Slideshow image
Hello and welcome to COVID Communiqué 17. We begin this week in anticipation of opening our doors for worship again this Sunday, September 6th, within the restrictions and guidelines of the AMBER stage of our plan. If you’re not ready to open yet, don’t worry. You know your parish best. If you’d like more support to get ready, get in touch with us at C19helpdesk@ottawa.anglican.ca.
Here’s a first for COVID Communiqué—an illustration (see below)! We were worried our verbal instructions on how to use surveyor tape (also called flagging tape) might be a little confusing. Christ Church Cathedral’s administrator Josephine Hall kindly stepped in to demonstrate how it offers a way to mark off pews, and individual seats on them, for a safe, physically-distanced service—with no sticky-tape damage to the wood.
You’ll see Josephine tied the tape marking off individual seats with jaunty bows. That wasn’t just to be decorative—it also lets you easily untie and move the tape, if need be. Surveyor tape is available at hardware and big box stores, online, and through industrial supply companies. (A quick search shows it comes in most of the colours of the liturgical seasons—although by its very nature, it does tend to be rather more vibrant than most church hangings).
We have several important items to draw your attention to this week. First off, we’ve posted a Question & Answer about what to do if a parishioner has tested positive for COVID-19; it is posted on the diocesan website’s COVID page under ‘Contact Reporting and Your Parish’. As well, we’ve added information to the plan on how to respond if you’re asked for contact information because of possible virus exposure at church. This can be found on page 12 of the September 1st version of the plan under ‘Reporting Possible COVID-19 Exposure’. Check the website for this latest version of the plan.
Another new document is a template form you can adapt and ask tenants to sign when they rent church space. It asks them to confirm they know and will abide by all the COVID-19 rules and regulations that apply to the activity they plan to hold in your church building. The template is posted on the website’s COVID page under ‘COVID-19 Rental Undertaking’. Paragraphs 77 and 84 in the pandemic plan have been updated to link to the rental template.
Two reminders of items from last week—don’t forget to organize a debriefing meeting to talk about what worked, what didn’t, what surprised you, and what you learned at your first ‘in-person’ liturgy (or liturgies) in September. Are there things you should rethink for the next week? There’s still time to make a welcome back video, along the lines of the one St. Clare’s (Winchester) posted to YouTube: https://bit.ly/3bslrnJ
There’s a lot going on in this newsletter—but there’s a lot going on in this wonderful week when many of us (with both trepidation and joy) will finally get to meet as communities once again. If there’s anything we can do to help you, let us know at C19helpdesk@ottawa.anglican.ca. This is also the address to write to if you’d like to request your own copy of COVID Communiqué.
COVID Communiqué is produced by the senior staff of the diocese:
Shane Parker, Bishop
Linda Hill, Executive Archdeacon
Sanjay Grover, Director of Financial Ministry
Peter John Hobbs, Director of Community Ministries
Jane Scanlon, Director of Stewardship Development
Carol Sinclair, Director of Human Resources