A message from your village volunteers

On Wednesday evening, some amazing volunteers from Willingham Helpers delivered 60 packages of loaves and crumpets to village residents. The lovely food came with compliments from Warburton's bakery, with Angela Wright coordinating the delivery. It was great to see so many people (from a safe 2 metre distance), and brighten up their days! Thank you to all involved!

If you can't leave your house or are worried about anything during this time, please contact us at Willingham Helpers. We can collect shopping, post letters or parcels, walk your dog, check in with a friendly chat or anything that will take the pressure of you at this time. Please contact us at 01427 788157 and we'll put one of our volunteers in touch.

Watch out for George the T-Rex at 11.30 each day

Local & National Coronavirus information
Available here

Following the Government’s instructions
St Helen’s church is now closed until further notice.
But we are still ‘open’ in so many different ways!
Why not connect with us via our FaceBook Page
Our website - www.willinghambystow.co.uk/church/
Or via our prayer line by emailing prayertoshare@gmail.com
You can contact our Priest in Charge
Rev’d Nicola Penn-Allison on 01522 702427
or via email – Nicola.penn-allison@lincoln.anglican.org
The Post Office at Stow will open at the usual time until further notice.
Thank you – and please stay in touch!

Willingham Helpers

Are you unable to leave your home or concerned about leaving your home due to Coronavirus?
Or do you feel like you need some support during this time?

We’re a group of village residents who can help:
• Collect shopping
• Pick up prescriptions
• Run errands
• Walk your dog
• Post mail
• Cut your grass
• Check in with a friendly phone call

If there’s anything we can do to help, please contact us (Alice, Barney and Chris Fogg) at:

Email: willinghamhelpers@gmail.com
Phone: 01427 788157

And we’ll link you up with one of our volunteers!

If you’d like to volunteer in any way,
please contact us and let us know.

The Willingham Surgery Facebook page has the latest health advice.

This information has been circulated by The NHS and Public Health England

Coronavirus (COVID-19)
The NHS and Public Health England (PHE) are extremely well prepared for outbreaks of new infectious diseases. The NHS has put in place measures to ensure the safety of all patients and NHS staff while also ensuring services are available to the public as normal.
Stay at home if you have coronavirus symptoms
Stay at home for 7 days if you have either:

• • a high temperature – you feel hot to touch on your chest or back
• • a new, continuous cough – this means you've started coughing repeatedly

Do not go to a GP surgery, pharmacy or hospital.
You do not need to contact 111 to tell them you're staying at home.
Testing for coronavirus is not needed if you're staying at home.
Read the advice about staying at home.
Use the NHS 111 online coronavirus service if:

• • you feel you cannot cope with your symptoms at home
• • your condition gets worse
• • your symptoms do not get better after 7 days

Use the 111 coronavirus service

Only call 111 if you cannot get help online.

For region specific information and advice in:

• • England
• . Wales
• . Scotland
• . Northern Ireland
• . Ireland

Message from Rev’d Nicola and Rev’d Gillian 17th March 2020

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
We are sorry to have to announce that, following advice from the Archbishop of Canterbury, we have to suspend all acts of public worship in our churches. Our churches are remaining open as usual, but we are not permitted to gather for worship at this time.
We will be working on preparing resources for worship and prayer to be used at home. We will distribute these to you as soon as possible. In the meantime, if you are on the internet you may wish to look at the list of information and websites below (from the Church of England Website). In addition to these, those with smart phones and tablets might also like to try apps such as: ‘Daily Prayer’ and ‘pray as you go’. We think they are both free, but if you would like to read the lectionary bible readings for each Sunday then you might like to pay for the ‘Sunday worship’ app (or simply email us and we will give you the Bible references for free!)
Sadly, this is likely to impact upon our Holy Week and Easter services and events. This really is sad as we were so looking forward to spending time journeying through Holy Week to our Lord’s death and then celebrating, together, the joy of his resurrection. But in many ways Holy Week will be all the more poignant to us as we find our way through this holiest of times without being able to meet together as ‘church’ and family in these parishes. We may often wonder what it was like for the disciples in those hours and days after Jesus died – their leader killed and their hopes dashed.
But God’s act of salvation through the resurrection of Jesus Christ was creative and unexpected, and I hope that we will be able to discover new ways to be church as we explore different and diverse ways to maintain our worshipping presence within the parishes. Who knows, we may even discover the wonders of ‘live streaming’ before Holy Week – which could at least provide some access for those with internet connections.
So, while we may not meet together, we can still be church together – through prayer and telephone conversations and other forms of contact. Please stay in touch with us and your church wardens so we can give you updates, and so we can hear how you are and whether there is anything you need. As a reminder, our contact details are below. In the meantime, be assured of our prayers (as we feel assured of yours) and our commitment to keep worship alive in these churches by any means we can manage. Keep checking the church websites and Facebook pages for updates.
God bless,
Rev’d Nicola and Rev’d Gillian

Rev’d Nicola – 01522 702427; Nicola.penn-allison@lincoln.anglican.org
Rev’d Gillian - 01522 702436; gillianstevens111@outlook.com