From prayers and theology to handy guides on how to get your church online, find them all here
Various teams around the Diocese of York have been hard at work putting together a variety of resources for you to use to worship, learn, and grow at home.
These resources have been compiled to be useful to a wide variety across the diocese, from prayers you can use for home worship, to links to help learning, and also ways that you can move your church to an online presence.
As the outbreak continues, we will be adding prayers to this list, which people can use for worship at home, or during live-streams of services.
Prayer for Lent 5 - 29th March, 2020
Passion at Home - Bishop David Wilbourne
Prayer for Palm Sunday - 5th April 2020
Prayers for Easter weekend - 10th-12th April 2020
The Education team in the Diocese of York have already put together a fantastic webpage full of resources for those who are educating at home, as well as links that point to general guidance on how to handle the Coronavirus outbreak with students.
Households and families have been thrown into disarray as schools have been closed to non-keyworker's children and churches and groups have sadly been shut down.
God remains the same though, even though as we experience fear, joy, confusion, boredom, relief, and whatever else may come. He longs for us to rest in his presence and draw comfort and inspiration from his almighty spirit.
They will be updated regularly, but if you find something that you think might be helpful to others, please let me know. (Carolyn.edwards@yorkdiocese.org)
If you are concerned about any members of your family that might be struggling with their mental health in these difficult days, then please see the digest of available resources and organisations that can help on our Diocesan web pages.
We have produced a set of resources, called Holy Week @ Home for use during Holy week to help households explore the Easter story from Palm Sunday to Easter day, and create an Easter garden.
With the suspension of public worship, churches will be dependent on the generosity of others as they themselves are able to be generous to the wider community at this time. The Top Tips in the below link have been put together to help explore ways to retain sustainability and serve our community during this difficult time. Each suggestion has a resource attached to help you further.
Follow this link for the Generosity and Stewardship resources page
Follow this link for up to date news on our Generosity and Stewardship team
From Director of Training for Missional Ministry, Gavin Wakefield:
"We have been provided with some very helpful liturgical and prayer resources as we handle the situation created by the COVID-19 outbreak. I have noticed that as we get used to the new practicalities there is also a hunger for theological reflection, both on the current circumstances and also on what this might say about how church might be on the other side of the crisis.
What follows is an eclectic and possibly idiosyncratic collection of theological resources under a number of headings, first helping us make sense of the present, then looking to the future. On the last pages are some open ended questions.
A few colleagues have already added items to my original list – thank you! Please feel free to let me know of other resources, and indeed to suggest further headings for material. Please contact me via gavin.wakefield@yorkdiocese.org"
Click here to download the full Theological Resources document
With the country stuck at home for the foreseeable future, it’s now more important than ever for the church to get its message of hope to the people. But with services closed and social distancing encouraged, it can be hard to think what can be done. Enter the age of technology. Live-streaming prayers, reflections and offices from people's homes or vicarages needn’t be daunting, with user friendly technology more accessible than ever, you can easily get your services to the congregations at home.
Click here for the full resources page
Click here for a downloadable resources page
We are continuing to provide support for all our properties, and can be reached by the usual phone numbers (which are on divert as necessary)
Do call if you have any issues that we might be able to help or advise on.
At present, we are only able to provide an Emergency Response from a limited number of contractors.
As defined by the Government guidelines:
If you are not sure, then do ask.
Out of hours, please call Jamie on 07719 049909
With the current Coronavirus outbreak meaning people are unable to find help and support, or even possibly leave a difficult situation, the Safeguarding Team at the Diocese have put together a couple of useful notes for people to use.
For those who are concerned about domestic abuse, whether it is happening to you, someone you know, or you suspect it might be happening, they have put together a document that lists a number of sites and phone numbers to be used as a resource.
Download the Domestic Abuse and Mental Health document here.