Oak Church Stevenage
Covid-19 Plan

Dear Oak Community,

As we know the Church of England, of which we are a member of, has suspended all public worship services and events, we currently can’t meet in person. What this means practically is we are moving our public services and events online. We expect this to happen until at least the 7th May, and we will be regularly reviewing this in partnership with the Church of England and Government guidelines. We have listed below our plan for each aspect of the Oak community in this time of transition. We are doing our best and we welcome any feedback and ideas from people.

The great news is, that we have a God that is faithful, who loves us and loves Stevenage. And a God who isn’t surprised when things don’t go according to plan! This is a great opportunity to re-imagine church and relationship with each other and with God. As a church we already have a good online presence and we use social media where we can in safe and appropriate ways. What we get to do know, is built on that.

There will be moments over the coming weeks that will feel strange, but we can still remain connected in lots of different ways. We are a youth focused church so for many of our community, social media and online connectivity is already integrated into our everyday lives. However, that is not true for everyone (especially Adam!), so therefore we need to have grace for each other and demonstrate family by helping those who don’t feel as comfortable with technology.

This time is also a great opportunity to look beyond ourselves and to the Stevenage community and surrounding villages. For example, buying people household essentials, delivering food packages, picking up prescriptions, going to the supermarket, making sure people have enough toilet rolls, praying for each other in creative ways and loving each other. Let’s continue to Love Extravagantly, Live Rooted and Give Selflessly in our ongoing mission.

Much love,

The Oak Church Staff Team

5:30pm & The Gathering Services

At this time, we are unable to gather in person for our services, however we will be going live on Instagram at 5:30pm every Sunday. As we are a youth focused community, the majority of our community is on Instagram. However, if you are not, we would still love for you to join us. Please see information below on ‘How to sign up to Instagram’ and ‘How to join Oak’s Instagram Live’ if you don’t know how to.

We are still working some of this out, but our live stream each Sunday will have space for worship, a short talk, prayer and a chance to hear from different people in our community. We’re still working out timing, but these will run for max 1 hour. We hope that you can join us!

Oak but Earlier

Our 4pm, Oak but Earlier Service, will be now gathering online together on Zoom. Zoom is an online tool for video calls with larger groups of people. We hope meeting on Zoom will give each of the families from Oak but Earlier the opportunity to talk with each other. Please see below for information on how to access Zoom and join a meeting.

The Oak but Earlier team is also looking at how they can be creative with resources. They may post some things online or drop off a package with some craft supplies on your doorstep!

We have also started a Facebook group for our Oak but Earlier community alongside the existing WhatsApp Group. If you would like to join either of these, please contact Eileen (eileenb@oakchurchstevenage.org). The Facebook group can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/151457992727101/?source_id=617541275012609

Youth Community

We will shortly be contacting parents to ask them if they are okay for their young people to be added into a WhatsApp chat with the rest of their regular small group and leaders at Youth Community. We hope these chats will be a place for our young people and youth workers to keep in a regular contact with each one. If you wish to join one of these groups, please contact Britt (brittw@oakchurchstevenage.org).

Our young people have also expressed they want to keep meeting each other regularly online. So we are going to try have a conversation with each other using an online tool called Zoom at 7:30pm each Tuesday night for each small group. We will be incorporating discipleship aspects to this. Please see below for information on how to access Zoom and join a meeting.

Adult and Young Adult Community

As adult and young adult communities are unable to meet in person at this time, it will be up to the leader and the community themselves to decide how they wish to meet online and stay in contact.

We have suggested Zoom, an online tool for video calls with larger groups of people as a way to meet online. Please see below for information on how to access Zoom and join a meeting.

Our regular adult social on the first week of each month will also not be on, so we will be encouraging groups to meet online at that time if they would like to.

Both our adult communities and young adult community currently have WhatsApp chats, and our Young Adult Community has a Facebook group. We expect these will be a place for each group to keep in regular contact and support each other. If you wish to join any of these please contact us or email us at info@oakchurchstevenage.org The Young Adult Community Facebook group can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1339005942788768/?source_id=617541275012609

Worship Jams, Teams & Workshops

All our Worship Jams, Teams and Workshops will not be meeting in person. We are going to see what we can do on Live Stream but we will keep you posted on this. Please contact Greg (gregc@oakchurchstevenage.org) if you want to know more or if you have any ideas.

Monday Night Football

Monday Night Football will be suspended for the time being. Any updates will be put on the Monday Night Football Facebook group.The Facebook group can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1902003476697886/?source_id=617541275012609
Alternatively, you can contact Greg (gregc@oakchurchstevenage.org) and he can help you join it.

Give Selflessly

For Oak our third core value is ‘Give Selflessly’ – in our time, talents and money. As we are not able to meet in person on Sundays, we need to give differently. If your usual way of giving was in the offering, can we ask if you could kindly set up a standing order to financially give to Oak. For example, if you usually give £2 per week in the offering, could you perhaps set up a standing order to give £8 per month through your bank?

Our bank details are:
Caf Bank: Sort code: 40/52/40
Account No: 00027033
Reference: Tithe/Giving

Also, this time is a great opportunity for us to bless others in uncertain times. We are therefore setting up an Isolation Fund. Money from this fund will be used to buy goods for households who are affected by the isolation and social distances measures currently in place. To do this, you can make a donation via online banking using the details above. Please use the reference ‘Isolation’ so we know how to allocate your donation. If at the end of these current restrictions there is money left over, we will use the money to buy goods for a local Food bank.

Prayer

We will be moving our forms of praying to online as well. As a staff team we pray regularly at 10am on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We will also be praying at 10am on Thursdays while our school’s work is not happening. You will be very welcome to join us at 10am on any of these mornings Zoom. Please see below for information on how to access Zoom and join a meeting. For any mornings you wish to join us, let us know and we can send you the Zoom meeting ID and password.

Please let us know how we can be praying for you. If you also would like us to pray for you over the phone or via video call, please let us know and we can arrange a time.

Pastoring & Mentoring

We hope that pastoral care for people will take place in the youth, young adult and adult communities at Oak, as well as what is facilitated by the staff team.

The majority of this will take place by online means or via the phone. However, in some cases we may determine face to face contact is essential at the time, e.g. in some safeguarding circumstances. If this takes place, we will be making efforts to meet outdoors or inside where needed, with appropriate social distancing. Face to face meetings, when needed must be jointly approved by both Adam and Ruth, who oversee safeguarding for our church.

Practical Pastoral Care

If you are under self or mandated isolation, please let us know so we can care for you and keep in touch.

If you are in need of any practical help please contact the staff team or your community (e.g. by online, text, emails etc.). We would love to help in any way we possibly can. You can also post requests on our Oak Church Facebook group as well. The Facebook group can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1125974604134356/?source_id=617541275012609

If you are able to help out with caring for people’s practical needs, please let us know.

Online

We will also be posting regularly a thought on social media and some ideas on how to cope with the boredom of self-isolation. Follow us on Instagram (@oakchurch) or Facebook (@oakchurchstevenage) to see these.