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The Bishop of Lewes has sent a message to all Church of England parishes across East Sussex asking them to close their doors in a bid to help slow the spread of Covid-19. Rev William Hazlewood issued the request after being approached by the Head of Environmental Health for Rother and Wealden districts, Richard Parker-Harding.

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The Church of England reports that its 16,000 churches were running or supporting 35,000 projects before the Covid-19 pandemic, including 8,000 food banks, 4,000 parent-toddler groups, 5,000 lunch clubs or coffee mornings, 2,700 community cafes, 2,400 night shelters and 2,300 breakfast or holiday clubs for children.

Now, for the first time, the financial value of the services and support that church buildings provide, and the health and wellbeing they create, has been calculated at £12.4bn a year. The figure comes from an independent study published today, commissioned by the National Churches Trust and carried out by State of Life, an organisation which measures social value.

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4th February 2021 – A one-day virtual conference to explore the theology and practice of caring for creation

For mission agencies and churches supporting missions

Morning speakers (10-12am)

Rev. Dr. Chris Wright, International Director, Langham Partnership International
Dr. Rosalee V Ewell, Director of Church Relations for the United Bible Societies
Seth Appiah-Kubi, Director, A Rocha Ghana
Sumayya Sajjad, Project Director for Tearfund, Pakistan

Afternoon (2-4pm): case studies, workshops & discussions on topics including

An in-depth look at eco-theology
Practical advice on greening your mission agency
Embedding creation care in policy and practice
Carbon footprints and what to do about them
Engaging with the next generation
Creation care IS mission!
The EcoChurch toolkit around the world
Supporting environmental missions – a UK church perspective

Important information:

This event costs £10 per person

Find out more here

Churches Together for Eastbourne are planning to hold a ‘Prayer for Eastbourne’ Zoom online prayer event on Saturday 23^rd January 2021. It will start at 9am and finish at 1pm. Four Churches will help host the event and contributors will come from several others across the town, with each host church facilitating prayer around the topics shown below.

You can register for the morning of prayer here – this will also  enable you to receive Zoom information if you are not already on our email list and help us plan the overall event.

The  plan for the morning is as follows:

9-10am                      Church and Agencies; hosted by St Johns/St Michaels
10-11am                    Young People and schools; hosted by The Well Community Church
11am-12 midday       Local Government and Agencies; hosted by St Marys Church, Old Town
12-1pm                      Families and the Elderly; hosted by Gateway Church

Kings Church are helping with the technical hosting.

Please reserve the date and promote the event. You can download the artwork above here.  You can register for the morning of prayer here

Dave Roberts
On behalf of the Churches Together Eastbourne Team

Churches Together for Eastbourne are planning to hold a ‘Prayer for Eastbourne’ Zoom online prayer event on Saturday 23^rd January 2021. It will start at 9am and finish at 1pm.

Four Churches will help host the event and contributors will come from several others across the town, with each host church facilitating prayer around the topics shown below.

The  plan for the morning is as follows:

9-10am           Church and Agencies; hosted by St Johns/St Michaels
10-11am         Young People and schools; hosted by The Well Community Church
11am-12         Local Government and Agencies; hosted by St Marys Church
12-1pm           Families and the Elderly; hosted by Kings Church

Please reserve the date and promote the event. You can download the artwork above here.  You can register for the morning of prayer here – this will also  enable people to receive Zoom information if they are not on our email list and help us plan the overall event.

Imagine a scenario where physical distancing is relaxed a little, in maybe 6-8 weeks, but ‘normal business’ is not resumed for some months after that. The flurry of livestreaming, WhatsApp and Zoom meetings that are part of our current response will stand us in good stead. But soon we will want to take a deep breath and think through how we can make sure that all of our congregation can experience various types of connection.

The phone is a part of that . Many churches will also have email lists or Faceboook pages. Updating those and ‘filling in the gaps’ re phone numbers might be a good use of time for key church admin staff. To help you do that and understand what media might work for your congregation you might want to create a form that people can complete. Some can be emailed it. There will be others you can call and complete the form for them during the conversation. You could put it on the church website for downloading and emailing.

Download a sample form below. It is based on material from a Surrey church (Open Door). You can insert your church details and edit it as you see fit.

Sample Internet connectivity questionnaire

More building blocks next week

Several Eastbourne churches have services and resources online. Loneliness is not just an issue for older people but sometimes a major challenge for young mums and families. Conversation and connection help bring hope and perspective.

For example: Holy Trinity Church have a YouTube page ‘Holy Trinity Media’ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsC7_Dl4CdK3q4AwK5z1a0Q with HT Club for toddlers livestreaming as well as their Sunday services.

Could your church young mums do something similar? The video app zoom.us would be ideal for this and can be password protected so that you can send the invite to existing members at first, before letting them invite other friends.