Planned reopening of St Joseph's for private prayer: appeal for volunteers

As you may have seen in the media, churches are from next week able to open for private prayer, so long as it is deemed safe and that social distancing/sanitisation measures are in place. The Diocese has sent a number of instructions for us to follow. As St Joseph and St Francis Xavier's, Richmond, is the only one of our four churches able to carry out an "additional" infection safety control measure outlined by the Diocese, namely that people "enter and leave the church via separate doors," we're only planning for the opening of this Church for the moment.

We are currently in the process of submitting to the Diocese a plan for approval of how we might open St Joseph's from next Monday for individual prayer. For the moment, this would be for one hour only - each morning between 9am-10am.

We are appealing for volunteers to help make this possible. Stewards would be asked to help make sure things like hand sanitising and social distancing runs smoothly, and also to help clean surfaces after the periods when the Churches are open.

According to the instructions from the Diocese, stewards can't be those who have been asked to "shield" by their doctors or, "as a general rule, from groups considered more vulnerable to coronavirus" (e.g. those over 70, underlying health conditions as outlined by Government guidance).

If you'd like to volunteer, please contact Canon Michael (01748 822175,  stjosephandfrancisxavier@rcdmidd.org.uk) or Father Richard (01748 850141 richard.marsden@rcdmidd.org.uk).

God bless,

Canon Michael and Father Richard