Church Reopening

Wonderful news – the Church is re-opening

We have some great news! As Covid-19 is abating, we feel it will be safe to open the church again for services from September 6^th onwards. It will be a phased re-opening, starting on September 6^th for 9 am Holy Communion, with online 10:30 am services continuing for the foreseeable future.

The 9 am Holy Communion service will be every Sunday in September (and will not be streamed to the internet), and the 10:30 am services will hopefully restart with Harvest festival on September 27^th and continuing from there (these services will be streamed to the internet).

To enable us to keep everyone safe and keep the desired maximum social distance, attendance at the 9 am Holy Communion service will be by invitation only and restricted for fairness to those who have been unable to join us in our weekly services over the internet. If we find we have extra spaces, we will offer these spaces to the whole church via a booking system, which will inform everyone about. When the 10:30 am services start these will be via the booking system, again which we will inform you about. To keep everyone safe there will be certain rules that we will ask everyone to adhere to.

These are:

• Please arrive in good time before the service wearing a mask
• Someone may only be exempt from wearing a mask if they have a medical reason. These include:
  • Children younger than 2 years old
  • Anyone who has trouble breathing
  • Anyone who is unconscious, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to remove the mask without assistance​
• Please use the bathroom and wash your hands before you arrive at church
• Please be prepared to queue 6 feet apart from each other to come in
• Please sanitize your hands as you enter
• Please sit where you will be directed to keep us all 6 feet apart
• Please keep your mask on throughout the service (except when taking communion)
• We are not allowed to sing, so we won’t be singing
• In the Communion service, Communion will be given with people standing 6 feet apart
• Communion will be in bread only, given silently
• The Vicar must take the wine on everyone’s behalf, so you will be considered to have taken full communion
• The Vicar will touch everything as little as possible and sanitize hands througout
• Please leave in a socially distanced manner and sanitize your hands on the way out

Thank you!

I am so sorry we have to have all these rules, but they are government rules and we want to keep everyone as safe as possible. Thank you for your patience as we have waited until we felt we had a safe enough system in place. This will be reviewed towards the end of September and whatever changes needed for October put in place.

I look forward to seeing you again face-to-face!

With much love and blessings,

Sharon x

welcome

Hello, and a warm welcome to Christ Church Orpington. 

We are a local Church of England congregation that serves the people of Orpington. We're based on Charterhouse Road, where we meet on Sundays and throughout the week.

We welcome people of all ages and hope that we speak words and demonstrate actions that are relevant to your everyday life. In this respect, we trust that our Sunday services offer a warm welcome and are time well spent. Time to spend with God, time to think about the priorities of life. A time where we can grow in relationship with others. 

All ages are included at Christ Church and our morning services provide a crèche facility for the littlest. There are also activities for children from 3-year-olds to teenagers. 

However, the church is not just about Sundays and we are actively involved in local schools, community action projects, summer holiday clubs, and community clubs for the elderly. 

We hope you'll take the opportunity to visit us. Perhaps you might join us for one of our services, our outreach events, or social activities. Do introduce yourself. We hope you will find a home among us and know God's blessing for your life.

safeguarding