For general guidance for the coronavirus pandemic, and regular updates, please see our Official Guidance
For advice on copyright rules and resources for streaming live and recorded worship, see Copyright Information for Remote Worship
Service sheets and resources for use at home
Singing together again - some tips
Beyond Exile: A service to celebrate a return to public worship
A Service of Lament as lockdown eases
Live-streamed services
Doing your own live-streaming
Prayers for the dying, the bereaved, and for when you can't get to a funeral
Resources for personal prayer and Bible study
An Act of Spiritual Communion
A Methodist Love Feast, adapted for online use
Additional worship resources
A virtual Church choir
Downloadable posters
Service Sheets
These short acts of worship have been produced for you if you are unable to attend church. If you are well enough, why not spend a few moments with God, knowing that other people are sharing this act of worship with you?
If you have members of your church or community who aren’t online, you might want to consider printing the services sheets and other resources from our website and posting them on. You can buy stamps online.
**The last published "Worship at Home" service sheet will be for 1 January 2023.**
If you are printing and distributing these Acts of Worship please add your church's CCLI number and add the songs to your annual report.
Worship from home service sheet for Sunday 27 November (Pdf version)
Worship from home service sheet for Sunday 27 November (Word doc)
LARGE PRINT VERSION Worship from home service sheet for Sunday 27 November (Pdf version)
Worship from home service sheet for Sunday 4 December (Pdf version)
Worship from home service sheet for Sunday 4 December (Word doc)
LARGE PRINT VERSION Worship from home service sheet for Sunday 4 December (Pdf version)
Worship from home service sheet for Sunday 11 December (Pdf version)
Worship from home service sheet for Sunday 11 December (Word doc)
LARGE PRINT VERSION Worship from home service sheet for Sunday 11 December (Pdf version)
Worship from home service sheet for Sunday 18 December (Pdf version)
Worship from home service sheet for Sunday 18 December (Word doc)
LARGE PRINT VERSION Worship from home service sheet for Sunday 18 December (Pdf version)
Worship from home service sheet for Christmas Day Sunday 25 December (Pdf version)
Worship from home service sheet for Christmas Day Sunday 25 December (Word doc)
LARGE PRINT VERSION Worship from home service sheet for Christmas Day Sunday 25 December (Pdf version)
Worship from home service sheet for Sunday 1 January (Pdf version)
Worship from home service sheet for Sunday 1 January (Word doc)
LARGE PRINT VERSION Worship from home service sheet for Sunday 1 January (Pdf version)
These are the final Worship at Home sheets. We are grateful to all the Ministers and Local Preachers, from around the Connexion, who have contributed to Worship at Home. This resource is administrated by Ministries: Vocations and Worship in the Connexional Team.
Singing together again - some tips
Looking after our voices as we return to church worship: suggestions and advice from the Singing the Faith Reference Group. Feel free to share this content in your local newsletter, website or other resources. Remember to check the latest Covid guidelines for worship, including on the wearing of masks.
Voice care - returning to congregational singing Word doc.
Voice care - returning to congregational singing PDF
Beyond Exile: A service to celebrate a return to public worship
For when we are able to share public worship together in our church buildings, we have produced this resource for you to consider as means of celebration. We are aware that churches will look to return to worship in many different and creative ways, as well as at different timescales and in different circumstances. This liturgy is intended for a time when people are able to celebrate a return to public worship together. It may be some time before the whole congregation is able to gather, and local churches are likely to make different decisions about when to mark this with a service of celebration. It can therefore be adapted to suit your local situation. This is particularly important as you try to balance this against any current restrictions and guidance. Congregations should not feel obliged to include something which concerns them or does not suit their current arrangements for reopening their church buildings.
Notes for planning this service
Preaching Notes
Liturgy
Sharing the Peace using sign language
Hymns for a returning congregation:
A new hymn for when singing aloud becomes possible by Ben Batten
Here we will meet to praise, with hesitation by Andrew Pratt
Also see Additional Worship Resources below
A Service of Lament
As lockdown eases, for many it will be right to give voice together to the loss and sadness we have shared.
This Service of Lament allows the congregation to cry out together to God, to lament what cannot be regained, to hear again God’s promise, and to give thanks for God’s steadfast love. Leaders should be sensitive to local situations in the use of this service: it is not intended to replace individual memorials nor is it only a memorial for those who have died.
Though we grieve with sadness for things which cannot be restored, we look to the future with hope in Christ in whom all things are made new.
A Service of Lament (Pdf version)
A Service of Lament (Word version)
Live-streamed services Worship services
We hope the four options below will offer some breadth from our tradition.
