The coronavirus has caused the Open House Lunch at St George’s Church to be cancelled. The decision was taken last week by the Church

Open House Lunch was first launched on March 1st as part of the Leading Your Church Into Growth Initiative (LYIG).

The initiative aims to bring the community together no matter a person’s age, race, gender, religion or ethnicity, by offering a free lunch, every first Sunday of the month.

Barbara Valerie Peacock MBE, welcome committee leader for St George’s Church, told JesmondLocal on the day of the launch: “We’ve got a very good number here and they aren’t just people from the church. They are people from outside the church.”

St George’s Church is set at the centre of Jesmond community, however its location is “far from the road” and has often left many detached from entering.

Peacock said the initiative would change that. “We want people to come in, and to see that we actually are alive and welcoming and we want to be part of that community,” she said.

Peacock hoped that the event would help build stronger community relations with Jesmond residents by “welcoming not just the congregation but all the people”.

However, following advice from the archbishops and the Bishop of Newcastle, St George’s Church have decided to suspend public worship in the Benefice of St George’s.

Reverend Brian Hurst, vicar at St Geeorge’s Church said in a Facebook post: “This has been an incredibly difficult decision and one that I never imagined I would have to take. These are extraordinary days demanding extraordinary decisions.

“These extraordinary circumstances are forcing us to be a different kind of church in the coming months.”

Like many places of worship across the country, St George’s has moved church services online to combat the spread of coronavirus.