The NI Assembly have lifted the restriction on churches meeting for worship indoors from today, 29 June. As a result we want to fulfil our purpose as a church to be a gathered people for the purpose of worshipping our God and preaching the Word of God as a public witness and as a light in a dark place. To that end we will be meeting next Wednesday 1 July in church for bible study and prayer at 8pm, and following that on Sunday 5 July at 11:30 for morning worship. The Executive have released guidance for churches, and other church groups have published guidance for their people such as PCI. Taking this guidance on board, and with the health and well-being of our people and visitors in mind, the following changes will be implemented.
We will meet in the church hall for both midweek and Sunday morning services. We will initially only meet once on Sundays, in the morning time to assist cleaning, and minimise any risk of infection spread. The seats will be spaced two metres apart and at three metres from the speaker in spite of the relaxation of this rule to a ‘1 metre plus’ scenario. We will have doors already opened for you, hand sanitiser on a table just inside, and hard seating surfaces to avoid any contamination.
We would encourage our folk who are in receipt of a second NHS letter or are shielding for other purposes, not to attend church at this time, for your own safety and to comply with Government restrictions. Also, we would ask anyone who is displaying symptoms of covid-19 virus to stay away, again for your own and the protection of others. We will not be able to sing during services, nor break bread together.
All these restrictions will likely mean that services will be reduced in duration, and this is in keeping with advice in other places, so as to avoid any unnecessary exposure to potential virus spread. I do hope you will bear with us at this time as we try to both honour God with our biblical desire to worship together, and to act responsibly toward each other and the community around us. All this will change over time, and we’ll keep you posted as best we can.
Remember that God is on the throne, and will not forget his promises to us. Job 42:2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
