Church reopens for private prayer from Wed 24 June
The church will reopen for private prayer only from Wednesday 24 June
I am delighted to say that the church will re-open next Wednesday. As with all churches, working in accordance with government guidelines, we shall be opening for private prayer only. We are opening the Lady Chapel which will be accessed by the priest's door and there will be a marked route to the west end of the church where there will be an opportunity to light candles in remembrance of those who have died and for other prayer intentions. As we are uncertain what impact this will have, and in order to follow necessary hygiene expectations which keep everybody safe, we shall be opening for a few hours (10.00 til 2.00) on four days week (Wed - Sat) to begin with. We can relax this and open for longer and on more days as we get used to how this works.
We felt that the Lady Chapel is the place that most people would wish to have open and we will monitor the numbers coming in and revise our plans if we need to. There will be very clear signage from outside (both north and south sides) to ensure everyone knows how to get in.
This is a wonderful moment in the life of SMR: a real visible sign of the recovery from the turbulent times we have been living through. I am very aware that some people (possibly many people) had hoped we would open earlier, and it's marvellous that everything is on track (despite significant floods in the Undercroft and parish office yesterday) for Wednesday morning.
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Kingdoms of Europe card game, circa 1895 Jaques & Son, 102 Hatton Garden, London
Preached by the Revd Dr Brutus Green
Preached by Canon Dr Stephen Spencer
Preached by Canon Dr Stephen Spencer
The diocesan synod, as well as receiving all the usual reports from bishop's council, general synod and the diocesan board of education, heard that if everyone increased financial giving by the cost of one cup of coffee per week, the diocese's shortfall would be eliminated! The diocesan strategy, Transforming Church Together, TCT, was also discussed at length. The strategy can be summarised as: following Jesus, serving others, transforming communities. It is intended to enable churches to become more open and inclusive, and thereby, to achieve growth. Good news stories were heard of how the strategy had worked in practice, such as helping to turn a church around to make it much more effective in its local area, and on better terms with its neighbouring schools. The synod heard that, while, sadly, funding for Carbon Net Zero was paused at the end of 2025, due to financial constraints, work, intentions and commitment in this area has not ceased, and it is saving money on utility bills as a result. The synod voted to adopt the ten year financial plan. A written question was submitted about the need to increase diversity: the best we can come up with so far is... choose people to do things who are not like you, ask someone different! I shall attempt to do a short summary of each synod which I attend. I shall also undertake to write up all of last year's synods, in one document, but this involves condensing every set of minutes into a paragraph or so, and given that each is the size of a small book, that's quite difficult to do. We need four new deanery synod rep's, so please all put your names forward and be elected at the APCM. Thank you. Auriol Britton 21.03.2026
Preached by the Revd Dr Brutus Green
