To my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ,
During this difficult time of pandemic and social distancing we can finally see that Ohio is gradually reopening to select businesses and activities, with precautions firmly in place to prevent a severe “second wave” of COVID-19. In keeping with this gradual reopening of our society, it is necessary that we make similar arrangements within our Church to gather for Liturgy inside the church building.
We want you to be prepared. The Liturgy you may attend in the weeks ahead will look and feel much different from what you remember from three months ago. It will be imperative for all of us to work together during these times. The pandemic is not over and safety precautions must be followed in order to promote the continued health and safety of everyone in our community.
We are striving to find a new balance while reopening our doors during this pandemic. In order to strike this balance between safety and our way of life we have created a new set of guidelines to help us better achieve this balance.
These guidelines have taken into account expert advice from the medical community, public health leaders, and Church Hierarchy. They are meant to assist everyone in safely participating in Liturgy while maintaining the sound health precautions counseled by health and government officials.
LITURGICAL GUIDELINES
In order to participate in Liturgy the following guidelines MUST be met.
- A family that lives in the same household are allowed to register and attend the same service. No extended family members or neighbors would be allowed to register as one family. Each house must register on their own behalf.
- Doors open 15 minutes before Liturgy start time and close 10 minutes after Liturgy begins. If you are not on time you will not be allowed entry and will have to register for a different available Liturgy date/time.
- Be mindful of leaving enough space between cars to allow for social distancing between families.
- You may not enter if your temperature is 100.0 F or higher. Take your temperature at home the morning of the service to ensure you are not sick.
- If any member of the registering family has symptoms, or high temperature, the whole family will stay home.
- Families must enter and leave as a unit. No wandering unless for use of the bathroom. Proper handwashing and sanitizing must follow your bathroom use.
- Children must be accompanied by a parent to use bathroom and to supervise them washing their hands properly. Remember this is your responsibility towards your church and the public.
- Upon entering the building you must hand sanitize your hands (hand sanitizer provided by church).
- Face masks are mandatory for the entire lengths of service and only taken off before receiving communion and put back immediately after communion and drinking your water.
- Each person attending service will bring their own water bottle to drink after communion.
- You must social distance (6 feet) from everyone that is not living under the same roof.
- Each member will be provided a disinfecting wipe upon arrival to sanitize their own space in their pew before service. Another wipe will be provided for sanitizing your pew area after the service has ended.
- After you have sanitized your pew area, we ask that each family promptly leave the church premises as a unit when called upon by an usher. We will not have coffee hour/social hour or Sunday School on church premises. After service is over, congregating in the building and parking area is not allowed.
FOR OUTDOOR LITURGY SERVICES
The above mentioned is still in place in addition to:
- You must bring your own clean chair (make sure to wipe clean your chair before taking it out of the car).
- You must social distance of at least 6 feet from anyone not registered in your household.
Outdoor services will be weather permitting. There will be a separate form to register for these services if the weather allows. Please keep up to date on our App, website, and Facebook Page to see when these will become available.
FOR EVERYONE’S SAFETY
The following precautions have been taken by the church. All doors will be propped open to limit contact with high contact touch points. The bathrooms have been equipped with touchless faucets, soap dispensers, and paper towels dispensers to limit contact with high contact touch points as well. Orban will be made by bakers wearing masks and gloves and the Orban will be sealed in individual bags. Abouna and the altar deacon will wear shields and masks during communion. Altar deacon will wear gloves. Abouna will wear gloves for communion to babies.
Revised May 28, 2020
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