Before signing up for an in-person service at the bottom of this page, please take the time to read through the details below.
While we are making every effort to minimize risk, we realize that we cannot remove risk entirely. Please note that if you choose to attend an in-person service, you do so at your own risk.
If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to the church office.
Please visit our 2020 Fall Ministry page for details on what our weekly programming will look like in the months ahead in light of the ongoing pandemic.
Our leadership team has been working closely with Waterloo's Public Health Department to ensure that we are taking the necessary steps and precautions to keep our congregants and community safe as we begin to reopen our church. As Waterloo does not yet have specific reopening guidelines in place for churches, they have recommended that we follow the guidelines that have been laid out by Toronto Public Health at this time.
While we have outlined the specifics of what we are planning to do below, we encourage you to read through the COVID-19 Guidance for Reopening Places of Worship document, as well.
At this time, we are legally required to limit our in-person gatherings to a subset of our church's capacity. For this reason, we are only allowing 150 attendees to register for each in-person service. If a service is full, we encourage you to join our live stream, and to sign up for a later service instead.
Important Note: If you have not registered for a service, but show up in person anyway, you will not be granted entry.
Below is a summary of what you can expect as part of our in-person services. Please also take the time to read the COVID-19 Guidance for Reopening Places of Worship document.
Unfortunately, no. We are legally required to limit our attendance to no more than 30% of our sanctuary's capacity at this time. If there is no space left for a particular service, we invite you to sign up for the next one, or to consider signing up for one of our Sunday evening services!
At this time, only our service in the sanctuary will be running in person. We invite you and your children to join us online on Sundays for one of our Zoom Sunday School programs.
Our nursery, lounge, and children's church classrooms will not be open, so we ask that parents please be prepared to keep your children with you at all times during the service.
Yes. A by-law came into effect in Waterloo Region on July 13 that requires all attendees to wear a mask the entire time that you are in the church building. Children under the age of five, as well as those with a medical condition making them unable to safely wear a mask, are exempt from this requirement.
If you are taking drugs to suppress immunity for diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis
If you have any concerns about joining in person, we would encourage you to consult with your doctor.
Restrooms will be available, but we ask that they only be used in emergencies. If you do need to use the restroom, please ensure proper physical distancing within the bathroom facilities.
Based on the guidelines provided by Public Health, congregational singing is only permitted by those who are wearing a mask.
To limit touching of shared surfaces, the offering plate will not be passed around at this time. Instead, you may instead place your offering into the church office mail slot, or into an offering box that will be available in the foyer. We also continue to offer e-transfer as a giving method.
Once you have read all of the information above, you can sign up for our next service using the link below.
We ask if you sign up, but end up being unable to attend the service, that you please let us know as soon as possible so that we can open up your spot(s) to others who may have missed out.
Note: Online registration for each week closes at 6pm on Saturday. Phone registration closes at 6pm on Friday.