Durham Cathedral to reopen for public worship

Durham Cathedral has announced it will be open for public worship again from July 19.

Congregational worship is to resume inside Durham Cathedral for the first time in nearly four months, subject to social distancing and other safety measures. Services were cancelled because of COVID-19.

Members of the Durham cathedral clergy have been live streaming Morning and Evening Prayer, as well as Holy Communion and a pre-recorded Evensong service on Sundays.

Saints days and other celebratory services have also been marked digitally. The Cathedral opened for private prayer and personal reflection on June 22, with over 1,000 people taking part each week.

Booking is required for both of the Sunday Holy Communion services to ensure the cathedral is able to manage the amount of people inside the church and for track and trace purposes.

Some practical changes have been made to the delivery of Holy Communion in light of COVID-19. Communion will be a said service and, while the Peace will not be shared physically, clergy will acknowledge members of the congregation verbally. Communion will be distributed in one kind only, i.e. the consecrated bread by clergy wearing face coverings. At this stage, there will be no choral music or hymn singing, but parts of the service will be accompanied by organ music, providing some musical familiarity. As more direction is given from the Government and the Church of England about choirs and hymn singing it will be posted on the cathedral’s website.

As well as enhanced safety measures for Holy Communion, the procedures outlined last month for the cathedral’s reopening remain in place to protect and reassure those onsite. These include:

• Regular cleaning of the cathedral

• Social distancing

• One-way system

• Hand sanitiser for staff and members of the public

• Specially trained staff

• Protective screens

• Additional signage

• Visitor limits