Please note this video was filmed before the govt updates that now allow us to have more than 100 people in the building.
Hi Church!
Exciting news!! Church is BACK IN THE BUILDING this Sunday morning for ONE SERVICE at 10.00am! We are so excited to be together again. Corporate worship is going to be so sweet. As they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder!
The “New Normal”
With that said, church is not going to be “business as usual” for a little while. For at least the next month we are going to have to adjust to “the new normal.” As you probably know, gatherings are limited to 100 people (plus volunteers) and so that presents many logistical dilemmas that we are working through. What’s important for us though is that we get back to worshiping together as best and as quickly as we can, even if that means things aren’t as perfect as we might like. To navigate the challenges we’re facing, we really need your understanding and cooperation as we desire to show all people that we respect and submit to the governing authorities as we respect and submit to God. This, we believe, is part of our Christian witness to the world (1 Peter 2:12-14). We thank you in advance for rising to meet the challenges we are facing!
For those who are not yet able or ready to be back at church, we will still live stream our service at 10am on Facebook and on this page of our website (thankfully, the issue from last Sunday has now been resolved!).
So, what will this “new normal” look like?
LOOKING FOR THE REGISTRATION FORM? Having just finalised our services and sent out the newsletter update on Thursday, the government updated and clarified the rules for church gatherings. Here is the most significant change: We can now have two groups of up to 100 people in separated, defined spaces of the same building.
So this is a quick summary of what that means for us:
* We can now run ONE 10AM SERVICE of 100 people in the Auditorium, with a live stream to the Youth Hall for up to another 100 people.
* This means NO registrations needed! ONE convenient time! Visitors and friends welcome!
We just wish we had this information sooner!
We will still follow our Covid-19 protocol:
* Separation of 100-person bubbles in to defined areas (the 100 person groups are not allowed to mix anywhere).
* Entrance via front glass doors (please keep socially distanced while waiting to enter).
* Exit via back glass doors for Auditorium and side glass door for Youth Hall.
* Sign in on arrival for contact tracing purposes.
* Separate toilet blocks for the two different bubbles.
* The first 100 people will move into the Auditorium and the second into the Youth Hall.
We apologise for any confusion, but the good news is: church is back! And come one and all this Sunday at 10am for worship!
Many of you had already registered for this Sunday which is awesome. The video clip above was also filmed before the most recent rule changes. So if you are planning to come just show up and enjoy being back together as a church.
MORE ON HOW THIS WILL WORK ON SUNDAY
- The first 100 people to arrive will be seated in the Auditorium.
- Anyone after that will be seated in the Youth Hall where the service will be live streamed onto the screen.
- Upon arriving, we will have a main entrance and exit. Entrance will be through the front glass doors only and exiting will be via the back glass doors for those in the Auditorium and the Youth Hall will exit out the side glass door in that room.
- For contact tracing the government requires us to keep a record of who is in the building. As you arrive, we will have a sign in station and hand sanitizer available. We ask you arrive early, around 9:30am, to get everyone seated prior to our 10am start of the live stream.
- We are also following the government guidelines for your health and safety with cleaning and sanitizing. There will also be signs around the building to help us remember what to do.
- Remember that we are still advised to keep socially distanced from others outside your social circle so as tempting as it will be for some of you to give everyone a hug please hold back for now!
- With this in mind we won’t be serving coffee or refreshments at this stage, and for this week we will hold off on doing communion as well.
- Finally, and sadly, we won’t be running a kids ministry until we are a little more settled with church itself. Kids are welcome in our service, but bear in mind they will need to be able to quietly sit through a full service in your bubble.
Even with all of these restrictions, we believe that the positives of meeting together and corporately worshiping together far outweigh the negatives. The team who have been in the building bringing you the online services have noticed during the live worship that there is a whole other level of inspiration that comes from being in the same physical space, and can’t wait to include you.
We look forward to worshiping with you this Sunday.
God bless!
The Orchard Church Elders and Staff