Dear member of St Alphege,

I hope that you and your family and friends are well. 

As you will no doubt be aware, we have been unable to gather together for worship for nearly four months due to the spread of the Covid-19 virus. I know that this has been a very difficult time for everyone and that it has separated us from our friends and from our fellow worshippers. And although we know that it has been done for the health of our community, the closing of our churches has been a source of deep sadness. 

I am writing on behalf of the Parish wardens, deputy churchwardens and the clergy and staff team with information about how we are beginning to restore our worshipping life and to make church attendance part of our lives again. 

For several weeks the ministers and staff of the parish have been working extremely hard to work out how we can safely reopen our churches for worship. This has involved intense study of guidance from both HM Government and the Church of England and also careful analysis of our church buildings. I am delighted to say that we are now able to begin to carefully reopen the churches in the Solihull Parish. 

From Sunday 19 July, St Alphege and St Helen’s churches are reopening for worship on a limited basis. This letter explains more about the reopening of St Alphege. 

From Sunday 19th July there will be a service of the Holy Eucharist at St Alphege Church at 10.30am. (Sadly, this will be Fr Sam’s last service in the parish but I am delighted that he will be able to preside and preach at the Eucharist before he leaves us.)

There will then be a service of the Holy Eucharist at St Alphege each Sunday at 10.30am. For the time being, this will be the only worship service in church. We hope, of course, to be able to open for additional services as and when Government and Church of England guidance allows us to.

Initially, this will be a said service with no hymns but with music on the organ. We will also receive the Eucharist in only one kind - i.e. the bread only. We have put in place the necessary procedures for keeping everyone safe, e.g. the use of hand sanitiser when you arrive; seating at a safe distance; a way of distributing communion which avoids person-to-person contact. We also strongly recommend the wearing of face-coverings and ask you to bring a scarf, mask or other suitable item for covering your mouth and nose.

We have set up a booking system so that we can keep numbers at a safe level, and we ask you to please book your place before attending a service. When you arrive at church you will be asked to confirm your name and contact details. (These are required in case we have to contact congregation members because of the discovery of a case of Covid-19.) You will then be directed to a seat in the pews.

To book a place please contact the Parish Office on 0121 705 5350 or email office@solihullparish.org.uk.  We will need to know the names of the people you are booking for and whether you are part of the same household or support bubble (and so can sit together in church).  Please let us have a contact telephone number and where possible an email address also. You will be contacted once allocations have been made.  

Once the service is over, congregation members will be encouraged to leave the church building promptly, so that contact with others is minimised.    

Please be aware that although we are working very hard to ensure that everyone is kept as safe as possible when visiting the church, it is not possible to eliminate every element of risk whilst the Covid-19 virus is with us. Therefore, we ask you to be aware that attendance at a service is entirely your choice, and there is no pressure to attend if you would prefer not to. 

Each Sunday, we will ‘live-stream’ one of the Sunday services - either from St Alphege or St Helen’s - so you can still worship from home if you would prefer to. We will also be continuing to provide our daily midday prayer on the internet from Monday-Saturday each week. 

Finally, I would like to thank you for your patience and understanding whilst we have planned how to reopen the churches in our parish. We will continue to monitor and review our plans so that we can keep to high standards of safety and also create an environment where we are able to offer to God our worship and prayer. 

If you have any questions about the reopening of our churches, please contact one of the St Alphege churchwardens. I am also very happy to speak with you about this or any other matter of faith or church life. 

Yours, in Christ’s service, 

Fr Simon, on behalf of the Rector, Parish wardens, deputy churchwardens and the clergy and staff team of the Solihull Parish.