Worship in times of COVID

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We had church yesterday....about 37 people in attendance, which isn't a whole lot less than usual. We discussed things openly as a congregation, and decided to monitor the situation, listen to the Public Health Unit, and make decisions based on that. There are no confirmed cases in our area yet. As a LLWL, I am booked at different churches for the next 4 Sundays. I've prepared for two of them. These may end up becoming "messages to be used in the future". We'll see.
 
When churches are depending on LLWL, who may be individuals not of their congregation, it would be great to give them a contact number, just in case the Worship Leader suddenly becomes symptomatic. I often deal with secretaries who aren't working Sunday morning, and, in some cases, do not attend the church for which they are secretaries. Sometimes, if I woke up sick...I wouldn't know who to call.
 
George Street United was set for public worship on Sunday morning past. Then the Labrador-Grenfell Regional Health Authority announced our Province's first presumed positive on Saturday evening so we pulled the plug on that service. We introduced new protocols and thought that given the vast expanse between the Labrador-Grenfell Region and the Avalon things would be fine for us to continue. Two new presumptive positives later we have pulled the plug altogether on our public worship.

We have consulted with our municipal health authority about our outreach centre which provides a free breakfast on Mondays and a free lunch on Fridays. With their input, we have modified our delivery of that service and the first test run will be Friday. The modifications are going to up our cost a smidge while reducing our need for volunteers keeping the numbers low. The sit-down service is now a take-out service and we hope that the folk we are serving understand that this is not what we would choose but is the only way we could continue without making enemies with regional health authorities.

The Salvation Army Centre of Hope which is renting space from us while their new facility is being built right next door offers a Tuesday Lunch and they have followed our lead with respect to modifications for service delivery.

We had heard that other agencies providing free meals were going to be shuttering that service which would increase the burden for many we serve and possibly for our capacity to serve. They seem to have worked out the same solution we have and will continue to serve.

We are toying with online worship moments which is sort of new-ground for most of us. I'm usually in the performing portion not the recording and broadcasting bit. Steep learning curve but I have some great help from our Moderator who is very practiced in social media and former WonderCafe.ca member DKS who has had a show on his local Rogers station for a number of years.

When we nail down the how and the when I'll pass along an invite.
 
People are getting laid off their jobs during this time, so they can collect E.I. Does that happen to those employed by churches too if this goes on a long time?
 
Nancy said:
People are getting laid off their jobs during this time, so they can collect E.I. Does that happen to those employed by churches too if this goes on a long time?
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Clergy are eligible for EI.

The rub is that Churches would have to meet and decide to end the pastoral relationship. They would then have to ensure that the clergy was paid for the next 90 days so it would not be immediate relief for the congregation plus good luck looking for a new minister in the future.

Any salaried staff would also have the same protections.

Any non-salaried staff could be let go fairly rapidly but would not translate into huge savings.

I think that termination under these circumstances would not be successfully defended in court so congregations better count the cost upfront.
 
revjohn said:
have some great help from our Moderator who is very practiced in social media and former WonderCafe.ca member DKS who has had a show on his local Rogers station for a number of years.
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Glad to hear those with experience are helping those who would benefit from it. Wish I saw more of that happening at Western U. Mrs. M seems to be pretty much learning the online course thing herself (with help from me on technical stuff like how to setup Zoom). I know Richard is pretty adept online from past experience. Didn't know about DKS having a TV show (or forgot since I haven't heard from him in a while).
 
Thanks revjohn. I know employees at a shoe store are being laid off --- no work, but this way they can get E.I. (I'm not one of them as I only work one day a week). The idea is that their job would still be there for them when things resume. I just wondered if this was an option to keep churches from going under, and to help the staff. It isn't meant to cause animosity....just dealing with some real worries in some churches. I plan to continue to donate to my church, but I'm not sure that everyone will be able to afford it. I also wonder if any of the government measures deal with this dilemma for churches.
 
Nancy said:
I just wondered if this was an option to keep churches from going under, and to help the staff. It isn't meant to cause animosity....just dealing with some real worries in some churches.
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No worries. This will be an idea that more than a few thinks solves everyone's problem until they get an understanding of what "laying off" a minister actually entails.

And this is going to be a difficult time for many Communities of Faith. At this point, George Street United has already lost a month of revenue now with calls from the wider church and community for all public gatherings to cease until all is clear we are looking at at least two months of lost revenue. With all of our bills to be paid and little flexibility from our creditors being offered at this point.

We have also committed to increased expenditure around the regular meals we provide since the board of health will not allow our Kitchen to be certified for take-out meals we are forced to brown bag it and that means we need to purchase pre-packaged food-stuffs. The good news is that a conversation with our local MHA suggests that there is going to be some funding available for Churches to continue to provide the community support that vulnerable members of the community now depend upon.

I doubt that the Province will be making any money available for Communities of Faith to draw upon in assistance to cover operating costs.

We did have a job opportunity posted for an Office Administrator it looks like we are going to see about holding off on filling that position until September or maybe later.

And we know that if we ask our membership we will be asking individuals who have been sent home from work and are wondering about their paycheques as well.
 
