UPDATE 21/12/20
After a meeting of Emmanuel’s leadership team this morning, we arrived at a consensus to close Emmanuel for public worship, with immediate effect, until we are removed from Tier 4. However, we have a duty of care to those in our church family, and the wider community, especially when we live in an area that has one of the highest infection rates in the country. None of us want church to be a place people can be infected with COVID 19. This fits in with a Diocesan communication on Saturday evening which encourages us to move our services online in the current climate.
This was a very difficult decision to make, and one that wasn’t taken lightly – especially when Christmas services are so special – as was the Outdoor Family Carols on Sunday to many of us. We will have a couple of online services on Christmas Eve: a short Christingle service on YouTube at 4.00 pm on Christmas Eve as well as the First Communion Of Christmas at 11.30 pm – both of these will be on our YouTube channel Emmanuel Church Billericay – YouTube not forgetting the Zoom Communion at 10.30 am on Christmas Day.
Services will continue to be livestreamed from January, as we did during Lockdown #1 & #2, only involving those who are taking part in the service.
Midweek communion at Saint Mary’s in the High Street will also be suspended, with immediate effect, for the same reasons as above. However, it will continue to be open for private prayer.
There’s no doubt these are challenging times for us all, but we live, as they say, in ‘unprecedented’ times and we pray God’s blessing on you and your families
Wishing you all a blessed and peaceful Christmas.
EMMANUEL ADVENT CALENDAR Be sure to enjoy this during the Advent Season – with something for everyone! It starts on 1 December!
Christmas will be very different this year as a result of COVID 19 restrictions. However, we are still wanting to cater for every age group and every taste with a variety of services, both live and virtual, and we want to invite you to join with us.
One of the sad things about holding services in church is that we are, currently, not allowed to sing, which is why the outdoor family Carol Service should be very welcome indeed.
We have COVID 19 safeguards in place and we have limited numbers for all of our services – you will need to register for these in advance. You can do so here https://prayin.io/nys-xyj-dfs scroll down to find the event of your choice. Please use one entry per person. Registering in this way will act as our ‘Test & Trace.’
We wish you a wonderful Christmas and God’s richest blessing upon you and your family at this ‘most wonderful time of the year.’
Really love this. Shall we sing this at our outdoor Carol Service on 20 December?
revPACman 