The Octagon Parish

Following the announcement of another lockdown, the Bishop of London, who chairs the Church of England's Covid Recovery Group, indicated that local churches would need to decide whether it was safe for them to continue with live services at this time, even though communal worship is currently permitted under the regulations. 

Here in the Octagon, we have decided that in our context it would not be wise for us to continue with live services during the current lockdown. Although the risks associated with worshipping together have been minimal there remains the real and understandable temptation for people to mingle before and after our services, along with the increased risks associated with the new variant.

 Instead, services will be run from the Vicarage via Zoom until further notice. We are unable to do this from the church buildings themselves as we require an internet connection. We believe that people are now more at ease with Zoom than with Facebook Live. We also hope that Zoom services will be a more interactive way of worshipping together over the coming weeks and that a number of different people will be happy to be involved. Please contact the vicarage if you would like to read a lesson. 

We very much look forward to welcoming you, whether you regularly attend our services or not. Please be assured that you will not need to join in with anything if you do not wish to, and you can also leave your camera off if you prefer so that you can see others, but you cannot yourself be seen.