This year our remembrance service will be a little different due to the COVID restrictions.

To ensure we can maintain a COVID secure building we have to severely limit numbers to our Sunday morning services. We are therefore are planning the following for Remembrance Sunday.

10am at the Church will be our usual Sunday morning service, this is usually full to our COVID capacity.

We therefore ask that those wishing to take part in the act of remembrance go direct to the war memorial for 11am, where we shall meet outside for a short remembrance service.

Please remember that although outside you will need to social distance from people outside of your household.

On Sunday 1st November at 4pm we will be hosting a memorial service online to remember those who have died recently or in the past. Unfortunately we are not able to open the Church for this service due to space restrictions.

The service will be broadcast on our facebook page.  Please follow this link to take part.

Please join us online at 4pm on Sunday the 1st.

Stanley Community Singers – Every Monday, 1pm-2pm

The Stanley Community singers have restarted after a very lengthy break, and although we aren’t singing together yet, we are enjoying doing some fun musical games, activities and quizzes. 

The group meets every Monday (term-time only) at St Peter’s Church, 1pm—2pm, cost per session = £2.50

We aren’t serving refreshments afterwards, but the church café is open beforehand for delicious lunches e.g. hot meal, sandwiches, soup etc.

St Peter’s Senior Citizens’ Lunch Club – Every Tuesday, 11am—1pm 

Arrive from 11am-1pm and enjoy tea or coffee and a chat, followed by the activity of the day e.g. crafts, talks, films, games, quizzes, reminiscing.

We are taking lots of precautions to keep everyone safe, including extra cleaning and hygiene measures.

Lunch served from about 12:15pm: a freshly cooked hot meal followed by dessert, for just £5 per person.

Ideal for anyone wanting a bit of companionship and     something to do!  Please come and join our friendly group.

Knit and Natter, Sew and Chatter! – Every Thursday, 2pm-4pm

Enjoy a cuppa, company and a ‘crafty’ afternoon!

Please come and join this established group of ladies as they knit, sew, compare ideas and patterns, learn new crafty skills, and share conversation, refreshments and friendship. Just turn up: you will be very warmly welcomed

Precautions are being taken to keep everyone safe; come along and give it a try!

Straight after the harvest service on Sunday 11th October, we will be holding our APCM, more commonly known as an Annual  General Meeting (AGM).  The AGM was originally scheduled to take place back in April, but had to be delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

This meeting will review what happened in 2019, which seems rather a long time ago now!  The church finances from 2019 will be presented, and members will be elected to the Parochial church council (PCC) and officers elected.  There will also be a discussion about our plans and hopes for the future.  If you want to learn more about the church’s  ministry, where the money comes from and how it’s spent, and what the various church officers do, then come along and find out! 

The next AGM (to discuss the events and finances of 2020) will be taking place in only 6 months time, in March or April 2021, assuming that the world will have returned to a bit more normality by then! No doubt we will reviewing how the coronavirus pandemic has affected us at St Peter’s church.

Despite the ongoing restrictions, St Peter’s church will be holding its Harvest Festival service on Sunday 11th October at 10am.  It will look    different to previous years, as we won’t be able to have as many people in the congregation, and we are still not permitted to sing.  Even so it is an opportunity to thank God for his gifts to us all, and our many blessings.

We are unable to hold our community harvest lunch this year, because of the social distancing guidelines. However, any fresh food that is donated will be used by our senior citizens’ Tuesday lunch club, and any remaining tinned or dried food will be donated to either CAP Care in Wakefield which provides meals to the homeless, or St Catherine’s church food bank.

We will be serving refreshments after the service; people will be served where they are sat, rather than having to go up to the kitchen counter.

St Peter’s church is starting to welcome back some of its regular groups.  From September, Mini-Maestros children’s music classes will be     returning, along with the community choir, knit & natter and the lunch club. 

Next month, we hope the scouts will be returning, as well as Children’s Ark, the Rodillians choir, our coffee mornings and maybe the film club.  It will be a bit longer until the Rainbows and Brownies return, and the Alternative Care disabled adults’ drama group.

Before returning, all groups are having to think very carefully about their activities, and how to ensure social distancing and minimise risks to members.  It all takes a lot of planning, and St Peter’s church has produced some guidance for groups to help the process.

The “Rule of 6” didn’t bring any significant changes to Church services. Below is the advice from the Church of England:

Public worship can continue. There is an exemption that covers places of worship making it possible for more than six people to gather for acts of communal worship. However, it is not a blanket exemption. People must not be part of a group of more than six unless they are from the same household or support bubble. 

https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-churches

So we continue to meet in a COVID-19 secure way every Sunday at 10am.

Now we are back in our buildings for the Sunday Service we are adjusting our online services.

Every week either the service from St Paul’s or the service from St Peter’s will be filmed live and broadcast on the St Peter’s Facebook page.

There is now a service in both churches every Sunday.

We are also continuing our mid week online prayers at the following times:

Monday morning prayer at 9am with Glenn and Angela
Tuesday evening prayer at 9pm with Glenn and Angela
Wednesday morning prayer at 9am with Glenn and Angela
Wednesday evening prayer at 9pm with Vicky
Thursday evening prayer at 9pm with Glenn and Angela
Friday evening prayer at 9pm with Vicky