Our regional council sent out an email with some permissions granted to churches to access 'restricted funds' if necessary. Will be interesting times - so many churches are highly dependent on rental income and community fundraising.
 
Practically, it's very useful to have a maximum % of members on PAR, although hard if their income is cut. My contribution comes out monthly; I add contributions as appropriate and that's hugely missing.
 
Although it's no surprise to anyone our Council Executive held off meeting until yesterday. Our worship services are cancelled as are all church meetings, except for our Council Executive, which is going to meet every Monday by Zoom to check in and constantly review the situation. Most of our renters have already cancelled their meetings anyway. The only renters who seem to want to continue to operate (for the moment) are AA and Al-anon. We've decided to allow that. The next 3 payrolls for the paid staff (2 ministers and Office Administrator) are fine with what we have in the bank and what we expect to receive through PAR. Our contract staff (music director and custodian) will be paid until at least the end of April (although the custodian will work fewer hours we'll pay the same rate until April 30 and then re-assess.) After April there will still be PAR revenue and we're hoping that the congregation will realize that we do still have expenses and so will continue giving. In any event, if we must we can dip into reserves (which are reasonably healthy as a buffer for now) and there are some other options through our Regional Council. We're wondering if churches will qualify for the federal government's emergency package to help with 10% of the payroll for small employers. (Not clear on the details of that plan.)

We're talking about worship "experiences" online. Maybe a shorter version of a service that my colleague and I could put together. Readings, a devotional type reflection, some prayers, some thought that maybe our music director could play some background music. There's some thought of perhaps doing some sort of online Bible study perhaps through our website and Facebook page (maybe just a passage, a reflection by either me or my colleague, and some study questions for people to work with.) We've decided to keep the office open for four hours a week from 11-3 on Tuesday for now just to allow the congregation some easy and scheduled opportunities to connect with us and to allow us to continue to serve the community, since we have a small food distribution cupboard (too small to be considered a "food bank" but it's well used.) Staff and a couple of volunteers will be on hand with social distancing protocols in place to help out with that for now. Pastoral care will be mostly by phone, email, text, social media, etc. It will also allow some weekly face to face time for the staff to be constantly keeping up to date with each other. We can't visit hospitals or nursing homes right now and probably shouldn't physically visit those who are sick. Our local funeral home is still doing funerals, but limiting the numbers who can attend. To be honest I'm expecting we'll be doing mostly interments for now as needed and that families will wait to have larger memorial services when all this is over. We were supposed to host our Regional Council meeting at the end of May but I'm guessing that will be either postponed, cancelled all together or somehow moved online.

Frankly, to be completely honest, we don't really know what we're doing and we're inventing it as we go along.
 
Nancy said:
When churches are depending on LLWL, who may be individuals not of their congregation, it would be great to give them a contact number, just in case the Worship Leader suddenly becomes symptomatic. I often deal with secretaries who aren't working Sunday morning, and, in some cases, do not attend the church for which they are secretaries. Sometimes, if I woke up sick...I wouldn't know who to call.
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This is good advice, Nancy. An LLWL should always have a contact name and number she can contact with questions or information. I once got lost on my way to a Little country church that I had only visited once before. It was in flood season in Lake country where what roads twisted around lakes, and little side roads branched out leading to beaches or fishing areas. Without a contact number I couldn't ask for directions or let people know where I was. As time went by I decided to retrace my route back home. At a branch in the road I couldn't remember which branch I can and come down and I took the web from one on my way back and low and behold there on the side of this branch road I saw the little church. I entered the town the congregation have been a good old-fashioned hymn Sing. They clapped and then laughed as I explained how I had almost ended up in their lake when the branch road I was following ended as a boat ramp already covered with flood water.
 
Nancy said:
Frankly, to be completely honest, we don't really know what we're doing and we're inventing it as we go along.
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True for all of us!
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The powerful can't observe this as they are blinded by their own flash ... thus we spread the inky word! Makes for grand myths ...
 
It's interesting to me that many churches are scrambling to still put out their OWN worship & study resources etc. It seems to me this would be a really good time to embrace cooperation - to join hands with other churches/congregations who have experience with such things, rather than trying to learn it all on the fly ourselves. Have your congregation tune in to another church's usual livestream of their service etc - maybe follow it up with a zoom room chat of your own folks. Use existing online resources (eg from Prayer Bench) for study, discussion etc. And yet, I sense in some quarters that there is still resistance to this. Interesting to observe.
 
Been thinking the same thing @Carolla. Maybe some of our clergy people are worried about being seen as "not working" if they don't produce something for Sunday.
 
paradox3 said:
Been thinking the same thing @Carolla. Maybe some of our clergy people are worried about being seen as "not working" if they don't produce something for Sunday.
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On the other hand, leading and moderating a discussion on a congregation's private FB group or live via Zoom (or similar) also requires them to produce (come up with some discussion questions, pick the resources to base it on, and so on) and do work. At least that's how I would see it.
 
Or possibly worry about allegiance? People finding other church & study sites interesting? Potential drop in givings? Perhaps that sounds cynical - but I think these are quite possibly real. There still seems to be 'competition' in some communities.
 
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