Guidelines for Regathering in Worship
As we excitedly await the opening of our church building for in-person worship on July 5, 2020, the Board of Trustees want to share with you some of the changes being made to bring us together for worship and to keep us all safe. Please be aware that all plans are subject to change given new recommendations from the CDC, the State of New Jersey and other sources Worship services will be live streamed Sundays @ 10:30 a.m. on Facebook for those who choose not to attend in person and available for viewing at any time later on our website. Please contact any member of the Board of Trustees if you have questions or concerns.
The re-opening will be limited to Sunday morning worship services only. At a later date, and after learning what we learn from Sunday morning worship, we will add other meetings to the list. However, for now we are only taking this first step. So please help us in safely re-opening our doors. The list of items below may seem daunting, but together, we can make worship seem as much like it used to be as possible. Our aim is loving our neighbors by protecting each other from passing this virus around.
To allow a smoother opening, we will postpone communion scheduled for July 5, 2020 to July 12, 2020.
Hymnals, Bibles, offering envelopes, pens and other materials will be removed from the pews to allow for more effective separation of materials that can be handled by various people in a short span of time.
For the initial re-gathering, we are requesting that everyone enter directly into the fellowship hall from the parking lot. The door to the education wing will be locked. The hallway past the restrooms will be cordoned off to prevent people, for now, entering the education wing. There will be a hand sanitation station just inside the fellowship hall doors as well as just outside the sanctuary doors.
For seating, we do not want to fill our church home with reminder signs. We prefer to educate the congregation and utilize ushers to seat people with the following requirements:
§ Don’t come sick
§ Wearing masks is required (required by the State of New Jersey)
§ Use hand sanitizer upon entrance
§ Seating every other row in family units or 6 feet apart
§ Cough into elbow
limited space, the potential release of infection is high. Please use the restroom one at a time turning around the sign on the door to “Please Wait” as you enter and returning it to “Free to Use” as you leave.
Communion will be distributed one by one with gloved stewards, with bread dropped into open hand and cup given to them.