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Hello and welcome to COVID Communiqué 30.  It’s three months since our churches reopened and we have a question for you — specifically for your greeters and sidespeople – are you getting a little sloppy about the rules? Maybe letting down your guard a bit? 

Remember how we all approached church in early September? It was so intimidating, having a beloved and familiar place transformed by COVID-19 into a maze of rules we needed to be guided through. At the same time, the habits of a lifetime — from hugging and chatting with friends to singing to sharing the cup were all, incredibly, to be regarded as threats. 

No one wants to go back to the trepidation (sometimes actual fear) of church in early September, but we’re hearing reports of safety standards being lowered, even dropped. Of people being waved past screening questions, bunching up in doorways, allowed to chat in pews. We get it: no one wants to be a bossy boots, and there’s a tendency to assume everyone knows the rules and will look after themselves. But the danger of COVID-19, as we know, is not going away. 

In fact, even as numbers around the diocese seem under control for the moment, the threat has not diminished: the virus spreads best indoors where everyone is now spending more time.  If every individual in church on Sunday had one extra exposure to one other person last week and every one of those individual extra people did the same — that’s where community spread comes from. And of course, at Christmas, people may be tempted to risk spending time with a visiting grandchild or the neighbours. Most will think it safe enough to risk; some will certainly be wrong. 

So please, take the time to refresh and even retrain the people you count on to keep your services safe. It’s just not enough to have some signs posted. The job of greeters (and all of us) is to make sure everyone follows the safety protocols. To quote the diocesan pandemic plan In This Together, leaders and greeters must take an active role in helping people “understand and comply with masking, screening, registering, distancing, and sanitizing protocols.” 

And remember, we now require that a singer must be four metres (12 feet) away from the nearest person.  In addition, we have gathered the five essential paragraphs on what parishioners must do to keep themselves and others safe during Amber in this document. And we invite you to do more than just send it to people to read. Perhaps you could try some online role-playing, so folks who welcome parishioners and visitors can practice what to say when asking people to screen, to sanitize, and to distance, or to figure out a way to hold some people back to ensure everyone is distanced two metres at all times. 

On that last point, three months in, and with Christmas coming, it might be time to re-measure your marked-off seating. Are places really two metres apart? Even where there are a couple of household groups nearby? Also, as we mentioned last week, keeping crowds from forming in cloakrooms is important. Remind people to put their coats on before they leave their pews, so crowds don’t form by the doors while people bundle up. 

Now, to end on an upbeat note, we heard from Archdeacon Brian Kauk of St. James Carleton Place about their Advent Dinner fundraiser, planned for this Saturday, December 5th. Brian said in his note that dinners (sorry, they’re sold out) will be picked up curbside. Everyone will then go home, and those who have the technology will join in on Zoom for candle-lighting, prayers and fellowship. “Eating together is a very important part of our parish culture, so we’re hoping this helps chase the loneliness away,” Brian explained. It’s not too late! You could have an Advent dinner too —or start planning now for a New Year’s Day reception or Shrove Tuesday. You can check out details on the St. James website:  http://stjamescarletonplace.ca/advent-dinner/. 

That’s all for this week. Please let us know what you think, or send questions 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 Communications & Stewardship Development
Carol Sinclair, Director of Human Resources