Circuit Statement

Circuit Statement on Thursday 20th January 2022

By Reverend Sean C. C. Adair, Superintendent Minister

Hello everyone.

Yesterday, Wednesday 19th January 2022, at Prime Minister's Question Time in the House of Lords and in the Government's evening briefing, we were given indications that the present wave of the omicron variant of the Coronavirus pandemic had peaked and that we would be moving over the next weeks and months to a place where our lives would be a lot less affected by the range of social controls we have necessarily had to have in place. This is good news, and we welcome it.

In the absence of any direct comment from the Connexional Team of our Church as yet, and given the likelihood that over the days to come the popular press will be filled with messages that it's all over and that we can go back to life as normal, I want to invite us to be sensible and to recognise that while the indications are good in terms of the direction of travel that we seem to be on, we are not quite out of the woods as yet.

I am therefore encouraging us to continue to love our neighbours, especially our medically vulnerable and elderly neighbours. I recommend continued and appropriate levels of caution to prevail for some weeks to come, as the situation continues to develop. It continues to be the case that the ultimate decision about how we operate our buildings and activities is within the gift of each Local Church, and I simply ask that in making our local decisions we recognise the need to protect the most vulnerable in our congregations and other gatherings by the adoption of helpful behaviour by everyone. Continued use of face coverings and hand sanitisation is still recommended until at least the end of January and can be reviewed after that time.

Thank you for listening to this short message and may the Lord bless us with wisdom and lavish grace as we continue to journey with him through these tough days.

God bless,

Sean