UPDATED ON 15^th MARCH 2021

WORSHIP DURING THE PANDEMIC

ONLINE ACTIVITIES

The church will be closed for Public Worship until Easter Day.

A pre-recorded Mass is available on our YouTube channel from 9.30 am each Sunday: 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLBb6-cKUD2WqcXaCOX1AzA

We hold Zoom Evensong (Compline in Lent) on Sundays at 6.30 pm, monthly Zoom Children's Services and Zoom Morning Prayer & Coffee at 10.45 am on Saturdays.

For codes to any of these, please contact the Rector: susannah.brasier@upminsterparish.co.uk 

We are distributing resources for worship, for adults and children, via email and post. Please let us know if you would like to receive these.

Recordings of some services, together with reflections, and recordings made by our choir, are available on YouTube: - 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLBb6-cKUD2WqcXaCOX1AzA

Some of our fundraising organ concerts (covering the works of J.S. Bach) are being posted to Richard Brasier's YouTube channel: -

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHkOk1_jevVgrPZMmXnJSbA

An audio tour of the church building is available here: -

https://soundcloud.com/upminsterparish?fbclid=IwAR2vU47yNIei0W7uIcLUoHOSdbLkoB0wrUQ-bdkFOtO4-4dG_SlqdOFyj-0

ARRANGEMENTS FOR RESUMING PRIVATE PRAYER AND PUBLIC WORSHIP - INCLUDING HOLY WEEK AND EASTER

Private Prayer will resume with the Watch before the Altar of Repose on Maundy Thursday, 9-10pm. Please book for this if you would like to come.

Thereafter public prayer will happen on Thursdays, 10 am - 12 noon and Sundays

3 - 4.30 pm (except 23rd May). It will not be necessary to book for these occasions.

Public worship will resume with the 9.30 am Mass on Easter Day. Thereafter there will be an 11 am Mass on Wednesdays and a 9.30 am Mass on Sundays. It will be necessary to book for all services.

To book for a service, please contact Joanne (parish.office@upminsterparish.co.uk) by

9 am Monday for Wednesday, and by 9 am Thursday for Sunday. It will not be possible to book more than a few days ahead for a service, but if a service is full one week, you will be given priority for a future week.

Please note that at present all the Covid protocols relating to worship in church are as they were before this lockdown - i.e. hand sanitiser must be used on entry, you are invited to leave your details for Test and Trace, face coverings must be worn unless you are medically exempt, Communion will be brought to the pew and in one kind (bread) only, people must sit 2m apart from those not in their household or support bubble, no indoor socialising is permitted and any outdoor socialising must abide by whatever government restrictions are in place at the time.

The Mass will be Said, with organ music on Sundays. At present amateur choirs are not permitted to sing; we do not yet know when this might change.

Once we are able to have Mass in church again, we will no longer be pre-recording Mass for YouTube. 

ZOOM SERVICES IN HOLY WEEK

Our services for Holy Week will be as follows:

Palm Sunday - 9.30 am service on Zoom (with reading of the Passion Gospel)

                         6.30 pm Compline on Zoom

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week

 8 pm Compline on Zoom

Maundy Thursday 7.45 pm Service on Zoom

Good Friday 2 pm Stations of the Cross on Zoom

                     4 pm Children's Service on Zoom

Easter Day 6.30 pm Evensong on Zoom

Links for all the Zoom services will be circulated on the Saturday before Holy Week.

Please email susannah.brasier@upminsterparish.co.uk if you are not on our regular email list and would like to receive the Zoom links.

We also hope to produce two short videos of hymns, readings and prayers which will be on YouTube from Palm Sunday and Easter Day respectively, and a CD of the dramatised Passion Gospel reading for those who do not have the internet at home.

All are very welcome to worship in church or online, and we hope and pray that in due course it will be possible to relax restrictions.

We hope that you and your loved ones stay safe and well. Please do get in touch with the Parish Office, Susannah or Fr. Roy if you would like to speak to us about something, if you would like support in some way, or if you have a need for prayer.

May God's peace, which passes all understanding, be with us all.

The Revd Susannah Brasier (Rector)

Like many organisations, St Laurence is suffering financially due to the pandemic and the loss of income from our halls. We would be very grateful for any donations towards the mission and ministry of the church. Please contact us for details of how to give via online banking.