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This week is supposed to be a rollercoaster, and for once that’s not a reference to the U.S. election — if the forecast holds, we’ll race through this early taste of winter and, depending on your point of view, either backtrack to fall or rush to early spring. By mid-month, however, chillier weather will return and with it a concern we’ve been hearing about — managing the flow of people leaving church. One priest reports that people are forgetting about distancing and rushing for the exits all at once; another notes people can’t resist stopping and talking inside after the liturgy and some report that on arrival, people come in then go back outside when they realize friends are chatting outdoors.

This is a tough one:  the point of church is community, and when have any of us ever needed that more? But the case count is climbing, so while no one wants to be a traffic cop, we must remember to ensure everyone follows the rules. Here’s paragraph 59 from In This Together V2: 

To avoid crowding and bottlenecks, there is no receiving line following a service. The congregation should simply leave, maintaining physical distance from others and using the designated exits. Sidespeople should manage people exiting from the church, ensuring people do not mingle and maintain social distancing on walkways and in parking areas. 

Maybe a note in the bulletin will help, perhaps it can be mentioned as the service ends (“Go in peace to love and serve the Lord, while maintaining physical distance and keeping your mask on”?).  OK, maybe not quite. But kind and gentle reminders that socializing must be limited just now are important. 

To ease disappointment and reach people who aren’t ready to come to church, consider holding Zoom coffee hours to let parishioners have a chance to chat. You can even use breakout rooms to give people the chance to gather into smaller groups, just as they normally do: 

Breakout rooms allow you to split your Zoom meeting into up to 50 separate sessions. The meeting host can choose to split the participants of the meeting into these separate sessions automatically or manually, or they can allow participants to select and enter breakout sessions as they please. [See: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/206476093-Enabling-breakout-rooms] 

On a housekeeping note, our list of virtual services in the diocese shows 35 churches with online offerings:  https://www.ottawa.anglican.ca/images/COVID-19/ADO-Virtual-Service-Schedule-l.pdf.  

However, it has not been updated since the spring, and we are wondering if the information is current. If you have, or think you might have a mention on the list, please check it now and send any updates or corrections to C19helpdesk@ottawa.anglican.ca. If you have an online liturgy now that you didn’t before, let us know and we’ll post it. And, of course, that’s also the email for any questions or concerns you have. 

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