Friends,
As many of you have likely heard, Premier Doug Ford made this announcement on June 8, 2020:
“All places of worship in Ontario will also be permitted to open with physical distancing in place and attendance limited to no more than 30 percent of the building capacity to ensure the safety of worshippers.”
This is effective as of Friday, June 12th.
This is welcome surprise, as the reopening of churches has come much sooner than many churches were expecting. We are grateful that the Lord has answered our prayers, and that He has given us favour with our provincial government.
In light of this announcement, the leadership of our church has decided to resume in-person worship services beginning Sunday, June 14th @ 10:30 AM.
Here is some general information about our worship service:
1. If you plan to attend our in-person worship service, we ask that you register ahead of time by sending an e-mail to info@sovgraceto.org. Please include how many people will be attending with you. You will receive confirmation about the spots that are reserved for you on the Friday before each Sunday service.
(Note: in this way, our services are not public in the sense that anyone is welcome to enter the building and join us for the service. However, the greeting team will have discretion to allow entry to a limited number of people who did not register in advance)
2. We will be livestreaming the Sunday service for those who are uncomfortable with attending at this time. Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEUSwE_vxJg&feature=youtu.be to access the livestream.
3. We encourage the following groups of people to stay at home and participate in the service through our livestream:
- The elderly
- Those with pre-existing medical conditions that put them at a higher risk of danger from COVID-19
- Those who have been sick within the last 48 hours (including common symptoms like coughing or sneezing)
4. We will not be hosting Sunday School or Nursery programs for our children. We may in the future, but we want to prioritize the implementation of the service itself before we begin to implement other programs. In light of this, we will leave it to parents to decide whether to watch the service from home, or to bring their children to the service.
5. For our in-person worship service, we will be implementing rigorous social-distancing protocols, including:
- Lining up outside the building in designated waiting areas that will be clearly marked off
- Using only the front entrance to the building and closing off all other entrances except for emergency purposes
- Bringing you into the building using a team of ushers who will bring you to your assigned seating in the sanctuary
- Using every third pew in the sanctuary to ensure that individuals/families are properly spaced throughout the sanctuary
- Implementing an orderly exit from the building by the ushers following the completion of the service and limiting socialization inside the building.
6. We will be singing fewer songs to decrease the spread of water droplets in the building and strongly encouraging anyone who plans to sing to wear a facemask while doing so. (Free masks will be available at the front entrance if you don’t have one).
7. We will be recording the names of everyone who comes into the building for the worship service for the purposes of contact tracing in case someone in the service contracts COVID-19. This will also ensure that the total number of people in the building does not exceed the legal limit of 30% (180 people) of the building capacity (600).
8. We will be implementing revamped cleaning and sanitization policies for the building in consultation with the Ontario guidelines and placing hand sanitizer stations around the building.
These are obviously less than ideal circumstances to reopen the building and to resume our gatherings, but we want to continue doing our part to minimize the spread of COVID-19 in our communities while honouring the reality that the church is not the church unless it can physically gather for the worship of our Triune God, the ministry of the Word and sacraments, and the witness to the world around us.
