At Trinity Church in Abingdon this morning things are slowly returning to normal. For the first time people did not need to book in advance. However people were still socially distanced, and wore masks and there was no congregational singing. The songs were on videos.
The preacher, Helen, was pinged by the NHS Covid-19 app on the way to church to say she needed to self isolate. She passed on her apologies and written prayers and sermon and they were read by another lay preacher.
He began by saying you may have heard of the 'pingdemic' - a play on words from “pandemic” and being 'pinged' or notified by the NHS app that you have been contact with somebody who has Covid-19 and should self isolate.
He said that is why he was standing there before you instead of Helen. The service went smoothly and at the end Helen was complimented on her clear, and easy to read, notes.