Dear all,
The Session of Saint Andrew’s Presbyterian Church has decided that as of today March 17th all activities and services at Saint Andrew’s church are suspended until further notice.
Those in our congregation must always seek to love one another. The potential for dire affects from the spreading COVID-19 virus has resulted in one time “When loving your neighbour means keeping your distance” as stated in the subheading of an opinion piece from the New York Times of March 14th (“The Christian Response to the Coronavirus: Stay Home”). Even though keeping your distance in theory could be accomplished where small numbers of people gather such as was the case when 37 or so attended the Saint Andrew’s service on March 15th, some people unthinkingly will touch pew rails, door knobs or other objects that others have touched and in turn will touch their face. Thus, although maintaining a safe distance from others, they might transfer the virus before they use hand sanitizer. Furthermore, the risk of transmission is increased because it has been determined that certain people may display no symptoms and be out and about from their time of exposure to some time longer than the 14 days it may take for symptoms of the disease to appear in vulnerable people.
Rev. Bob Jones has advised that he “would like to keep in touch by phone. He plans to call some of you to keep in touch. If anyone wants to email him you can send it on this email & he can read it.” bob.a.jones@icloud.com
Session members will investigate and, if possible, arrange for access to a type of service that may be patterned after that planned by Rev. MacWilliams who announced yesterday on Facebook that St. James “will provide a live streamed service on those mornings so that we can minister to people through technology and provide opportunities to worship together as a community, albeit online. We will post information in the coming days on how to access the livestream worship opportunities.”
Sheila Black has advised that “During this time of church closure you will find on the Church Blog:
Each Saturday there will be a Lenten Study update and the readings for the upcoming week.
Each Sunday there will be a new children’s story. At this time we will continue with the object lessons with the Resurrection Eggs
To access the blog follow this link http://sapc.ca/news-blog/ or you can access it through our web page http://sapc.ca/“
Also, follow Sheila’s children’s stories and check for updates on our Facebook page—maintained by Colleen Watson—or our Twitter feed.
Shalom,
Dallas Davis
Clerk of Session