Welcome - St John's Church (South Hornchurch) Essex.

Our Vicar Rev Kevin Browning

Welcome to St John's we are a friendly Anglican Church in the heart of South Hornchurch, east of London in the borough of Havering.

We are centered around the word of God - we celebrate diversity and look for opportunities to connect with people whatever their background and culture in our local community, so together we can learn to discover the people God has called us to be.

A note from Rev Kevin Browning 3rd June 2020 - It seems such a long time since we have all been together and chatted over a coffee in Church, infact it has been 11 weeks, since we met together to worship God. These seem very strange times and I’m not sure how I feel about this enforced time in the same 4 walls with one other person!

For me I was classed as vulnerable because I was on Chemo tablets at the beginning of the lockdown, but because I couldn't go to the hospital for a blood test they decided to stop them and to be honest I had taken 5 months of the 6 months prescription as a preventative measure, so the consultant said it was fine and I don't need any more. But because i was vulnerable I couldn’t go out to buy food and had to be careful walking the dogs, at the beginning our son did all our shopping and I missed all the joy of queuing for entry into a supermarket.

To survive my need for outside company I had to be satisfied with Zoom meetings, which was not without its teething problems but now I am on around 3 per day!! Fortunately the weather has been so good that I have spent a while in the garden losing myself and distracting my urge to go out and meet people!

I’m sure many of you have struggled with this enforced time of isolation, its especially hard if you are living on your own, with only the TV to keep you company and maybe the occasional family FaceTime meeting or a text from a loved one. It is particularly difficult if you don't have a good computer which works well or that you don't feel confident using social media, so things get missed and there is no fellowship available to encourage you in your faith.

Now that we are all emerging from our isolation and can meet with 6 people outside, things are at last looking better, but Church however will take a while to return to some sort of normality. The ‘new normal’ as it has been coined.

At present it is uncertain as to whether we able to open the Church from early July. When we can meet for public worship we will need to keep 2 metres apart and not be allowed to worship together in song as we might cause the spread of the virus. This may mean that we will have to have several services with less people or maybe just have an open-air service in the car park, it is another month away so Im sure that by then things will have become much clearer and then we can form a plan.

One of the things I have noticed the most in this time of lockdown is that I have had more time to focus on and consider my relationship with God. I’ve had far more conversations with Him because I have made the time and it has been a good discipline for me to just spend more time with Him and hear what he is saying to me about my life and the Church. I hope that you have used this time wisely to lean more of what God is saying to you and read the bible more, perhaps pray more often and see things differently to how they were. I have had a number of conversations with members of the church family where they have felt a nudge or even a calling to do something new as a result of this time

One thing, which I will expand upon later is that we are finding ourselves in a new season - a season of preparation of getting ready to do things differently. Whilst there is always the tendency to go back to what we know - we will simply get the same results. I believe we are in a new season where we can plant seeds and plan for both the present and the future. For instance the way we communicate our worship services - when we are able to gather together it will be good to video the service to obtain a wider following as many outside the church family have been listening and watching the links we have put out each week.

When we return to Church I thought it would be good if some of us could share some of the things we have learnt during this time of enforced isolation. It maybe you have become more creative and you have made something which you can show us or that God has inspired you to write poetry or prose, or you may have have used this time in other practical ways.

Either way we know that whatever Church looks like when we get back it won’t be the same and sometimes its difficult to go through change, but the one thing that we all can hold on to is that Jesus is the same today as He was in the bible and He can always be relied upon to get us through whatever storms we encounter in this life.

My prayer is that you will keep safe and well and I hope to meet up with you soon…….Kevin

Corona Virus update for St John's Church South Hornchurch
As at Monday 15th June 2020

The Church is now open for individual prayer: Tue/Wed/Thur and Sat between 10.00am - 12.00pm, so please come down and use the building and tell others about it too (especially those who don’t use social media and are on their own).

This is a great opportunity for people to just come in if they are struggling with life and want someone to pray with them.

There are several prayer stations for people to sit at and of course we must adhere to the strict Covid19 government guidelines with hand sanitizer and disinfectant to wipe down surfaces and handles after people have left.

Sunday Service 5th July 2020