COVID-19 Guidelines for Worship at Sovereign Grace Church

Due to Ontario’s restrictions on the size of worship services and the need to practice physical distancing, we ask that you reserve the number of seats you will need for our in person worship services by filling out this online form: Sunday Service Registration

If you are unable to join us in person, you are welcome to tune into our YouTube Livestream

1. Please stay home and participate in our service through the livestream if you are showing any of the following symptoms, or if you have been in close contact with someone who has displayed these symptoms:
   • Fever
   • Cough
   • Difficulty breathing
   • Sore throat
   • Runny nose
   • Loss of taste or smell
   • Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea
   • Difficulty swallowing
2. Please also stay home if you have travelled outside of Canada in the last 14 days, or you’ve been identified as a “close contact” of someone who currently has COVID-19 in the last 14 days, or a health care professional has advised that you should be isolating.
3. Please plan to arrive ten minutes earlier than you would typically arrive. This will give you time to go through our sign-in process and stagger entry into the building.
4. We encourage you to join us for pre-service prayer in the gym at 9:45 AM.
5. Please remember to use the bathroom before attending the service so that we can minimize the number of people using our bathroom facilities. All of our bathroom facilities will be open and available.
6. When you arrive, please lineup outside the front doors of the building in the designated waiting spots in order to maintain social distancing. All other entrances into the building will be locked and only available for emergency use.
7. Once you walk through the opened front doors, you will sign-in at the registration table. You will also be offered a face-mask and a plastic face shield (which you are welcome to keep).
8. Once you sign-in, you are welcome to seat yourself in the sanctuary. Every other pew will be roped off to facilitate physically-distancing. We ask that you choose seats that will maximize physical distancing with those around you.
9. At any point in the service, parents are welcome to take their children to the gymnasium where the service visual and audio will be broadcasted. Supervision of the children will be the responsibility of the parents.
10. The nursing room will be open for up to three nursing mothers to use at a time. The service audio will also be broadcasted into that room.
11. As of July 13, 2020, the Simcoe-Muskoka Health Unit (which has jurisdiction over our church) has ordered that masks be worn in public, indoor spaces. We encourage all of our congregants to comply with this order.
12. We estimate that our service will be shorter than usual and last around 80 minutes.
13. When our service ends, we ask that you maintain physical distancing and keep your masks on as you exit the building.