Good Afternoon you lovely people,
I hope you are feeling merry and bright!
Today we had a Zoom Chaplaincy Council Meeting, and among other things started to plan for the reopening of our churches.
It is not as simple as we might have hoped, but this letter is to put you in the picture.
The Council voted last week that we would work towards opening our churches for worship at the beginning of July if it was safe and practical to do so.
Today we agreed that local clergy, and the committees of each church will work together to make sure that everything is in place for a safe return. The wellbeing of all of our folk is most important.
My main concern is that people feel absolutely no pressure to come until they are completely ready. This includes all the officers of each congregation.
The first thing that is likely to happen is that you will receive something from your local Warden, asking gently if you feel that you would be ready to come to church from July. The reason for this is that there will be a limit on capacity, as we will need to follow the government guidelines on that and Social Distancing. What we don’t want is to say the church is open, then have to turn people away because we are full up. So knowing how many may come really helps.
Please don’t be put off by this, if we have too many folk keen to come, we will plan accordingly.
The next thing is that local committees will work out how to implement the Disinfecting guidelines, and ensure that premises are cleaned prior to, during and after each service.
The worship will be a little different. Firstly there will be no touching, so no handshakes or kisses as you arrive, no gathering in groups, seating 2 meters apart in designated seats. Couples or families from the same household may sit together, but individuals separately.
There will be no Service books. Pew sheets will be emailed to those on our lists, and you may bring your own.
The service will be fairly short with little or no singing. The droplets from our mouths are one way the virus spreads, and as we sing, they fly through the air. It is permitted to have a tiny choir, who sit far from others. Any congregational singing needs to be gentle, and masks need to be worn at all times.
The Priest will serve himself, and Communion will be in one kind, just the wafer. The Priest will say ‘The Body of Christ Keep you in eternal life’ once to the whole congregation, and then deliver the wafer, masked and in silence.
There will be no touching during the peace.
There will be no collection during the service, but a retiring collection, which the priest will remind you of. As you can imagine we have been spending our reserves. We have enough to last us until August, but by then we will need to be making some major decisions. At the moment it costs us just under €7000 per month to stay afloat! And as you know we have had no collections, fundraising or income generating activity for months. (If you have any questions about this please get in touch.)
No social gathering afterwards.
So, it will look and feel different, but it will be joyful worship, and a wonderful thanksgiving each week for the countless blessings we receive. Plus we get to take our Holy Communion, which many of us have missed so much.
I need to stress again, that there is no pressure to come. Just because the church is open does not mean that you need to go. Many of our folk will find themselves in some part of the vulnerable spectrum, and you are invited to act with wisdom and caution.
It may be that some of our churches are easier to open than others for all sorts of reasons. If it is not possible or practical, then we will wait. You local priest and wardens we keep you in the loop.
Please be assured that all relevant guidelines will be thoroughly met, and we will welcome our folk only when it is safe and practical to do so from July 5th.
If you have questions, it may be simplest to ask your local priest:
Fr Rodney looking after Gandia and Denia. His email is rodmid169@yahoo.co.uk
Fr Jim looking after Javea and La Fustera. jimbooker57@gmail.com
Fr Marcus looking after Calpe, Albir, Alfas del Pi and El Campello. marcusronchetti@yahoo.co.uk

The future continues to be a mystery, and we will do our best to get to some sense of normality quickly.
For the foreseeable future the Letters and videos from Fr Jim and I will continue, as will the live stream services provided by Fr Rodney and Fr Robin. Much of this will continue once the churches are open, but we don’t have the complete detail of that yet.
We wish you every blessing as we continue to work through all of this together.
As ever,
Fr Marcus