FOLLOWING the success of ‘tie a yellow ribbon’ Tavistock United Reformed Church is now inviting people to tie more coloured ribbons round the railings outside the church premises, as an act of prayer or remembrance.

The church is still not open for private prayer and the church members wanted to offer a symbolic method of prayer.

Minister Rob Weston is delighted that the idea has had such a high level of support from the Tavistock community.

‘We will never know who has joined us in prayer with the yellow ribbons but we quickly ran out of yellow ribbon. So now we are extending the opportunity by adding ribbon of all the colours of a rainbow.

‘Of course, the rainbow symbol has been used throughout the Covid-19 pandemic as a sign of hope and of thankfulness for our NHS but the rainbow has deeper significance for the Christian, Jewish and Islamic faith communities, as it appears to Noah concluding the story of the flood.

‘Clearly the pandemic is not ended and we are all having to learn how to live with Covid-19 in circulation within our community and across the globe.

‘For many people there has been a time of great uncertainty and anxiety which is fully understandable. Having a symbol of hope, such as the rainbow can be really helpful,’ said Rev Weston as he reflected on the past few months.

There are a number of community groups making preparations to return to church and community halls; all those using Tavistock URC halls will have to comply to the guidelines provided by the church and will have to prepare their own risk assessments.

‘We are taking a careful and cautious approach as various groups return to the building, we don’t want anyone to be put at risk so hand sanitisers and signs to remind visitors to social distance are already in place.

‘We welcome those groups who feel ready to return, but we are not pressurising anyone to return if they feel it would be unwise at this stage,’ added Maureen Tulloch, who deals with all the URC bookings.

Rainbow coloured ribbon will be provided at Tavistock URC in Russell Street and the ribbons will be left on the railings for a few more weeks.

After they have been removed from the railings the plan is to create a prayer collage for display in the church.