Dear Friends,

Advice on face coverings

Face coverings are now mandatory in shops and supermarkets, as well as on public transport. Government guidance encourages people to wear face coverings in enclosed public spaces where there are people they do not normally meet, such as church buildings.

The House of Bishops Recovery Group has produced Advice on Face Coverings to help ministers and their congregations to understand how this applies in churches. The advice strongly recommends that face coverings should be worn by all those attending a place of worship where there may be other people present. The advice highlights that face coverings are mainly intended to protect other people, not the wearer, from coronavirus and that they are not a replacement for physical distancing and regular hand washing.

COVID-compliance of Church Halls

Under Health & Safety legislation, the PCC is required to risk assess churches and halls and actively manage risks so that our buildings are safe for use. This now includes COVID-secure buildings.

National Church guidance has focused on the use of buildings which are “places of worship”.  However, some church hall use falls more naturally under government guidance about multi-purpose community facilities. The PCC is the “responsible body” in relation to the Government’s Guidance for the safe use of multi-purpose community facilities.

Many of the matters to be considered will be familiar to you from your thinking about re-opening for worship. The following should be emphasised:

• Buildings that cannot be safely opened for public use must remain closed
• If achieving safe opening requires the PCC to incur additional costs in professional cleaning, it may be possible to pass these on to your users
• Whilst the PCC is responsible for the building, your users are responsible for running their activities in a COVID-secure way. It would be wise to exchange emails with them to ensure that they recognise their obligations
• We recommend that you inform your insurers of steps being taken to re-open for community use

Further guidance is available on the National Church website, including updated advice on Outdoor Worship and a new Safer Churches document which gives further advice on helping public places to reopen safely document. Information on buying COVID-19 supplies, including cleaning supplies, face coverings, and PPE, is available through Parish Buying. If you have any questions, please speak to your archdeacon for advice.

Racism and equality in the Church

Bishop Tim recently recorded a discussion with the Reverend Canon Yemi Adedeji, Director of the One People Commission at the Evangelical Alliance, and a former colleague at CMS. Bishop Tim and Canon Yemi discussed his experience as a Nigerian Christian working in the Church and living in the UK.

 
Bishop Tim and Canon Yemi discuss the need for change across all parts of society including the Church, and how Christians can approach this emphasising greater ethnic integration within churches, organisations and communities. You can find out more and watch the full conversation on the Diocese website.

Companion Links

Following the very sad death of the Bishop of Goma, Kadhoro Desire Makanirwa, from COVID last week, Archbishop Masimango has asked us to pray for him and the Church in the DR Congo as they come to terms with this loss, make arrangements for the Diocese and try to raise funds for the cost of hospital treatment. This is a very difficult time for our brothers and sisters. Please pray for God’s comfort and peace to be with Bishop Desire’s wife, Claudine, and his family through their grieving.

As you will know from new stories, South America has been very badly impacted by the COVID pandemic. Our friends in Chile tell us the country is still in lockdown, with an increasingly uncertain political situation. Please pray for the Province, churches continue to meet regularly online but they are facing some financial difficulties during this pandemic with one parish already in financial crisis.

Eucharist commemorating the Anglican Communion

On Sunday, Winchester Cathedral will be offering an online Eucharist service celebrating the Anglican Communion. The service will include a sermon from Archbishop Tito from our Companion Link with the Anglican Church of Chile. The service will be made available on the Cathedral website and we encourage churches to include the opportunity in your services this weekend.

With our prayers for you all,

 
Bishop Tim, Bishop David, and Bishop Debbie

And the Bishop’s Staff Team:   

Andrew Robinson, Diocesan Chief Executive    

Catherine Ogle, Dean of Winchester   

Peter Rouch, Archdeacon of Bournemouth   

Richard Brand, Archdeacon of Winchester   

Mat Phipps, Bishop’s Chaplain 

 Please click here to read Bishop Tim's Weekly Briefing.

Dear all,

 
Update from the Bishops: finances, resources and Diocesan Vision
We realise that this is an extremely busy time for us all as the Church, like the rest of the country, makes these first, tentative steps out of lockdown. Thank you again for all that you have done, especially for your creative ministry and mission across our communities over this extraordinary period.

