Hi church,
Hope you are well. We held a Zoom conference after church service last Sunday and discussed the process of re-opening the church. The discussion was very helpful and necessary to move forward. We emailed everyone whether they prefer to re-open on May 31st or June 14th. The church strongly preferred June 14th. We decided to move the start date to June 7th. The elders preferred that Pastor Bryan preach for the re-opening. Originally he was going to be away for a few days in Cape Cod during that week to celebrate his 20th anniversary on June 3rd. However, those plans were pushed back a week because Massachusetts delayed its re-opening policy. Therefore, he is able to preach on June 7th. In the meantime, we are preparing for this occasion. As we stressed during the Zoom meeting, we encourage you to participate when you are ready. We are not pressuring anyone to attend before they are at peace about the decision. To begin, we will be planning on having one service at 10:30AM. We will only have seats set up for 50 so we’ll ask you to pre-register for church so we know how many people will be present. There will be more to come on how to register as we get closer to June 7th. If it looks like more than 50 will be present, we will move to a second service and will communicate that to you.
In re-opening, we would ask you to continue to observe social distancing guidelines. This means keeping a distance of 6 feet apart, avoid handshaking, and we strongly encourage you to wear a mask as a means of serving our brothers and sisters in Christ during this time. We plan on these measures being temporary but feel they are necessary for the time being in re-opening the church in a safe manner. We also would ask that if you are sick, or suspect you might be getting sick, have a fever, cough or other symptoms that you would please stay home. We will continue to make our service livestream available on YouTube for you every week.
Here are some measures that we will be taking in an effort to create a safe place for us to reunite in gathered worship on June 7th:
-We will have face-masks and hand sanitizer available for you upon entry. We have an infrared thermometer available should there be a concern to check for a possible fever.
-We will not be having children’s ministry for the time being. We intend on this being a temporary move as we want to begin offering children’s ministry as soon as possible. At this point, we do not have a date to share.
-We will ask you to enter through the front doors. They will be propped open so there should be no need to touch door handles.
-We will forego a church bulletin for the time being.
-We will be removing pens, envelopes, connection cards and Bibles from seats as these attract ’touches’ and germs. We encourage you to bring your own Bible or use a Bible app on your phone during the service.
-In the sanctuary, we will have seating spread out in groups throughout so that families can sit together at a distance from others. We will have seating for 50 set up.
-We will post signage for restroom for ‘one-at a time’ use. Please knock before entry as bathrooms tend to be spaces where social distancing is difficult.
-We will keep windows open or cracked during the service to allow for fresh air to circulate in the room.
-We will encourage congregational singing as long as you are wearing a mask to keep any aerosol particles of germs contained.
-Following the worship service, we will not be having our usual fellowship time in the lobby with refreshments. We would ask you to exit through the door at the rear of the sanctuary.
If you have any questions about our re-opening, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at info@christtheredeemerct.org.
We look forward to seeing you in the near future!
In Christ,
The Elders of Christ the Redeemer Church |
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