Church Family Matters

Welcome to this edition of Church Family Matters. I trust that you are staying alert and keeping safe.

As I am sure all of you are now aware the government has given permission from Sunday 5th July for us to return to our church buildings for Sunday Worship. We are planning to run our services as normal in both Wellow and Foxcote and to run a 45 minute service in Peasedown every Sunday alternating between 10.30am and 4.30pm.

Things will not be the same as before as we will need to have strict safety measures in place to ensure that the spread of the Corona virus is kept to an absolute minimum. We will have to carefully observe social distancing rules at all times and be mindful to wash our hands before we enter our church buildings and again when we leave. Once in the building we will have to remain seated and resist the temptation to wander around and speak to others. Unfortunately we will not be able to sing as singing vastly increases the possibility of spreading the corona virus and we will not initially be offering refreshments at the end of the service or taking collections.

Given our pre lockdown average attendance numbers in both Wellow and Foxcote we do not anticipate any capacity issues in either of these churches but we do in Peasedown. In Peasedown we will need to introduce a booking system to ensure that we can maximise the number of people who can attend our single 45 minute Sunday service. Like boarding an aircraft we will be allocating people a specific seat and insisting that they stay in this seat from the beginning of the service until they leave at the end (click here to book your seat)

With the church laid out facing the front we are estimating our capacity in Peasedown to be 34 with 19 households attending, whereas our capacity cafe style is higher at 42 but with only 13 households attending.

We are not planning for any children’s provision at either Wellow or Foxcote and are assuming that any children who do attend will remain socially distanced and seated throughout the service. At Peasedown, however, we are planning for Joseph’s CREW and for Peter and Ruth’s CREW to return from Sunday 5th July. Joseph’s CREW will be running in the kitchen area of the Church Hall and Peter and Ruth’s CREW in the main part of the Church Hall. Parent’s will be asked to drop their children off before the service starts and to collect them once the service finishes. Hopefully this will be attractive to parents who will then not need to be concerned about their children having to sit still in one place during the service and will enable us to increase the potential capacity for adults in the church building.

We are planning on using service sheets for all services. These will be placed on the seats before the service starts. We would ask please that individually we take responsibility for disposing of these ourselves. Toilet facilities will be open and available at Peasedown only. Where possible we will be maximising the air flow through our church buildings during our services.

There will be some people who for a variety of reasons will still feel uncomfortable about returning to Sunday Worship in church. For these people and for others who cannot make a particular Sunday we are planning on continuing with the Sunday Supplement until at least the beginning of September.

It is going to feel strange for us all as we adjust to a new normal for Sunday Worship. Things will no doubt be messy over July and August as we work out together what works best for us all. Please be praying that God will be giving us patience and filling us with His peace as we walk this next part of our spiritual journey together.