Into the New Year – December 2021
Chairperson’s Hello for December 2021 and January 2022
Christmas is coming! Nearly time to head into the Spider Cupboard and dig out the decorations, although this Christmas this will be more of a virtual exercise. We’re looking forward to our usual annual programme of Christmas services: the Toy Service on 5th December, Christmas Miscellany on 12th December, and Carol Service on 19th December. There will be no service on 26th December, but we’ll be back on 2nd January for my service on “New Year: Lighting the Chalice”.
We’re currently still having virtual services due to the situation with heating, ventilation and electricity in the building. Unfortunately our first attempt at having a room for people who are not on Zoom to take part in the online services has not worked out, but we’re determined that everyone who wants to take part in services should be able to do so. So, our current plan is that after the ongoing electrical inspections of the building are completed, we’ll look at having some space in one of the smaller rooms at the church for people not on Zoom to take part in services[1].
We are going to need to keep having services on Zoom at the start of next year. Being mindful of the fact that Covid has not gone away and we need to stay safe, we think it may be possible to heat and ventilate a smaller room in the building for a small number of people to use safely, but it’s not possible to do this with the Church (main) hall, the Durant Hall or Turner Halls. They are either too big to heat properly, or too difficult to ventilate properly and too small to maintain social distancing.
As of the time of writing (28 November 2021), we’ve just become aware of the new Omicron variant of Covid, and the possibility that stricter measures may be needed to stop it spreading. At present, it’s not clear how this will affect plans for taking part in services in person. We’ll keep the situation under review, and keep everyone informed.
We need to ask everyone to be patient and bear with us whilst we resolve these issues – thank you for being so understanding. I’ll be sending out letters with summaries of services and worship material to people not able to attend at present, to keep everyone informed. Please let me know if you’d like this.
The committee continues to pursue the sale of the building, and the option of using part of it for worship in future once it has been sold and refurbished. We’ll keep everyone updated on how this is going! It’s a challenging time for us, but it’s also a time of great possibility and hope. We hope that in future, both our building and our congregation can play more of a role in the life of Newcastle upon Tyne.
Looking forward to January, and looking beyond the sale of the building, let’s hope that in 2022 we have more opportunities to get active in our local community, and to gather with other Unitarians! It was good to meet members of Stockton Unitarians and General Assembly[2] Vice-President Sue Woolley in person for the Northern Unitarian Association AGM on 9th November 2021, and let’s hope we can continue gather together safely in the year ahead. The national Unitarian AGM (also known as the “General Assembly”) will be back in person in Birmingham in April 2022.
It’s also a good time for us to ask ourselves as a congregation, what do we want to do next? Many Unitarian congregations march at their local Pride celebrations, and this is something we’ve talked about doing in the past. Is 2022 the year we make it happen? What else might we want to do, to support equality and freedom in Newcastle, and to let people know that our welcoming spiritual community is here for them? We’ll have our annual meeting in April 2022, and we’ll take the chance to consider what we want to do then – but if you want to talk about it now, please do so! You can catch up with any member of the committee (Ben, Brian, David, Diana and Louise) to share your view, or reach us using the contact details below.
As always, I hope that your families and loved ones are well – and if not, I hope you are finding the love and support you need. If Newcastle upon Tyne Unitarians can help, you can email us at: info@newcastleunitarians.org.uk, ring: 07506 255 731, or write to us at: Newcastle upon Tyne Unitarians, Ellison Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, NE1 8XG. We’ve also recently added a form to our website for suggestions and complaints. We know not everyone is comfortable giving their views in person, so if you want to give feedback on how things are going without having to give your name, you can do this here: https://newcastleunitarians.org.uk/suggestions/
Thank you for continuing to be part of our community. We are here for all our members and will support everyone as best we can! Please do let me know what works best for you. Love and blessings,
Louise Reeve
Chairperson, Newcastle upon Tyne Unitarians.
[1] The inspection is a standard safety check. It’s going well, but the sheer size of the building means the electricians need some time to test all of it!)
[2] The General Assembly – full title, ‘The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches’ – is the umbrella organisation for all Unitarian and Free Christian congregations in the UK and Ireland. In other words, the national UK Unitarian movement.
