From plagues to coronavirus: Historic Wolverhampton church keeps the faith in crisis
“St Peters has been here for over 1,000 years and through plagues and disasters, the church has survived.”
That is the message from Rector of St Peters in Wolverhampton Rev. David Wright as he told how the church, like many others in the region, will keep the faith during the coronavirus crisis.
Since churches were permitted to reopen at the beginning of July, staff and volunteers at St Peters Church has worked to ensure people attending the church can feel safe in their surroundings.
All visitors are required to wear masks when entering the 10th century church, hand sanitising stations have been set up at both entrances and a one-way system is in operation.
The church has also hosted online services and open-air coffee mornings.
Rector of the church Rev. David Wright detailed some of the arrangements the church had made to comply with safety standards.
He said: “The first thing we did was ensure we could maintain appropriate social distancing in the church through a fairly detailed assessment of which seats we could and couldn’t use.
“From there, we clearly marked out areas in the pews so that people knew exactly where they could and couldn’t sit.
“As well as the hand gel for people entering and leaving the church, we also clean the seats with anti-viral spray, removed all soft furnishings and removed as much paper as we could.”
People attending the church during the day have been able to take time for private prayer or just to sit and take in the surroundings of the church.
Church curate Rev. Abbie Walsh spoke about how the church had worked to help other churches through sharing good practice.
She said: “I think people can connect their Christian calling to look after each other as a family with the safety guidance we’ve been issued from Church of England.
"That’s how it’s helped us to keep each other safe and we have a positive mood and worked with a lot of very co-operative people during this time.”
Rev. Wright spoke about how the new normal for churches, mentioning that they had been able to have choral singing in the church for the first time since March.
He said: “Part of the new normal has been the introduction of hand gels and social distancing and changes to our worship. Until Sunday, September 6, we couldn’t have any singing, but can now have a small socially distanced choir, so we’re back to something that feels more like it did before.
"We haven’t noticed any change in our numbers at services and were surprised how many people came back as quickly as they did.”
Rev Walsh said: “The kind of rhythm we have for our worship hasn’t changed.
"The biggest difference has been not being able to gather socially as it is important to be able to care for each other and gather to celebrate and mourn together.
“We’re having to find new and different ways to do this.”
Rev Wright added: “The message is that as the Christian community has survived, we are working to help people through this and to look beyond this.
"By keeping their focus on that faith with God, we can travel through this together and find our way forward.”
