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As we carefully and cautiously move towards resuming live services, we began screening pre-recorded on-line services in our Hall on 6th September.  The services have been available online for the last few months and, by showing them in the Hall it gives people an opportunity to begin meeting with others whilst still observing social distancing and associated safeguards and also makes the services available to those who might not have internet access at home.  The services are all available to view at www.facebook.com/holtwoodmethodistchurch/live and, even (or especially) during the Covid crisis, we can see our God at work because the services have been viewed by 100′s of people – many of whom do not attend our church, or any church.  Literally this is Outreach!  In the coming weeks we’re hoping to return to ‘live’ services which we’re planning to stream as they happen – so do watch this space for more details.

Over the past few weeks our Stewards Team has been busy considering when and, if so, how our church premises might be able to re-open. The team consulted widely amongst the church membership and, as would be expected, the opinions expressed were also wide ranging. Taking account of the latest Methodist Church guidelines about the compulsory wearing of face masks and other restrictions and also following a deep cleaning and the installation of hygiene facilities, it has been decided that we should move forward cautiously and so:-
• As a first step, services will be held in the hall beginning on Sunday 6th September at 10.45;
• There will need to be social distancing so these services will be limited to about 24 people;
• The only areas accessible will be the hall, corridor and toilets;
• Initially services will be the existing pre-recorded services via our Facebook page, displayed on a large screen;
• For the present there can be no live music or congregational singing;
• Hopefully, we will soon be in a position to offer live streamed services from the hall led by a minister or a local preacher.
It’s also important to stress that no-one should feel under any pressure to attend whilst we’re still under the pandemic restrictions. We all need to decide what is best for ourselves and our families.
Hope this is helpful to you!

In the light of guidance from Methodist Conference our Minister and Stewards are currently looking at when (and if so how) our church buildings might re-open. We’re hoping that this will be over the next 2 or 3 months although there’ll need to be a great deal of preparation and different, unfamiliar arrangements when physical services and other activities do resume. These are likely to include cleansing measures, safety precautions, social distancing, etc. We’ll announce more when we know what the position is and, in the meanwhile, we’ll continue streaming virtual services on our Facebook page from 10.45 each Sunday – and you can ‘catch-up’ anytime afterwards as well.

It’s great to know that so many people are viewing our virtual Facebook services from 10.45 each Sunday. You can view these services anytime afterwards on our Facebook page. Generally, we’re waiting for the Methodist Conference in late June/early July to give us guidance about when and how we can resume physical rather than virtual services – perhaps a combination of both? We’ll let you know when we know!

In these uncertain times, Holtwood will continue to stream virtual services on Facebook at 10.45 each Sunday morning. Hope you can join us – here is a flyer:-

We’re not able to share this anniversary in person so here are three pics of Holtwood Methodist Church as it was earlier today – please feel free to share!

 

Good News – please see below:-

“The Holt Parish Council meeting was also when we would have announced who was to receive the Holt Good Citizen Award 2020. It is great to see how people appreciate what others do and we are pleased to give this year’s award to Anne Sanyal. Anne is recognised as a friend to all with her contribution to Holtwood Church, Little Angels Playgroup and Pot Luck Lunch for older folk of the Parish. Anne will hopefully enjoy spending a voucher at Stewart’s Garden Centre on something special!”

Thank you Anne for all the wonderful work you do in our area – much of which goes unacknowledged – but it certainly is noticed!

We’re sad to report that, for the duration of the present crisis and following national guidelines, all church services have been suspended alongside all other church and social activities that are usually held on our premises. For more information please contact our minister Revd Nigel Deller on (01202) 822212 or our Lead Steward Rod Frampton on (01202) 881975.

After the success of ‘Poppies Red & Cornflowers Blue’ Poacher’s Moon bring their new production ‘Seafarers’ to Holtwood on 4th April. 

 

At Holtwood on Sunday at 10.45 we have a Christmas Celebration with Dr Chris Slade, at 6.00 we have Carols around the Tree on our lawn (weather permitting) followed by seasonal refreshments in the hall and then on Christmas Day at 9.30 we’ll enjoy a family Christmas Morning with Colin Besant – all are most welcome and do bring along a gift that you can show to us all!