COMMENT / The Rt Revd Libby Lane, Bishop of Stockport on Towards a Safer Church: resources for prayer and reflection in worship

Women made up the majority of deacons ordained in the Church of England last year for the first time, according to new statistics published today.

Churches offering services from the Book of Common Prayer are seeing unprecedented engagement with hundreds choosing to ‘tune in’ to more traditional offerings. 

Following a recent announcement that places of worship could reopen for individual private prayer from June 15, the Government has now revised the date in guidance just published to June 13.

Places of worship will reopen for public worship from 2nd December

The Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally, chair of the Church of England’s Recovery Group, has released a statement on individual prayer in churches.

Since the government announced that public worship in churches could restart after more than three months of lockdown, churches have been taking innovative steps to help keep their congregations as safe as possible:

Prayer services dating back to the early days of Christianity have enjoyed a big revival at a Middlesex church during the pandemic.

A prayer ahead of Racial Justice Sunday this week written by Revd Dr Anderson Jeremiah, a member of the Archbishops’ Anti-Racism Taskforce.

An online Community of Prayer is to be launched after a cathedral saw digital worship numbers soar after Covid-19 restrictions came into force.