Closed yet Open

The doors of the church of St John the Baptist Barlaston have been locked since the middle of March this year. No Sunday services, no Tots Toddler Group, no Mosaic young people’s Sunday group and no meetings.

Closed yet Open – thanks to the power of the internet. I wonder what lockdown would have been like if we had not been able to get in touch so easily with our friends, or order our food delivery or get yet another Amazon order. Amazon for me has been a life saver. I’m not quite sure what I would have done without it.

Long before the lockdown we as church sent weekly emails to our members and friends of the church, keeping people well informed of all that goes on the life of the local church.

This method of communication has become so much more important in this Coronavirus time. We have been able to keep in touch with many of the church families. Over 100 people have received emails each week, this not only includes those who worship on a Sunday but also the families of the Tuesday Tots Toddler Group. We have received many notes saying thank you for keeping in touch.

Does no church on Sunday mean an end to sermons? No! Well they are called Reflections and are published every week on the church website. Everyone is so grateful to our Vicar, Stewart Jones who has communicated this way each week.

But that’s not all, the Vicarage Production Team (does help when your family are in lockdown with you) have produced several excellent videos. On Easter Sunday nearly 200 people viewed the video on YouTube. The VE Day 75th Anniversary video was viewed over 170 times, the Pentecost video of 31st May has been watched over 50 times. You can add to these figures those who watch the weekly Tots videos done by Sue Croome. Our Organist, Chris Burton has been busy too and provided a number of videos of piano worship.

The church Facebook group has received a lot of visitors, and it currently has 80 members. The church web page has had visitors from USA, Australia, Canada, France, India, Italy, Ireland and South Africa.

We must not forget the 50. These are those church members who as far as we know do not have access to the internet. Have we forgotten them? No. Stewart has been regularly phoning church members and letters have been posted to this group of 50.

Closed – NO. Open – YES!

Dennis Croome, Churchwarden and Reader.

https://stjohnsbarlaston.co.uk/