“We are ready to celebrate!” exclaims Pastor Becky Fitch from Bradford Community Church.
Premier Doug Ford announced the other week churches can open at 30 percent capacity. Since then, churches have been scrambling to find a way to re-open with new safety protocols in place.
For Bradford Community Church, this meant changing its services to an outdoor setting.
“We have been told we can have an outdoor service so we will be having one service for everyone,” said Pastor Becky.
The service will be every Sunday at 10 a.m.
To prepare, Pastors Shane and Becky Fitch painted spaced out white squares on the grass outside the church for families to sit in.
Members are to bring their own chairs and pop up tents are provided for those requiring shade.
However, if the weather does not cooperate, the church will move its service indoors.
“We will be staggering people in different rooms,” explains Pastor Shane. “We can accommodate 60 people upstairs and 40 people in the basement with social distancing in place.”
The Fitches sent out a detailed survey to its members to find out what preferences they had for service styles, and their comfort levels.
For those choosing to stay home, worship services continue to stream live from Facebook as well.
Holy Martyrs of Japan will be opening its doors on June 24 and have been working hard to create a safe space for parishioners to come and worship.
“For mass, people need to register online where they will receive a ticket,” explains Father Joshua Roldan. “We have physical distancing lines, sanitizers, and safety training for the volunteers to create a safe worship space for our faithfuls.”
Although the church can hold up to 750 people (with a capacity of 225 at 30 percent), Father Joshua notes that with physical distancing, the sanctuary is limited to 100 people inside.
Services will be held Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays at 7 p.m. And Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 9 a.m. They will also continue to stream the services on their Youtube channel on Sundays at 10 a.m.
All churchgoers must now wear a mask, and there will be no congregational singing allowed.
“It will be a new reality for a lot of people, they will have to get used to it for now,” comments Father Joshua. “Things won’t go back to the way they were, but they will get better.”
Bradford Baptist Church is preparing to open its doors on June 28.
“We’re getting things into place,” states Pastor Tim Walker. “We need volunteers to direct people into the auditorium where there will be single, double, and triple chair areas, as well as family zones – all spaced out.”
The church’s capacity, which usually holds around 300 people, is set to accept 90 people with social distancing.
“We do have people who won’t be coming back until things settle down,” Walker notes.
Although some churches are embracing the challenges with reopening, some have decided to remain closed for safety reasons.
Ken Clarke, Chair Counsel for Bradford United Church, said they will not be opening their doors until August.
“There are too many protocols,” notes Clarke. “There is still a lot of concern with regards to a second wave… we want to wait.”
Bradford Trinity Anglican Church posted a statement on behalf of all Anglican Bishops in Ontario, across all seven dioceses, that they will remain closed until at least September.
“We have been encouraged to continue with our online worship and other programs. In our case we have Facebook Live worship every Sunday at 10 a.m. on our Facebook page,” explains Reverend Dana Dickson, Incumbent Priest at Trinity Anglican Church.
