Coronavirus Update

Scott Hamilton

by Scott Hamilton on Friday, 13th March 2020

This Sunday we begin our series in the Gospel of John. There is so much comfort for us in those early verses of John chapter 1. Not least is what we find in verse 5.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

That is a great promise of God and therefore is designed to bring us great comfort. The darkness of worry and uncertainty is very prevalent on the news and, perhaps too, in our conversations. Here we find an encouragement that nothing can overcome Jesus. He is our supreme comfort and great confidence. It is good to be reminded of that.

As we said in the video we want to approach this with wisdom, not fearfulness and out of care for our church family and the wider community.

We also see the great gain of being able to meet together and want to make the opportunity available for as long as that remains consistent with government advice.

With all of that and further to the video above here are some of the things we are putting in place this weekend.

  1. All food service cancelled (including youth). This will now include tea and coffee.
  2. No passing of offering, registers or communion elements.
  3. No physical contact (handshakes/hugs). A smile, a wave and a cheery greeting is still a great welcome.
  4. Doors will be propped open and the handles of bathroom doors wiped down regularly.
  5. We are going to ask everyone who is entering the building to wash their hands so would ask people to arrive in good time to allow them to wash both their hands and those of any children they have upon entry to the building.
  6. We would encourage people to sit with spacing between families in the worship centre. There will be extra seating to accommodate this.
  7. If you have a condition that places you in a vulnerable group or if you have any of the symptoms of Coronavirus (Temperature and/or new and continuous cough) we want to encourage you to stay home.

The goal will be to have the message audio available as soon as possible on Sunday and we are also exploring ways to provide video content of the service.

As ever, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact any of the Elders.

You are Loved!