What is your church doing re masks/singing/communion with the new rules?

[elliejjtiny]

Just wondering what other people/churches are doing?

We were planning on having our carol service next week in person but now we are considering having it over zoom like we did last year.

We are also planning on saying everyone has to wear a mask when in the building (unless exempt) which we have never done before.

I have to admit I'm really struggling with all this. I really struggle with wearing a mask, especially for long periods, but I don't struggle enough to be exempt. I normally avoid going to places where I need to wear one unless essential but I can't really do this with church. I will attend services online when available but that is only an option for the midweek meetings. All sunday services are in person only and as the pastor's wife I can't really not attend just to avoid wearing a mask like I can do with shops, cinema etc. Also my 8 year old is deaf so he is really going to struggle with everyone having their faces covered.

M church have been wearing masks for the last few weeks when rates started going up. They have continued to wear them for singing throughout the whole pandemic. This Christmas the service is outside in the churchyard.

We have been wearing masks, sanitising pews, not singing and social distancing since Covid started.
There will be no Carol Service again this year.

Some of the bigger churches in the area are doing Zoom services.

My church has been providing a zoom link to the in person services throughout, could this be an option to float with your partner/ the trustees etc? I think we're currently planning to continue with this for the foreseeable, with social groups going online bc chatting is easier that way. We've also been wearing masks throughout.
We have quite a few CEV congregation members so it makes sense for us, although it is yet another thing to get people to volunteer for.

Isn't being the mother of a child with additional needs an exemption? He needs you to show your whole face.

We are wearing masks in church, except when speaking from the front or leading sung worship.

We're distributing refreshments where people are sat, rather than letting them wander about to fetch their own.

Carrying on as normal. Just with masks. I discovered during our Carol service, just how difficult singing in a mask is.

Never stopped wearing masks here. Continuing as planned on Sunday except no mulled wine afterwards

Masks unless exempt and always for singing(so if you can only cope wearing one for a short space of time make that be when you are singing). Communion has been host only, switched from torn bread to white wafers, and no wine since the start of covid as they only do common cup. I’m not entirely sure why. Longing for full communion again one day.

Carol service will be outside. With fire pits. Might be warmer than our indoor services with wind tunnel from all the doors open.

Masks unless exempt and always for singing(so if you can only cope wearing one for a short space of time make that be when you are singing). Communion has been host only, switched from torn bread to white wafers, and no wine since the start of covid as they only do common cup. I’m not entirely sure why. Longing for full communion again one day.

Carol service will be outside. With fire pits. Might be warmer than our indoor services with wind tunnel from all the doors open.

@SilenceOfThePrams the common cup is a theological statement about sharing and being 'in communion'. It's not one my church has chosen to abide by, though the bishop says we should! We're using Methodist style shot glasses we acquired during swine flu!

We distributed refreshments this week, to avoid people moving around and congregating in the kitchen. It helped, but wasn't entirely abided by.

Masks for the congregation, but singing is allowed through masks. Clergy and choir/music group do not need to wear masks when they are performing.

We have taken out a third of our seats to allow for some social distancing, and have perspex screens upstairs.

All of our services are in the building and live online (YouTube).

Thankyou everyone. When we opened up in person in July after being online since March 2020 we have been serving people tea/coffee in their seats and doing communion with a bread roll and a shot glass of wine per household. So it's just the masks that's a new thing. We've found that if we have a zoom option then most people will do that and we will end up with about 6 people maximum in the church which some people find a bit depressing. So we have compromised with having the Sunday services in person only and the mid week stuff with a zoom option.

We've found the zoom option mid week brilliant for general attendance because it means couples with dc can both go to the stuff in the evening instead of taking it in turns to stay at home with the dc. Although we have a lot less people in the building than we did before covid we have quadrupled the number of people attending midweek prayer meetings/bible studies.

We tried singing with masks on this week which wasn't too bad thank goodness. Some people thought we should have the carol service with masks and no singing but I thought a carol service without carols would be a bit rubbish.

[quote picklemewalnuts]@SilenceOfThePrams the common cup is a theological statement about sharing and being 'in communion'. It's not one my church has chosen to abide by, though the bishop says we should! We're using Methodist style shot glasses we acquired during swine flu!

We distributed refreshments this week, to avoid people moving around and congregating in the kitchen. It helped, but wasn't entirely abided by. [/quote]
Yes. And I get that, and it’s beautiful. But after nearly two years, I’d prefer to go for shot glasses than nothing. We’ve moved from a loaf of bread, broken for you, to little wafer thingies. If we can bend that then I’m not sure why we can’t pour from one bottle into many little cups.

One day…

I agree, silence!

When we came back in the summer, it was masks for everything (except for leader and band singers) unless you watched on screen from a room set aside for non-mask-wearers, communion is dipped wafers and no singing from congregation until that was allowed. All services on YouTube and Zoom. Zoom option was removed in Sept to encourage more people back to church but when that didn't work it was reinstated. Zones in church ( one socially distanced, one semi-distanced, one not distanced). A few weeks in, it was masks could be removed 5 mins after service ended during refreshments (so people had time to leave first if they wanted). A few weeks ago, we moved to masks when moving around and singing but optional otherwise. So found it bizarre when government announced masks to be worn except for singing given the singing ban that was in place for so long! Now back to masks all the time, no refreshments but otherwise going ahead as normal.

We've followed the Church of England rules throughout, so never bogged ourselves down with what might be inconsistent/illogical.

The most annoying thing at the moment is having to keep the doors open.

We're Anglican, reopened as soon as we could in Summer 2020, with a brief closure during the third lockdown (when cases locally were through the roof).

We wear masks unless we're at the front reading/praying/preaching, and have done since the start of the pandemic. Those leading singing don't wear masks but are screened (and have a microphone).

We have individual cups for communion. I'm aware this is against official (Anglican) rules.

We live stream as well. Since the summer, you have to ask for the link; it's not available publicly to encourage people to meet in person, though I don't think you have to explain yourself! We go in person.

We chat afterwards outside or in the halls, where mask wearing is optional - the aim is to make the services as safe as possible, while socialising is optional.

I personally really dislike masks; they make the singing much less encouraging, but I can understand why we have them.

We've interpreted the guidance as ok to have masks off to sing. Masks on when moving around, although I don't manage to keep mine on all the time sitting, especially when interacting with my children (they need to see me telling them to pipe down!!)

We are on individual emblems etc.
Lots of people still on zoom with us because they say they don't want to return until it is proper....

We are doing masks on unless leading from the front or exempt. And have been ever since reopening.

Communion wine is in individual plastic cups, with a tiny wafer embedded in the lid. They give me the giggles because they look so exactly like the portions of UHT milk you get in hotel rooms and the lids make a really loud crinkly noise just when everyone is trying to be solemn.

At the moment Carol services are going ahead as far as I know.

All services also videoed and available online later in the afternoon. And I must remember to thank the people that are making that happen because its a big job.