A warm hello to everyone, including those from St Andrew’s who have no idea who is sending them a smile but I hope will still welcome it. My family and I live close to church and in July 2020 we deployed to socially distance our pews.
Not easy to see in the pictures below but the pews are indeed carefully placed at 2m increments! All those beautiful tapestry kneelers have also been carefully concealed from any itinerant germs.
A large number of pews were evicted to the hall with gurgles, grunts and careful calculations. So please come and visit the church, when you feel ready, and know the pews are all 2 metres apart and that groups can sit at each end of a pew with 2 metres between them. The aim is to make the beneficial distancing easier to attain and wow does it making cleaning easier too. But my apologies that the physical support offered by a pew in front of you has been removed (NOTE the front pew on the left still has support from the front rest). Yep, cleaning has also upped a level and initially an intriguing level of brown (years of polish) was lifted from the pews, with the regular application of Dettol spray, to my relief with no apparent detriment to the wood. Stopping oneself from ruminating that surely this rubbing should be to add polish is a recurring entertainment. Another amusing one for cleaning is the gauntlets for toilet ablutions, yes, a difficult one, but if you can avoid using the toilet in church this really assists with keeping us all safe. Please know that the Vestry has carefully considered the Covid guidance, aimed to implement it and received approval of the resultant plan.
We are each the key to our wellbeing. Most importantly know that behind those masks there are smiles for you. Plus laughter that our hands-free sanitisers are not up to the job and we must risk contact with a common surface to obtain the safe elixir. Those ‘Welcome’ signs dotting our church floor remind us to please keep 2m apart. Remember as you leave church that those in the back pews should depart first – frustratingly there is not actually 2 metres from the edge of the pews to the centre of the aisle (Yes, I did indeed measure it! Yes otherwise the guidance requires that you leave from the front by the side exit – ours not to reason why…).
Having rearranged the pews I could not get my kids and husband out of the church as they outdid each other with taxing Bible readings from our beloved eagle. We added a lot of laughter to the church that day but the prevailing feeling is always one of honed love and prayer. I believe that a web extends to encompass us all, and whether or not you attend to admire that careful 2m planning, know that you are a part of St Mary’s and loved.
A socially distanced hug and yet another smile,
Frederica Stephens