio. To phone in, please dial 0203 695 0088.
- You will hear: “Welcome to Zoom, enter your meeting id followed by hash”
- The meeting id you need to enter is: 971 631 0618 #
- You will then hear it say “Enter your participant id followed by hash, otherwise just press hash”
- Please just press the # key. then you will be asked for the passcode, please enter 1839 followed by hash (#).
You will then be part of a conference call, and you will be able to listen to the service, and then talk to others afterwards.
Lords Prayer
We invite you to video yourself on your phone or computer reading the Lords’ Prayer. Please then email your recording to takepart@penningtonchurch.uk
We’re now showing the Lord’s Prayer in our services with each line read by a different person and we’d love to include as many of our congregation in this as we can. Please be brave, and join in the fun. (Trust me, it was strange for me to get used to leading the service in front of a camera or a phone too.) Others in the congregation will be so delighted to see you taking part, as we are each encouraged by seeing those that we know and love.
Hampshire County Council Hub
If you would like to help with the community at large, the new Hampshire County Council Hub to support the community through the crisis has now been established. If you are able to offer support and would like to be involved, please contact them on 0333 370 4000. Your call will then be triaged and you will be passed to whichever organisation or local contact would be most appropriate.