Even if churches are closed for public worship, the indoor space can still be used. This page offers several ways you can make the indoor space of your church available over the Christmas season.
Churches can remain open for individual private prayer. So we can still create space for the stressed and worn out and also those who want to celebrate in church in some way – create a period of time in church just to come and sit in a sacred space, listen to quiet music, pray, perhaps appreciate Christmas art, read Christmas poems, and hear Bible readings.
- This ‘Remembering Tree’ idea from St Barnabas in Dulwich can be used at All Souls’ or Christmas and acknowledges those who will be grieving and gives them a place to remember inside the church.
- Churches might not reopen until December 6th at the earliest and then just as before, numbers allowed to come in to a physical service will be restricted. That is ok – simply use your usual system for keeping numbers under control for a safe gathering and keep track of any new guidance on the Church of England page.
- To open up the service to more people, consider live streaming or recording it for broadcast at a later time. If you’re new to this, you may find it helpful to watch this webinar about live streaming and recording funeral services, as many of the tips and principles are just the same.
- If it’s not possible to host a live service, you may consider creating a recording of the worship leader(s) delivering the service, ready for broadcast on the days leading up to Christmas and on the day itself. You can advertise and invite as many contacts as you like to watch this and you’ll have full control of the broadcast content.
- This short, humorous presentation is ideal for a young children’s slot in Christmas service recording or live service.
- Here’s a very simple ‘countdown’ prayer idea using the characters from the nativity.
