COVID Updates March 2022

Throughout the pandemic, our pastors and elders have continued to discuss the best ways to respond to the virus in order to offer everyone the safest pathway through.

While COVID-19 remains likely to be with us for the foreseeable future, the widespread vaccination programme in England is proving effective in reducing hospitalisation.

This outline provides guidance for anyone wanting to connect with services or events at BCC in person, effective from March 2022.

IT IS YOUR CHOICE WHETHER TO WEAR A FACE MASK

You are free to make your own decision whether to wear a face mask or not when you come to BCC.  If you would like to wear a face mask still, please bring your own one along with you.

Please continue to be respectful of other people’s choices about wearing masks, as mask-wearing is likely to be ongoing for some people for some years into the future.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO STAY AWAY IF YOU ARE FEELING UNWELL!

If you are not feeling well, and especially if you have COVID symptoms, please don't attend church in person!

If you have a taken a COVID lateral flow test which returns a positive result, please stay away for the appropriate period until you are no longer infectious.

PLEASE KEEP SANITISING YOUR HANDS

Please do keep on sanitising your hands as you arrive, as you leave and during your time with us, using our wall-mounted hand sanitiser points.

This is generally a good practice anyway, regardless of COVID.

SHAKE HANDS OR HUG WITH THE OTHER PERSON’S PERMISSION

Our practice is that you can go ahead and hug and shake hands with others but only if the other person is fine with that too.

VENTILATION

Every effort will be made to keep our rooms well-ventilated for our services and events.

External organisations hiring our premises must keep a very watchful eye on any doors that are left open to ensure they are properly supervised.

PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN DRINKING WATER IN RE-USEABLE BOTTLES

To keep our overall hygiene high, please bring your own water with you to the church in re-usable bottles.  We do not permit anything other than drinking water in our auditorium.

PRAYER MINISTRY IS AVAILABLE AFTER OUR SERVICES

People may be asked forwards occasionally to the front of our auditorium by our platform to respond to a message; and once the service has formally closed, individual prayer ministry may also be offered.

After the service, our PA system sound levels will be reduced sufficiently for conversations to be heard, so that people do not have to shout to be heard during prayer.  This reduces the risk of droplet infection between people standing near each other.

People wanting prayer and people offering prayer will arrange whether masks are wanted between them as they pray.

COMMUNION CONTINUES IN INDIVIDUAL PORTIONS

Communion is offered using individually-sealed wafers and juice, which can be collected from our upper lobby on the first Sunday of each month when we serve communion.

RETURNING YOUR TITHES AND BRINGING OFFERINGS

We are no longer passing round offering buckets at Sunday services.

It is much preferred if you can give online at http://bcc.life/give, but you can also place your giving envelopes in the drop-points on either side of the doors at the back of the auditorium.

LIFE CAFÉ

For Sunday congregation attendees, we will be beginning to re-open our Life Café as our volunteers for this ministry begin to return.

We aim for the café to be open between our two morning services from April 2022.

We aim for the café to be open after the second service from May 2022.

Both of these goals are fully dependent on volunteers being willing to serve in our café, so if you would like to help us get the café up and running again, please do let us know at admin@bcc.life – we’d love to hear from you!

WE WILL NOT BE BEHAVING DIFFERENTLY TO YOU DEPENDENT ON YOUR VACCINATION STATUS

We will not be behaving differently towards you if you have been vaccinated or if you have not.

If you come to the building you do need to assume from now on that you might be near someone who may or may not be vaccinated, or who may or may not be infectious with COVID.

There will be no requirement for any kind of vaccination passport system or proof of having been vaccinated to come to the building.

WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO COME BACK WHEN YOU ARE READY!

For our Sunday and midweek meetings, we warmly encourage our congregation to come back to the building when you are ready!

Please continue to watch on the livestreams via YouTube from home if you are not ready.

LASTLY: STILL GOT QUERIES?

We hope all of this provides you with strong assurances that we are monitoring the situation carefully, to balance your freedom with your health. However if you want to ask a question please just email in to admin@bcc.life and we will respond to you.

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Page last updated by Pastor Nick on Thursday 10th March 2022