Following last month’s Bishop’s Council meeting, we wanted to provide you all with a further update on finances and resources. There is barely a sector, industry, or household that remains wholly unaffected by the pandemic. The daily headline figures from the Government - both health and economic-related - make for sobering reading. Away from the bald statistics, they are borne out on a local, personal level. The fact that, during this time, you have all ensured that this Diocese continues to serve, help, and reach all of our communities, even while our buildings have been closed, has been a real blessing.

 
This has been an enormously challenging period, and difficult decisions lie ahead. In these coming months, as we aim to put the Diocese on a secure footing for the future, we will also look in tandem at our vision and missional priorities. Those do not require reinvention, but we intend to go through a process where we reconsider and refine our priorities and focus, to ensure that our mission strategy remains at the core of all that we do.

 
With our churches, alongside businesses, shops, schools, and high streets, starting to ease out of lockdown, we are continuing to adapt and plan for our new situation. The Diocesan Office at Wolvesey remains closed but we have begun a phased reopening of Old Alresford Place, incorporating the necessary health precautions.

 
In previous updates, we have detailed the short-term measures we took to mitigate the financial shock of the past three months, including the use of the government furlough scheme. Approval recently came through from the DBF’s bank to provide an emergency COVID-19 loan, which has shored up our cashflow in the short term. We are now in a place where a number of staff have returned from furlough, and our curates are also back at work.

 
As we said in our recent letter regarding Common Mission Fund, we are hugely appreciative of the efforts that many parishes have made in ensuring that CMF continues to be paid.  Parish finances remain highly uncertain, especially for those reliant on income from activities outside of congregational giving, with social distancing still in place. However, for the Diocese - as is the case across almost the entire country - COVID-19 will have a lasting, economic impact. We must ensure that we protect our longer-term financial stability.

 
The Diocesan Resilience Taskforce (DRT), chaired by Bishop Debbie, was set up early in lockdown. It was asked to look at costs across the Diocese, and recently gave its first report to Bishop’s Council. Ultimately, it will be for the DBF and Bishop’s Council together to make final decisions based on the DRT’s recommendations.

 
Clergy vacancies will remain frozen for the time being as the DRT, along with the rest of the Bishop’s Staff Team, assesses the context for our future deployment. This will be discussed at the joint meeting of the Archdeaconry Mission and Pastoral Committees in September, involving Deanery Lay Chairs, Area Deans, and their Assistants.

 
In terms of the Diocesan Offices and staff, all new hire processes have similarly been put on hold, and immediate savings have been made through the furlough scheme and the deferment of planned repairs and maintenance. Again, however, we must look beyond the here and now and, over the summer, we will be looking at implementing further savings. As part of this, a review of diocesan office facilities is being undertaken.

 
We recognise that there is much uncertainty at present, and that further uncertainty lies ahead. Although this may at times try our faith, we know that God is with us and has provided for us all that we need. We hope that this update goes some way towards showing the careful, considered steps that are being taken in planning for the future.

With our continued prayers for you,

 
+Tim, +David, +Debbie

Dear Friends,

In the message we circulated yesterday, we mentioned that further updates were due to be made to the published guidance from the Church of England in relation to specific questions for churches preparing to resume public worship in church buildings.  Those updates have now been made, and we see that the changes include the addition of substantial and useful advice on Holy Communion, as well as the occasional offices of Baptism, Confirmation, Weddings and Funerals. The advice on Individual Prayer has also been updated. For those making plans, we recommend checking this new advice, all of which is available here. As ever, if you have any questions, please speak to your archdeacon for advice. 

 
With our prayers for you all,   

 
Bishop Tim, Bishop David, and Bishop Debbie  

And the Bishop’s Staff Team:   

Andrew Robinson, Diocesan Chief Executive    

Catherine Ogle, Dean of Winchester   

Peter Rouch, Archdeacon of Bournemouth   

Richard Brand, Archdeacon of Winchester   

Mat Phipps, Bishop’s Chaplain