Newbury churches hold candle vigil as UK’s Covid deaths pass 100,000
THE churches of St John, Newbury, and St George, Wash Common, held a community vigil on Friday, using Zoom to bring the community together in remembrance.
The event was arranged after the news that the UK’s Covid-19 death toll had surpassed 100,000.
At 6pm, participants lit candles and joined parish staff for silences, poems and memorial readings.
The vicar of the benefice of St George’s and St John’s, the Rev Becky Bevan, introduced the service saying: “We come together with our thoughts and with our prayers, with our hopes and with our fears, into this quiet, shared open space.
“And as we gather we hold in our hearts those who died, those who grieve, and those who continue to be most effected by the pandemic.
“When you think that the population of West Berkshire is around 150,000 people, it is shocking to contemplate – isn’t it? – how many lives have been lost, and how much suffering continues as we approach a full year of the virus.”
The vigil was structured like a non-virtual service, including prayers and musical sections.
It was co-hosted by the Rev Gary Collins, associate vicar at St John’s.
Both vicars addressed the congregation via video link from inside their churches.
Of the symbolism behind the ceremony, Mrs Bevan said: “We’ve had a lot of positive response.
“People were moved by the visual side of it, I think.
“We had a thousand candles. “Each of the candles represented 100 lives.
“People had joined in with lighting those candles from home, and that was brought together on Zoom in a way that it couldn’t in any other fashion.
“Originally, I was just going to light 100 candles in the church.
“Then somebody said, ‘Not many people will see that’.
“It then became a thousand candles. That gave much greater visual impact.”