Building Reopening Plans and Guidelines

Building Reopening Plans and Guidelines

Beginning Sunday, June 28, 2020, we will be worshiping online and in person!

Here is some important initial information from FPC:E Leaders about returning to our physical building for worship at 25% capacity. This information will be updated/revised as needed:

• There will be one service at 9:30am. We are not able to offer childcare at this time. If you are not ready or able to worship in person, we hope you will continue to join us as we stream the service on our Facebook page and through our church website.
• If you, or anyone else in your family, have any signs of illness (temperature, cough, congestion, body aches, etc.), or in the last two weeks have been in contact with anyone who has COVID-19, or have traveled to/from a state or country under the NYS Travel Advisory- please stay home and worship online at: https://ourlivinghope.church/livestream
• Everyone will enter the church through the Grant Street entrance. Therefore, please leave extra parking spaces closest to that entrance for those with mobility issues. If you are physically able, we encourage you to park in the back lot & walk around to the front entrance.
• Please keep at least 6’ between you and non-family members, especially as you enter and leave the building.
• As you come into the Gathering Area, you will find hand sanitizer to use as you arrive and leave the building.
• We ask you to wear a mask. The one time masks are optional is when you are seated in the sanctuary and not singing. We will have some masks available upon arrival, if you need one. (The worship team/preacher will not wear masks while actively leading worship, but will maintain extra social distance.)
• Upon entering the sanctuary, you will check in, so we have your contact information in the event that someone present on a given Sunday becomes ill with Covid-19.
• The sanctuary chairs have been arranged with at least 6’ between rows. Please leave three empty chairs (or the aisle) on either side of your family unit.
• All announcements, words to the songs, scripture, and information will be on the screen; there are no longer bulletins or inserts. Your gifts/tithes may be given online or placed in the offering box at the entrance to the sanctuary before or after the service.
• Everyone is asked to use the accessible restrooms below the sanctuary. Unless part of the same immediate family, only one person should be in the restroom at a time.
• At the end of the service, please put your mask back on and respect social distance guidelines as you go directly outside and as you talk with others after you leave the building. Those who return to worship in person will be eager to renew connections, but everyone will also come with different needs, anxieties and frustrations about this new norm. Please be respectful of one another; be filled with grace and practice behaviors that honor and protect one another.