UPDATED 8TH JANUARY 2021 Dear Church
It came as a great surprise that churches were given permission to stay open in England upon the Prime Minister’s announcement of this lockdown Pastors and church leaders up and down the country have been discussing and debating whether just because we can open we should, given the alarmingly high rates of new COVID cases which as we have seen in tonight’s news are now translating into tragic death toll figures.
Each local church must make its own decision based upon its own circumstances. One thing has become clear this week, the decision to close or open is very difficult. It is important that churches and individuals in the church do not criticise churches that make a decision different to their own. It is also important that people in a local church are slow to judge others in the same church who take a different stance over the risks of transmission of COVID 19 and the appropriateness or not of opening church up. A lot of grace and humility is needed.
At Diss Baptist Church we have chosen to open up for morning worship this Sunday at 10.30am. We have a very robust risk assessment and we feel that we have managed with your help to work that to an increasingly high standard. The trustees will meet to review and decide upon opening the week after and then on a weekly basis. If government guidance changes, or cases in Diss rise significantly we will consider shutting the building until the situation improves.
Some people will ask why, when schools and universities have closed we should stay open. The management of the risk of infection in a church, on top of the relatively easy task of managing the movement and flow of people in our type of building, is vastly different to a school or university where there is huge movement of young people in confined spaces, touching the same areas many times, and in the case of a university moving people across the regions of the country. Unlike in those environments, the government has not been able to give evidence that COVID transmission is a high threat in churches. The relative security of a church is the reason why we have been afforded this amazing privilege.
Children will be welcome to attend the service. As always, worksheets and activities will be available for them. There will be a children’s slot in the service. Your children will not be put in a situation where they are required to verbally answer questions. We would ask you to keep your own children with you at all times. Do bring them a snack and drink if you wish along with any other toys/books. We realise children make noise and get fidgety. Please do not feel at all embarrassed by this.
If you are over 70 or shielding we must ask you to think very hard about the appropriateness of coming out to church and instead would encourage you to watch online for the time being if you can.
In conclusion, we want to love our neighbour and some will say we best do that by ensuring we do not increase the risk of the spread of COVID into our community. With our robust plans in place, we believe, at least for this week, and reviewed weekly thereafter, that we can better love our neighbour, the weak, the widow, the orphan, the anxious, the lonely, the fearful, the vulnerable, the abused by staying open and giving those who want to come, the choice to be around other people. In church, we must not talk to one another nor sing together. Yet is the warmth of community that counts, knowing you are not alone in this. An open church – whilst we have the legal right to do so – is essential to the basic need of humans made in God’s image, created for community (Genesis 1:27).
Loving our neighbour is displaying Christ to a dark and dying world. Jesus is more urgently needed than a vaccine (and oh how we long for the vaccine to be rolled out!!). An open church is essential to welcome sinners into our services where they can hear the gospel proclaimed. We realise many in our church may not agree with this and that is OK. And that is why we will monitor this closely and continually. Please continue to pray for us as we seek to serve our community and proclaim the only True Hope in this bleakest of mid-winters.
Yours in our Lord Jesus Christ
The Trustees of Diss Baptist Church