May Update

Coronavirus May Update

The route back to normal has been occupying the thoughts of many people across the world. Locally, schools, businesses and the Government have all been working through options and plans.

It’s clear that we want a clear plan for the future too, but that we want everyone to be safe, to feel safe, and to be in line with all relevant official guidance.

Importantly, we don’t expect to return to normal overnight. Different elements of church life will need to be brought back over time with great care.

In the UK, the Government and religious leaders have agreed that the earliest possible return to public worship will be July (as ever, subject to change).

Even so, we don’t expect everyone to return to services even when they do resume, simply because there may well be a number of people who need to continue to take extra care.

That means that when we do return to services in Matheson Hall, they will be streamed live to our website (via YouTube) so that we continue to worship together at the same time. Anyone unable to come to the building will at least still be able to join in with the live worship online.

So our conditions for return are:

  • Government permission for public worship.
  • Adherence to official restrictions for public worship (e.g. social distancing, limitations to singing).
  • A fast internet connection to Matheson Hall to enable all worshippers to join together, whether at the Hall or at home.
  • A set of procedures already in place to ensure everyone’s safety.

Given the limitations of social distancing, we will continue to hold our prayer meetings on a Tuesday evening using Zoom for the foreseeable future.

We do not expect to resume Thursday prayer meetings for some time.

The demands for social distancing mean that Tots and JAM aren’t practical for the rest of this term, so we won’t be opening again before the Summer holidays.

By September, schools and nurseries will (hopefully) have robust measures in place and it is our intention to follow similar practices if we can. We are unlikely to open until mid-September at the earliest.

Knit2TOG and our Friday coffee mornings are built around a warm, close, friendly environment – somewhat at odds with social distancing and 2m-rules.

We won’t be opening these again until at least September, and quite possibly not until some time after that.