Following Monday’s update from the government, the advice is now to avoid non-essential contact with others and unnecessary travel. People are being asked to avoid social venues, and the trustees feel that it is therefore responsible to suspend all Woody organised events in terms of physical gatherings  for the foreseeable future. The government are currently advising that these measures may be in place from anything from weeks to months and we will update our messages to Woody accordingly through this time. 

Therefore, in line with a recommendation made by the Baptist Union, for the time being this means that we will be suspending our Sunday services, as well as other meetings during the week (such as life groups and small groups). In addition, anything that Woody members are part of, but that is not organised by Woody, are likely to be impacted. However, we suggest that everyone follows any direct messages from those particular groups and only participates where they feel comfortable to do so. 

In the event that you need to self-isolate, please reach out to your life group or small group leaders to ask for help with shopping or other needs. If you are not part of a Life Group, please contact one of the elders or deacons. We are actively working on how to ensure good pastoral care for our whole fellowship at the current time. We need to be stronger together than ever before and supporting each other is going to be essential moving forward. Additionally, if you become aware of anyone around you that needs help and you are unable to provide assistance, please follow the above advice so that help can be provided where possible. 

We will be setting aside time where we can all join together to pray for this global situation and for those around us. Face to face meetings may be cancelled at the moment, but we are exploring alternative options available to us (including whether it might be practical for us to stream some material online each Sunday). Please keep an eye out for upcoming messages so that we can continue to meet as a fellowship during this challenging time. We continue to be church even when we cannot meet together and we retain our missional focus of sharing Christ’s love with those around us.