| To get to our online services, click here. You can always find them by going to our website: www.cranbourneanglican.org.au/online-service. If you’d like to join us for a virtual morning tea (video conferencing) 11am Sunday the 15th of November, click here at 11am Sunday. Meeting ID: 291 757 7519 Password: 444240 |
Dear church family,
The good news is – we can start meeting on a Sunday again! The quick facts:Christ Church Tooradin
Services will start on Sunday the 29th of November at 9am (limited to 15 people under the Four Square Metre rule);
St John’s Cranbourne
Services will start on Sunday the 6th of December (limited to about 50 people per service) at:
- 8:30am Traditional Prayer Book Service
- 10:30am for families, including kids program; and
- 6pm
Praise God that we are once again able meet together! I’m sure you have many questions! Here’s some answers:
I have friends in other churches that have already started, why aren’t we starting straight away?
The short answer is because our numbers are larger than some churches. At the moment we are allowed 20 people in two separated socially distanced groups of ten. It’s just not practical to run the amount of services we’d need to run to fit everyone in. We could run services outside, but logistically this is challenging, and with the weather so changeable (showers today, 33 degrees tomorrow!) we think it’s better to wait the couple of weeks to meet inside.
I heard the number allowed inside after the 22nd of November are 100 – why are our services limited to about 50?
Government restrictions are easing further on the 23rd of November, but the rules are pretty complex to apply in the church setting. There’s a lot of detail under the headline figures. Although we’re allowed up to 100 on site, we are only allowed to gather in groups of 20 indoors (separated by 5m). We can only get two groups of 20 in the church, but we’ve opened up the back and can get another 10-15 there, giving us about 50 in total.
So why wait until the 6th to get St John’s started?
Often with the government announcements there have been surprises in the details, so we’re starting Tooradin first on the 29th and then St John’s on the 6th to give us time to make any adjustments and to get the large number of volunteers needed at St John’s up and running. It’s also important that I as vicar can be at Tooradin’s re-opening which would be impossible if we start on the same Sunday. I’d like to pay tribute to the leaders at Tooradin for their solidarity with St John’s – as a smaller church they could have started earlier but they wanted to be in this together with the rest of the parish.
The 10:30 service normally has over 100 people – how’s that going to work?
Not everyone who normally goes to the 10:30am will be able to fit, so we’re splitting that congregation into two meeting at 10:30am and 6pm. All our services will need to be booked and we’ll have an online booking service to ensure we don’t get too many people to each service. We’ll be running the kids program at the 10:30am service and so will prioritise that service for those with pre-school and primary school aged kids, asking others to come at 6pm.
Why is the 9am moving to 8:30am?
We will need to move our usual 9am service half an hour earlier both to allow for COVID-safe cleaning between it and the 10:30am and also to ensure everyone from the early service is gone before the new congregation comes in. We can’t move the 10:30am later as it impinges then on lunch times when children are hungry and not always at their best!
Our Wednesday service has already started!
It was wonderful to be able to have our first Wednesday service at St John’s for those not online. Everything was a bit different with parishoners escorted to their seats (like a high class restaurant!), having to sit at particular spots in the pew, a shortened service and communion from individual cups to keep everything COVID-safe. When we all get back to church things will look very different! But it will be wonderful to be together again.
See you soon!
In Christ,
Sam Bleby
Minister | Parish of Cranbourne
St John’s Cranbourne | Christ Church Tooradin
Parish Council
Parish Council met last Tuesday and was the last formal Council meeting for two of our councillors who will not be standing for election at our Annual Meeting – Bebin Thomas and Peter Giles. I would like to pay tribute to the excellent and godly way these two have served us this year. Indeed, I’d like to thank all our parish councillors for their wise counsel and leadership as we’ve navigated extraordinary times together. This last meeting for our main business we:
- Passed the budget to be presented at our Annual Meeting;
- had an update on the search for an assistant minister (announcements in the next few weeks – watch this space!); and
- considered the government regulations and planned for how best to approach re-opening the church.
Annual Meeting
Our Annual Meeting is on Sunday the 29th of November at 11am – meeting mainly online (those who are not online are able to come to St John’s and attend in person). Put it in the diary now!
Online Bible Study
Now that we’ve started the Wednesday service for those not online, we’re moving our Wednesday online bible study a little later to 11:15am so I can get there in good time. Whether you’ve logged on before or not, all are welcome – just click on the link below at 11:15am this Wednesday.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2917577519?pwd=VmJMOThNcmFWSHdKUEEwOVFCQVFTUT09
Meeting ID: 291 757 7519
Passcode: 444240
Rising Eagles Youth
Rising Eagles Youth are on again this coming Friday. If you are high school-aged you are very welcome!
This Week
| Mon | 7:30pm Youth leader training |
| Wed | 10am church for those not onllne, and 11:30AM Online Bible Study |
| Fri | 7pm Youth |
| Sun | Church service from 9am, and 11am Virtual Morning Tea |