Returning to in-person worship at St James

UPDATE 20/07 - The updated changes are listed below in bold.
  • We have returned to be back in person
  • We have a thorough risk assessment to keep our whole Church community safe
  • We will be following St James’ Risk assessment and Government Guidance to help inform our decisions.
  • We will be constantly monitoring the situation regularly and making adjustments to how we do stuff when the time is right
  • Services are streamed live on our YouTube channel for people who wish to attend from home, and will be available to catch up with after the service has ended
  • The things listed will be under monitoring from the Board and will be adjusted when we know it is working ok
Arriving at Church:
  • We will not need people to prebook
  • We will expect people to wear face masks whilst they are inside the church, unless exempt
  • We will ask that everyone who has the NHS Covid-19 app to scan St James barcode on the way in
  • We will ask people to utilise the hand sanitiser provided, or use their own as they enter the building
  • You will be guided to a seat by the welcome team, where you must sit.
During the service:
  • Congregational singing is allowed whilst wearing face masks for the time being
  • The peace will be observed from your pew looking around at the people around you and waving/using BSL sign for peace
  • Communion will be done differently. We are doing individual portions of bread and wine that can be collected on the way in
After the service:
  • From August 1st, we will be serving refreshments at the back of church to take outside to enjoy
  • As the open space at the back of church isn’t large enough to enable social distancing between people and groups, we will unfortunately have to ask you to leave the building after the service and not mingle inside of the church, unless involved with packing up or cleaning down the church, or speaking with a member of the pastoral care team
  • We won’t be hosting a post service zoom call, as it isn’t practical to do so
  • If people wish to chat outside after the service, they should be “socially distanced”