Bishop Mark and our own Father Chris (president of the Council of Advice) issued a recent statement regarding the coronavirus that concluded: “Caring for each other and for all the people of God means being careful in the midst of an epidemic. With a reasonable amount of caution we can keep our people, our communities, and those we serve healthy—and continue to minister to those who are ill and in need of our care.”

Last weekend’s decision to cancel all in-person services and public events at St. Augustine’s was still our own. Effective today, Wednesday March 18 up to and including Sunday April 19 this now has the force of law. An edict issued yesterday by the Hessen State Government prohibits all assemblies in houses of worship during this period, which sadly therefore includes Holy Week and Easter.

This means that: 

1. All in-person worship services in Wiesbaden and Mainz are suspended up to April 19.
2. All Sunday and weekday formation at church (children, youth, and adult) and all physical meetings are suspended up to April 19.
3. The Book Sale and Nearly New are also suspended up to April 19.
4. The Clean-up day planned for Saturday March 28 will be rescheduled to a later date

The regulation permits “alternative forms of faith expression” and allows us to open the building for individual prayer. We will continue with our online and telephone offerings:

• Wednesday Bible Study via video conference at 11:00 am
• Friday Stations and Lenten Course via video conference
• Sunday morning worship (MP or HE) at 10.00 am as a broadcast (Live or recorded): Facebook, YouTube, website ….

The Vestry and Fathers Douglas, Steve and Chris have already started calling thosethsoe who live alone or belong to the one of the more vulnerable groups. We are also identifying volunteers for our “errand ministry”  (helping those who feel unable to leave their homes with shopping, post office runs, etc.). Please let us know if you would like to use that service or can help with it.