We are working in collaboration with:
Methodist Central Hall Westminster
Sundays 09.30 (note - new time from 27 June 2021)
Wesley's Chapel London
who will live-stream from the chapel (the Minister lives on the premises)
Sundays 11am
www.youtube.com/channel/UCUAUqhmhevz5sqhh72LIMxA
Swan Bank Methodist Church
in Burslem, this worship will be studio based – with strict distancing rules being followed
Sundays 10:30
www.youtube.com/user/SwanBank and www.facebook.com/swanbank/
Sthie ('At home')
To join in a very different worship experience, try Sthie ('At home') from the Isle of Man (see image of Peel Hill, right, by Andy Fishburne). Join in live on Sundays by joining a Facebook group. For details see www.andyfishburne.com/2020/03/15/sthie-at-home-online-worship/
You can watch previous live-streamed videos at www.youtube.com/andyfishburne
Morning Prayers
10:00 Monday-Friday - from Wesley’s Chapel London: www.youtube.com/channel/UCUAUqhmhevz5sqhh72LIMxA
Information about doing your own live-streaming and sharing resources
Copyright guidance for remote worship
Live-streaming
NB: Any live-streaming should comply with the present guidance.
Sunday worship live-streams are available above.
The Church of England has produced a comprehensive guide to livestreaming.
Also see our own Methodist suggestions for making livestreaming more interactive, and other ways of meeting up online.
In addition, CCLI now provides a new Live-streaming licence.
An alternative option is to stream the speaking part of your service, and send the congregation the hymns/songs beforehand to listen to themselves using StF+ or Youtube links (see Copyright guidance for remote worship).
Prayers for the dying, the bereaved, and for when you can't get to a funeral
When someone is nearing the end of their life, usually a Methodist Minister would offer to pray with them and their families. Similarly the minister may offer prayers for the family after the death of a loved one. With current restrictions in place, this may not be possible. Therefore we are providing materials adapted from the Methodist Worship Book that you can use in your own location.
See Prayers for the dying, the bereaved and those who cannot attend a funeral
Resources for personal prayer and Bible study
From the Methodist Church in Britain
Daily Prayers from the Methodist Prayer Handbook
A Word in Time daily Bible Study
Take Time produced by Reigate Methodist Church has many themed meditations on topics such as anxiety www.taketime.org.uk
Other Resources
Pray As You Go are producing a daily retreat for people socially isolating:
www.pray-as-you-go.org/retreat/pray-as-you-stay
An act of Spiritual Communion
In these days of social distancing and self-isolation, many Methodists feel the lack of being able to share communion as normal. In this short act of worship, we pray that God’s purposes may be fulfilled in us, even though we cannot at this time gather at the Lord’s Table. See An Act of Spiritual Communion (Pdf)
A Methodist Love Feast
Here’s a way we can connect with each other by connecting with an old Methodist tradition. The Faith and Order Committee has produced a Methodist Love Feast resource, alongside guidance on how it can be adapted for online use at the time of coronavirus.
Epiphany hope
The “O Antiphons” are centuries-old prayers of the faithful, recognisable to many of us from the hymn O come, O come Immanuel (StF 180). They are cries of longing to God from people who know that it is not God’s will that the world should be the way it is.
Traditionally, they are associated with the season of Advent but in 2021 they have been re-imagined in two ways for Epiphany through Lent by Vince Gilbert and the Revd Micky Youngson.
Read more and download as Word or PDF documents.
Additional worship resources
For those marking a Covenant Service, consider including this sung version of the Covenant Prayer, written and performed by Matt Beckingham
From Andrew Brown, a hymn for when we feel vulnerable - revised in light of the Coronavirus pandemic: When life is shaken to its core (StF+ website only)
Alternative hymns and songs for worship "that you probably haven't heard of") at resound worship.org
A beautiful hymn from the Iona Community that has touched a chord with many during these times is "We will meet" by Hans-Olav Moerk and John Bell. A video (to listen) and PDF of the music are available on the Iona Community home page (scroll down), together with Hans-Olav's account of the writing of the original words. Special copyright arrangements for the current circumstances are explained there too.
Prolific Methodist hymn writer Andrew Pratt has written a number of responses to the Coronavirus pandemic, including "This sudden Sabbath gives us pause", "The care of all we seek or see" and (most recently) "Where is the care for the silent care-giver?". You can find them on Andrew's blog at https://hymnsandbooks.blog/category/hymns/ Many of you also find the hymns of Carolyn Winfrey Gilette helpful. She, too, has written a hymn "for these strange times", expressing the desire that we "may we cherish those around us as we never have before". Available on Carolyn's website at: https://www.carolynshymns.com/when_we_face_an_unknown_future.html
Our friends at Family Friendly Churches are offering, free of charge, weekly prayers, address and a couple of hymns as videos (with words and music) for use within the home. These can be found at: www.ffctideas.org.uk/Corona.php
The Worship Cloud are producing a free weekly sheet as well as making our Local Arrangement services freely available: www.theworshipcloud.com/terms/free-weekly-resource
A Virtual Church Choir
The National Methodist Choir want to provide all singers from all denominations, and all corners of the globe, an opportunity to come together and worship God with our voices.
See www.nmcgb.org/ for details of how to get involved.