In preparing for the development of cooler weather and the need to move inside instead of outdoors in the park, the board of Bethel Bible Church has diligently studied the requirements of the Provincial Government and the Huron Perth Public Health for public gatherings and believes we can move safely back to Sunday worship services under the following guidelines.
The services will move from the park to the church sanctuary on Sunday October 18 th – the Sunday after Thanksgiving. On that Sunday worship time will return to 11 a.m.
All areas of the church facility that we will use will be disinfected according to public health guidelines between each service.
Entrance to the facility will be by the door at the top of the ramp and the door from the parking lot.
There will be clear signage at the entrances and directional arrows on the floor – all traffic flow will be into the sanctuary via the double doors from the foyer/entrance and all exit from the sanctuary will be through the kitchen both during and following the service – meeting the requirement that no one has to cross another person’s path.
There will be a touchless hand sanitizing station as you enter the building which everyone is requested to use as they arrive and as they leave. Everyone who enters the church facility must wear a nonmedical face mask as in all public indoor spaces in Huron County.
There will be a sign in sheet that will allow you to indicate that you have no Covid-19 symptoms and will allow us to keep a record as required in case of the need of contact tracing. [Your cooperation on signing in avoids the need to actually have to book attendance at the service in advance which is being done by many churches].
The handout for each Sunday will be on a table as you enter the sanctuary for each person to take. The offering basket or plate will also be there and on Sundays when we have communion the elements will be there on that table and you will take them into the sanctuary with you and communion will be at the very beginning of the service.
The sanctuary will have the chairs spaced to meet physical distancing requirements – there will be some groupings for those who attend who are in a social circle as defined by the provincial government guidelines – otherwise we will need to sit in a physically distanced space of 2 metres. The chairs will all be at least 5 metres from the pulpit and platform to meet the requirements for singing. As our sanctuary is rated for at least 200, we can easily fall under the 30% of capacity threshold in terms of meeting.
We are allowed to sing in Huron Perth unlike some jurisdictions, but we will ask that other than the worship team we will wear our masks as we do so.
There will be no nursery or children’s ministry as meeting those requirements at this time is virtually impossible – however, we will continue to have 45 minute services so that children can participate within their attention span and families are encouraged to attend.
The washrooms will be available for emergency use only.
Following the service there cannot be any congregating in the foyer – so no fellowship Sundays with coffee and snacks until the restrictions are lifted - all gathering time needs to be outside the building.
We will be upgrading the video equipment so that the live streamed broadcast onto Facebook Live will be better quality and we will continue to provide that broadcast live and then archive it afterwards on the church website. Thus whenever you are unwell or for those who are not comfortable being in any communal setting the live stream of the service will continue which is also a recommendation of the Health Unit.
We will exit the church facility by both of the doors that we use to enter the facility, but we must maintain the physical separation of 2 metres as we disperse from the worship service.
We have tried to keep the guidelines as clear and simple as we can make them and communicate them and to follow the guidelines and emergency orders that pertain to us in order that we can make our gathering times as safe as possible and still be able to meet.
Bethel Bible Church Board