CHURCHES across Peeblesshire have found a new way to worship after being forced to close due to coronavirus. Reporter Hilary Scott went to find out more...

Sunday morning in Peebles and, as always, the resounding sounds of the bells calling parishioners to church echo through the town.

Only there were no people walking to their place of worship, Bibles in hand ready to read scriptures. No children skipping into Sunday Club. The pews were completely empty.

However, heads bowed and hands were clasped in prayer all over communities, as churches are now using technology to deliver sermons.

Reverend Malcolm Jefferson, of St Andrews Leckie Church in Peebles, conducted his service from an empty parish.

He explained: “Last Sunday, we encouraged the congregation to join with our online service of worship that was streamed live from our church at 11am. We had everything that we would normally enjoy doing on a Sunday including songs led by musicians, prayers, activities for children and young people and a sermon from words of Jesus recorded in the Bible.

“Our theme was dealing with anxiety in the light of everything that is going on. We know that many from our congregation as well as our partner church, Lyne and Manor, linked in and hope that many more will join us whether they normally go to church or not. It’s an important time to hear good news that brings hope and peace and to pray.”

The following day the nation was told that Britain is now in lockdown, but the local minister is committed to delivering his sermon to parishioners.

“We’re going to continue every Sunday but from now on will record everything from in our homes. We’ve also kept our two midweek prayer meetings going via Zoom and small groups are finding other creative but safe ways to connect with one another. As well as writing to every member, we’ve got someone at the end of the office phone from 9am-noon, Monday to Friday.

“We want to do everything we can to keep people connected, because we’re a big family.”

Church audio visual co-ordinator, John Dimmock, added: “I was struck by how helpful the worldwide church has been, we have seen suggestions shared across all denominations on how to get things up and running at short notice from the technical questions to the wider legal implications.

“We still have some problems I would like to solve for people who may struggle with using the internet and hope to have a way people can phone into the service this Sunday. Nothing is better than meeting people in person but it does feel like we still connecting well as a church. We will have some new challenges this week coming from several different homes but I would rather have a 'challenge' than risk people’s health. We hope to see you at standrewsleckie.co.uk this Sunday.”

Another church leader making use of Zoom is Ian Gray, who oversaw the platform's unveiling at Peebles Baptist Church on Sunday.

The pastor said: "We haven't tried singing together online (yet!), but we spent time in prayer, reading Scripture and listening to a (shorter than normal) reflection on it.

"We're also developing plans to have other midweek virtual events - bible studies, prayer, coffee mornings, pub quizzes, and whatever else we can dream up."

Peebles Evangelical Church is planning prayer meetings through Zoom, too, revealed elder John Lewis.

He said: “We are linking up with Bruntsfield Evangelical Church. On Sunday past we enjoyed a sermon from Luke’s Gospel and over the weeks we will be joining with them again for worship and Bible talk.”

The sound of the Old Parish Church bells on a Sunday morning is a much loved and appreciated feature of Peebles.

Despite the parish closing its doors, the bells continued to ring and fill the town with its rich melodies.

Speaking to the Peeblesshire News, lead bell ringer Anne Derrick said: “It seemed to the team of regular bell ringers that in these very difficult times it was important to keep the bells ringing if we possibly could.

“Ringing the bells is a completely solitary activity with no need to come in contact with anyone else, and the ringers were enthusiastic about keeping going whenever possible. This we will endeavour to do in the hope that our music brings some cheer to the people of Peebles at this unprecedented time.”