Tadcaster Benefice

​The churches of our benefice will be open for private prayer on Saturday 4th July. 
 

• 9-12pm St Mary’s, Tadcaster
• 9-12pm St Mary’s, Kirk Fenton
• 12-1pm St Andrew’s, Newton Kyme
• 1-3pm St John the Baptist, Kirkby Wharfe and Ulleskelf.

 
The churches will have someone present to assist you during your visit.  Each church will have their own constraints on how many people may enter church at the same time, and during busy periods may have to impose a time limit on how long people may stay in church.  On entry to church you will be requested to pick up an information sheet, please take this with you on exit.
 
We are awaiting detailed guidance on the opening of churches for services, and will have more details on this when the information becomes available.

​Following the national decision to allow churches to re-open for private prayer, we have received some more detailed guidance on how this may be possible.
 
All of the churches of the Tadcaster Benefice are committed to opening for private prayer as soon as is practically possible and once we have ensured that it can be done safely. There are lot of things to consider and a lot of practical things to be done and this will take some time.
 
Our current aim is for our PCCs to consider detailed plans for each building within the next couple of weeks and for our churches to open for private prayer – subject to approval – for the first time on Saturday 4th July. Just like shops which have reopened this week, numbers allowed into church will have to be limited.
 
Initially, each church will be open for a short period of between 1 and 3 hours each Saturday. This will allow us to ensure that everyone is kept safe and that appropriate cleaning can take place each week.
 
We are very aware that there are many people who want to be able to come into church and pray. Whilst church is closed, there are many people praying at home, in their gardens, whilst out walking and in all sorts of places. You do not have to be in a church building in order to pray! Our prayers, Sunday services and other activities together continue on Zoom and Facebook Live and details can be found on our website (www.stmarystadcaster.co.uk), our social media content and in the notice sheet.
 
We are here for you. If there is anything that you want prayer for or if you just want to chat to someone, please get in touch.
 
God bless,
 
Reverend Simon Biddlestone

​The government has announced that church buildings will be permitted to open for private prayer from 15th June. This announcement means that each of the churches of the Tadcaster Benefice are able to consider this limited reopening of our buildings.
 
This news has come with very short notice – and earlier than had previously been indicated – and we need to ensure that there has been proper time to plan and that all of our Churchwardens and Parochial Church Councils (PCCs) have had time to discuss what is going to happen.
 
We are awaiting clarification and advice from the Church of England nationally and from the Diocese of York over the coming days as to how best to respond to this announcement. We will update you when we have further information to share. It is highly unlikely that any of our buildings will be ready to open on 15th June.
 
It is important that we get the balance right. We need to protect our volunteers who would need to open and close the buildings, do thorough cleaning and sanitizing and be there as required when the building is open, and we also need to protect the people who want to come and pray. Equally, we know just how special our churches are to people and we know that there will be people who very much want to be able to come into a special and sacred space to pray. We will make our churches available for individual prayer as soon as we safely can.
 
Throughout the closure of our churches, prayers and services have continued in people’s homes and gardens and on Zoom. All of this will continue when our churches open for individual prayer and we will keep you updated via social media, our website and the notice sheet.
 
We are praying for you and we are here to support you. Please get in touch if you want a chat, if you have any comments about church reopening or if there is anything that you want us to pray for.
 
God bless,
 
Reverend Simon Biddlestone (Curate)