Coronavirus Co-vid19
Public worship in the Church of England has been restored from 4 July. Not every parish or church has been able to meet Government regulations or national church guidance in full and so the result will be a bit patchy across the Church of England for some time to come. The maximum number of people allowed at public worship at St Mary's Church is currently 30. At all other times and in all other circumstances the Rule of Six applies and no more than six people can be present in church. We are not currently offering the facility to light candles.
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Whilst the Church Hall remains closed and there is no access to the kitchen or the toilets at all, Both the weekday and Sunday Mass has been restored at St Mary's.
At St Mary's, we have decided to offer three Masses for Sundays:
The first Mass of Sunday is aimed at our Junior Church and is at 4.30pm on Saturday afternoons.
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On Sundays, we offer an 11am Mass and a 4.30pm Mass (as opposed to our usual 10am and 5pm services.)
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To attend the Saturday afternoon Mass or either of the Masses on Sunday, you will need to pre-book with Father Dane. You can message him or telephone and he will come back to you to confirm that there's space.
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The weekday Masses have been restored at their usual times:
Tuesday, 7pm
Wednesday, 11.30am
Thursday, 10am
Friday, 11am
Saturday, 10am
No pre-booking is required for weekday Masses.
October's Newsletter is available for download here in booklet form or here as single pages.
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The present limit of 30 attendees applies to Mass, and all funerals; at weddings the maximum is 15 and at Baptisms, Confirmation and all other 'Lifecycle Events' the Rule of Six applies. This is an absolute limited and cannot be varied.
Serving Swanley since 1901
St Mary the Virgin Swanley serves the town of Swanley, building up the Kingdom of God through Word, Sacrament and service. It is firmly anchored in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of the Church of England and is a Forward in Faith parish, under the Episcopal care of the Bishop of Richborough.
All Souls 2020
We normally have an evening Sung Mass to which we invite members of the families for whose relatives we have done funerals throughout the year. This year, it is not possible for us to do that.
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Instead we will have a period in the afternoon of Monday 2nd November when relatives will be invited into church for prayer and reflection. The 'rule of six' will apply, except for acts of public worship, so that families can be sure of their safety when coming into church.
Safeguarding
Making sure the whole Church family is safe is an important part of what we do here. Full details can be found here.
Annual Meetings 2020
The Annual Meeting of Parishioners and Annual Parochial Church Meeting will be held on Wednesday 14th October at 7.30pm via Zoom. Login details are available from Fr Dane.
Daily Prayers
A useful rule of life can involve the saying of prayers each day when we wake and before we go to sleep. These prayers don't have to be long, in a set form or use big words. Some people find a daily routine helps them and others do prefer having a set of prayers which they know other Christians throughout the world are using. One such resource is called Universalis and on this site you'll find prayers for the whole day - along with the readings used at Mass - which are shared by Christians throughout the world.
We are a family of faith
We live & work
and grow & pray
together
Our faith is centred on Jesus Christ
and his sacrifice for us.
We seek to live the love of God which is given to us in the Lord.
Thank you to our supporters
St Mary's gets no money from the government,
no money from local councils
and no money from the central church.
Every penny we spend has to come from people and businesses
who dig deep to support our work - and we're grateful to them all.