St Luke's Church

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Changes to worship and prayer during suspension

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We have stopped meeting for Sunday worship from 17 March 2020. This is in response to the Government’s guidance around non-essential contact and the Archbishop’s advice to suspend all public worship until further notice.

So what are we going to do while we cannot meet for Sunday services?

  • On Sundays:
    • We will Facebook Live stream a 10.30am act of worship. This will include a few songs, some news, a reading, prayers and a talk (which will also be recorded and uploaded). Please like our page on Facebook and click to receive notifications – please encourage others to do the same! Click here for more information including a guide of how to find us on Facebook.
    • For those unable to join us on Facebook, we will join in worship at 9am across our homes. Though apart, we will provide a printed service sheet that will unite our prayers. This will be a simple act of worship involving prayers and a few Bible readings. Please get in touch if you’d like to join this.
  • During the week:
    • We can provide material for morning or evening prayer. Some of us at St Luke’s are already doing this, though we vary the times we pray. Perhaps this season of self-isolation and shutdowns is the ideal time to discover a pattern of prayer for home.
    • Our Wednesday prayer meeting will go online – at 10am live-streamed on Facebook.

We have started a podcast to support people at home, All Gospel No Germs.

If you would like a Bible or some help with how to read it, or how to pray, please get in touch! We’d love to help.

 

Pastoral Care during suspension

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How are we going to care for people while St Luke’s is not meeting for public services on Sundays?

We are going to review our pastoral and caring arrangements in the coming weeks. We hope to introduce additional ways we can all support one another. Galatians teaches us that we are to “carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

What should you do?

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Drop us a line with your up-to-date contact details (mobile and email if you have them). You can email us (hello@stlukesholbeck.org.uk) or use the Contact form.
  • If you know someone who needs a visit or is in need – let us know!

Serving our Community

During this season of closures and isolation we know that many in the church and across our community will still need pastoral care and support. Whether it’s physical needs, emotional support or spiritual counsel the church is ready to help. We have created some top-tips to help our community during the shutdown.

In the first instance, we hope to have a visible presence in the community – on the streets if not in houses.

We will continue to visit people safely, phoning/texting in advance to check it is safe to go round.  Those visiting will take their temperature and use hand gel before visiting.

In addition we will increase our use of phone calls, text messages, social media and will explore other ways of meeting online (e.g. Face-time or Zoom). In the next week we will devise a telephone-tree that should enable more of the St Luke’s Community to be caring of each other.

Coronavirus and St Luke’s

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Here are the headlines about St Luke’s Church during the Coronavirus Pandemic:

  • We encourage people to follow Government advice to stay home
  • We have top tips for helping people while at home
  • Public Worship has been suspended, see below
  • Our Sunday 10.30am service is live-streamed on Facebook
  • Our Wednesday 10am prayer meeting is live-streamed on Facebook
  • We have a remote 9am Sunday service using a service sheet available here.
  • Encourage prayer, resources available on the website
  • If people need any help please email us at hello@stlukesholbeck.org.uk
  • We have started a podcast, All Gospel No Germs.

St Luke’s has, like many other places of worship, been affected by the Coronavirus Pandemic.

From 17 March 2020 we are not gathering for public services for the foreseeable future. Until further notice there will be no Sunday services.

In light of the Government guidance around non-essential contact, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have issued advice that public worship is suspended until further notice. This is hoped to stem the spread of Coronavirus. The Archbishop’s call is for the Church of England to become radically different in the way we worship and serve our community.

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York are calling for Church of England churches to put public worship on hold and become a “different sort of church” in the coming months to face the challenge of Coronavirus.

In a joint letter, Archbishops Justin Welby and John Sentamu said it was now necessary to put public services on hold until further notice.

But they said that far from having to “shut up shop”, the Church of England must face the challenge by becoming a radically different kind of church rooted in prayer and serving others.

It comes after the Government announced unprecedented peacetime measures to try to control the spread of the virus, with restrictions on public gatherings, transport and working.

They also invited clergy to maintain the ancient pattern of daily prayer – live streaming their worship if they have the resources to do so.

And they urged congregations to be in the forefront of providing practical care and support for the most poor and the most vulnerable during the crisis.

“Being a part of the Church of England is going to look very different in the days ahead,” they wrote.

“Our life is going to be less characterised by attendance at church on Sunday, and more characterised by the prayer and service we offer each day.

“We may not be able to pray with people in the ways that we are used to, but we can certainly pray for people. And we can certainly offer practical care and support.

“Please do carry on supporting the local foodbank and buy extra provisions for it.  Ensure the night shelters wherever possible are kept open.  There are many very encouraging schemes happening right across our country in communities to focus on caring for the most vulnerable and do continue to play your part in those.

“Then by our service, and by our love,  Jesus Christ will be made known, and the hope of the gospel – a hope that can counter fear and isolation – will spread across our land.”

The archbishops have joined other church leaders in calling for a day of prayer and action this Sunday (Mothering Sunday) particularly remembering those who are sick or anxious and all involved in health and emergency services.

Further information on what the suspension of public worship will mean will be available as soon as possible on the Church of England website. This page will be regularly updated.

What this means for St Luke’s Beeston Hill and Holbeck:

  • no services midweek (Holy Communion or Prayer meetings)
  • no services on Sundays

Click for alternative arrangements for Sundays and Daily Prayer.

Extending St Luke’s

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At the moment we are extending our building! We will see the west end of church built out to the road. This will create more space and community rooms, which we want to fill with new projects throughout the week. These vibrant community projects will range from youth programmes to work with the elderly.

While the building work takes place we are worshipping at St Luke’s School on Beeston Road, just round the corner. We hope to be back in our church building in Summer 2020.

Read on to find out more about the project!

Your Community Hub

We love our community and so we can continue to serve and increase our capacity to respond to these needs we are in the process of building a community hub. Our existing church building and facilities are being refurbished and extended to provide increased space and resources. The hub will be fully accessible, have a well equipped kitchen, new meeting rooms to run projects, an IT suite and office space.

We will be able to host many more community events, drop-ins and advice services, provide activities including dance and arts opportunities for children and young people and events for the elderly.   We will work to empower local people with various learning volunteering and upskilling opportunities – bringing communities together.

Building commenced in July 2019 and is scheduled to be finished in March 2020. We excited about the completion of this fantastic, purpose-designed space, that will enable to to bring significant positive impact and growth.

Throughout the development process it was vital that we connected with local people and this approach will continue once the hub is in operation. It is important to us to continue to work in partnership with members of our community. Throughout years of serving this locality, St. Luke’s also has built strong relationships with other excellent community providers and we are seeking to further develop and expand these opportunities as the hub moves forward.

We recognise that the hub would not have been possible without the backing of numerous supporters. We are extremely grateful for generous financial support received from The Community Fund, LCES, All Churches Trust, Bernard Sunley, National Churches Trust, and Cloth Workers, as well as many local people and other anonymous donors – Sincerest thanks for enabling us to reach, serve and change the lives of the amazing people surrounding us.

 

If you feel that the new St Luke’s space would be great for you/your community group to meet and grow, let us know! Please contact St Luke’s directly on 0113 271 7996 or email vicar@stlukesholbeck.org.uk.

Where we worship

Join us on Sundays at St Luke’s Primary School!

While we are building our extension, we are worshipping on a Sunday morning at St Luke’s Primary School, which is our linked church-school. It’s a five minute walk from our church building, so not too far at all.

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St Luke’s Church

Malvern Road
LEEDS
LS11 8PD

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