Eastertide Update: St John's Hoxton & COVID-19

It’s been a while since our last update, and we wanted to summarise what’s going on in church life during this period of lockdown. We begin with a short message from our Vicar, Revd Graham Hunter:

Sundays

We gather online every Sunday morning at 10.30am to worship together as a church family. The service includes a mixture of pre-recorded contributions from members of the church, as well as live broadcast from Revd Graham at St John's Vicarage.You can watch the service online at our website hereor you can also watch it and interact by watching on Facebook Live here.(We also broadcast morning prayer every weekday at 9am on Facebook Live.)

Keeping In Touch

We’re really keen to keep in touch with one another as a church - so that people are not forgotten or neglected. If you want to be kept up-to-date with church life, here’s a quick summary of our main communication channels:

• Website - we will keep on issuing little updates here: www.stjohnshoxton.org.uk/news
• Facebook Group - we have a Facebook group where we post information about activities, groups and services, as well as helpful resources for prayer and worship - www.facebook.com/groups/stjohnshoxton 
• Facebook Page - we also post more public information at our page - www.facebook.com/stjohnshoxton 
• WhatsApp - we have a WhatsApp group which is for sending out information only - there’s not ‘chat’ function - so you can join it without worrying about getting overwhelmed by messages - sign up here.
• COVID-19 Care Team - we have recruited a team of volunteers who are making weekly phonecalls to check in with members. If you’ve not received a phonemail, please check your contact details are up-to-date at MyChurchSuite
• MyChurchSuite - this is our church family database - you can login to join Connect Groups, manage your contact info, listen to sermons, and manage your giving.   

Children & Youth

We’re doing what we can to support children and youth during this time. We’re aiming to run meet-ups for children and youth every Sunday and once during the week.

• Kids on Sundays: Diddy Disciples meets before the service at 9.30am // Kids meet during the service at around 11am for about 25 minutes. Email the children's team for details of how to register.
• Youth on Sundays: Youth meet after the morning service at about 11.45am for about half an hour. Email the youth team for details of how to register.
• Kids midweek: Kids are meeting weekly at 4pm on a Thursday afternoon. Email the children's team for details of how to register.
• Youth midweek: Streetlevel Hangout continues weekly at 5pm for about an hour. Email the youth team for details of how to register.

Here are some resources that might also support families in practising their faith together at home:Diddy DisciplesFriends & HeroesGoing4Growth - Faith In The HomeFacebook Page: At Home With GodFacebook Page: Worship for Everyone

Using Zoom

We're using Zoom - a video conferencing application - for our online Connect Groups, Youth / Kids groups, Alpha and Cafe hangouts. Zoom has become very popular in recent weeks, and there are lots of guides online for how to use it. Here's one short video (less that 5 minutes) to help you get started.There have been some concerns about security. Please note, we are ensuring that all our meeting are password protected, and that information about meetings is only distributed to people who have registered for a group, and the password sent only to members on our church database. This blog summarises the guidance that we've been following.

Connect Groups / Alpha

There are currently 6 Connect Groups meeting weekly on various days and at various times. We would love to invite everyone in our church family to join an online Connect Group - for friendship, bible study and prayer support.Explore the groups and sign up here.We're also running an online Alpha course for anyone who would like to explore Christian faith at this time - if you have a friend or neighbour who would be interested, please invite them to attend.Information and sign up here.

Offering / Getting Help

We're doing all we can to care for vulnerable members of our church family and wider neighbourhood. We've created a simple form where you can offer or request help. This is for church members AND the wider neighbourhood - please share it with people in need. And if you can volunteer help, complete the form as well.Offer / Get Help.

Worship at Home

There are loads of amazing resources to help you worship at home. Here’s a list of a few websites you might like to visit:Church of England servicesChurch of England Daily PrayerHTB at Home - Catch UpJohn has been making some wonderful recordings of some of our favourite worship songs for us to use on Sundays at at home. They're available below.We're also putting together some (much less polished!) recordings of some actions songs for kids and families to use. They're available here.