Dear friends
I’m sure you’ve seen lots in the news about COVID and borders this week. With interstate borders reopening on Tuesday there seems to be no end of opinions. Plenty are excited to be able to reunited with loved ones, some are fearful about the virus coming in. Some think this should be the end of any sort of COVID regulation, while others would prefer things to be closely monitored.
I flagged on Sunday that we’re thinking through what the borders opening means for our church, if anything. At the moment we aren’t especially expecting any extra restrictions to affect us, but we are keen to be doing what we can to make sure people are feeling safe and comfortable at church. As has been the case right through COVID, we want to remember Jesus’ command to “love your neighbour” in this (Mk 12:31).
So what will we do? Well we’ll of course be careful around things like hygiene, checking in and following all our COVID requirements, as we’ve been trying to do right through the pandemic. We’ll also be encouraging you to stay away from church if you’re unwell, as we’ve been doing for a while, but perhaps it’s time to be even a little more cautious. We’ve also considered opening the rear wall of church again for a while to give people room to spread out, although this does have a negative affect on things like our sound so we’ll only do it if people feedback that they’d find it helpful (let me know if that’s you?).
You might also be interested to know that there are some helpful things about the venue we meet in. Our church meets in a room that is approximately 320sqm, which is big enough to let us have rows that are spaced 1.5m apart. According to all the information that SA health put out earlier this week, that means that we’re much lower risk and it’s less likely people will face restrictions if someone with COVID does come to church. Of course things are changing fast, and there are lots of unknowns, but we are certainly in a place where we have much to be thankful for.
Matt Winter
Associate Pastor | Trinity Church Brighton
0406 124 006 | matt.winter@trinity.church | Day off Thurdays