The church has always been a movement of people, it just happens to have for a period used certain buildings at certain times. We are still those people, the people of God, and we are still called to witness to him in how we live, how we speak, and how we act. We are still a people of faith, hope, and love, and each of us is still very much open, to the Spirit, and to his activity in the world.
But whilst we continue to 'be' church, we do need to change how we 'do' church for the time being. It may even be that the things we discover forced upon us serve us so well that we continue in them when the crisis has passed.
We are:
- livestreaming Morning Prayer 9am Mon-Fri on our Facebook page (fb.com/ourfivechurches), and here on our engage page.
- enjoying Morning Prayer with discussion at 9am on Saturdays via zoom.
- On Sunday mornings we have a 10am Communion service at All Saints' Ripley. This Communion service will also be livestreamed to our facebook page at 10am, and on the Engage page of this site, and shortly after on our telephone catch up line. If you'd like to join us in person for our 10am Sunday Service in Ripley, you'd be very welcome, but because we are limited to a congregation of 20 at the moment it really helps if you can let us know in advance; the easiest way of doing that is to fill out this form.
- We are holding a 10am Wednesday morning communion at All Saints' Ripley.
- We have a local phone number that can be called to listen to recordings of morning prayer, and communion services - 01423 222470.
- All Saints' Church, Ripley is now open for private prayer through the week.
- We are now working towards re-opening St. John's Bishop Thornton, and St. Wilfrid's South Stainley.
We would also remind people that there are other easily accessible ways to remain a part of the worshipping part of the church at a distance - for instance:
- BBC Radio 4's Sunday Morning Worship, at 8.10am on Sundays;
- BBC's Songs of Praise
- BBC Choral Evensong (BBC Radio 3, 3.30pm on Wednesday and again 3pm Sunday)
- Using the Church of England's Daily Prayer, either from the website (https://www.churchofengland.
org/prayer-and-worship/join- us-service-daily-prayer), or through the app: Android Apple - Subscribing to daily bible study notes - there are many out there. I personally quite like Our Daily Bread www.odb.org, 01539 564149, Android Apple
- There are number of national resources now available on https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/church-online
- You can also access resources from the Church of England through your smart speaker ("Alexa, open the Church of England" or "Hey Google, talk to the Church of England" to get started)