All Saints Church, Stamford, to hold service for National Day of Reflection

Stamford residents will be invited to pause and reflect on a turbulent 12 months at a special church service on Tuesday.

All Saints Church is to hold a short service at midday as part of the National Day of Reflection to mark a year since the country first went into national lockdown.

Care charity Marie Curie is organising the national event as the world continues to deal with the fall-out of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The bells of All Saints and St John's Church will be rung at midday to herald a minute's silence before the reading of a psalm and prayers.

The service will last about 10 to 15 minutes and open to everyone, although numbers will be restricted in line with Covid-19 restrictions.

"We just want to encourage people to stop where they are for a moment and reflect, even if they are not in church," said rector of All Saints, Rev Neil Shaw.

"It has been a very difficult year for everyone and this will be a short way of paying respects, and also a way of supporting people who are dealing with it now."

On Sunday All Saints will hold its first service since the third lockdown began at the start of January.

Since then, the church has opened only for funerals, and will remain closed to private prayer until the general situation improves.

"The key thing I have noticed from people I have seen is that while their relatives haven't died directly from it, it is the social aspect, the concept of family and keeping them apart that has been really difficult," Rev Shaw added.

"I don't think we are through it enough to know the true impact.

"A lot of things will come out over the next couple of years and we won't realise how terrible it has been until then, but for the church, we believe there is hope and we want to bring that hope to people."