The United Church of Canada’s Office of Vocation is releasing its expectations that ministry personnel will be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to protect the vulnerable in their churches and communities. Learn more at https://united-church.ca/news/vaccine-expectation-ministers
Category: COVID-19
There are many articles being submitted with regards to ventilation systems, their efficiency and how to maximize air quality. Most articles deal with spaces ventilated with forced air at reasonable pressure, filtered and distributed through appropriately designed diffusion grills providing the necessary air flows evenly through a defined space. The large majority of our buildings are not designed this way and rely on natural ventilation with steam and or hot water heating. The air changes in...
Being an avid choral singer and deeply appreciative of the role of music in worship, I have been searching around the internet for reliable information on the question of the safety of singing in church in COVID times. I have come across two things that might be valuable to United Church congregations (and others as well) as their leaders ponder how to safely bring back choral music to in person worship. Below is a link to a recently published scientific article called Safer Singing During the...
[PHOTO: Daniel Schludi – Unsplash] I’m writing this at the end of a federal election campaign in which anti-vaccine protests got much of the attention. It seems that vaccination has dominated our news for months. As many communities of faith return to in-person worship, I get questions about vaccination and churches: can access to the church building be restricted to fully vaccinated people? Can ministry personnel and lay employees be required to be vaccinated? Can ministers issue exemptions...
(prepared by Peter Bisset, chair of COVID Response Team) Many churches are starting to receive requests regarding choir singing and concerts. In response to this, the COVID19 Task Group recognizes this will become a local church decision sooner or later, however, we would suggest consideration be given to the following risk assessment when deciding to proceed with any of these activities. We shall assume at this time the risk of the variant spread is high and it is transmitted as an aerosol....
Although larger numbers are now permitted to gather for worship and other activities, communities of faith are reminded that allowable numbers in any enclosed space are based on capacity of the space with social distancing. Mask-wearing and other safety protocols remain critical for the health of our communities. Many communities of faith were excited to hear that the government now allows singing (with 2 m social distancing and wearing of masks); however, singing is an activity that could...
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