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Hello and welcome to COVID Communiqué 29. Advent starts on Sunday, and winter is bringing a particular darkness this year: churches in the City of Toronto are limited to 10 people at a time for worship, and the dioceses of New Westminster, Edmonton, and Brandon have closed their churches completely. 

You may be finding increased COVID numbers are keeping some people from church. Have you considered publishing Advent prayers for use at home, and perhaps instructions for making a wreath? Here's an example from St. George’s, Georgetown (Diocese of Niagara): https://stgeorgesgeorgetown.com/2012/12/06/advent-wreaths-at-home/.  It’s one small way to bring the focus to faith and the promise of Christ, when so much this year has been about fear and loss. Families and friends could even Zoom their weekly Advent ritual, perhaps including parishioners who live alone and might not bother just for themselves. 

Sadly, another Advent tradition won’t take place: pastoral visits to take communion to the more frail members of our community won’t be happening, except in exceptional circumstances (you can check with C19helpdesk@ottawa.anglican.ca  for clarification of what that means, if you need to). For the most part, in Amber, pastoral care must be done by way of telephone or online visits. Some hospitals allow in-person visits, depending on circumstances. Check with the hospital if you’re not clear. 

On a more mundane note, it’s coats-and-boots time here in the Diocese of Ottawa, but we need to keep people from crowding into cloakrooms. One advantage of physical distancing is that people have room to keep their coats with them without taking up valuable real estate in the pews. Remind your sidespeople to ask worshippers to keep their coats with them. If people are uncomfortable wearing their boots or galoshes into church and you have room, you might set out two or three well-distanced chairs for people to sit on as they take off their boots. The problem with this could be creating a backlog while people wait their turn; you’ll have to decide whether that’s too much risk, or you can assign someone to manage it. 

That’s all for this week — if you have questions, Advent ideas, or comments, please don’t hesitate to send a message to C19helpdesk@ottawa.anglican.ca 

COVID Communiqué is produced by our senior staff:
Shane Parker, Bishop
Beth Bretzlaff, Dean
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