Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have been separated due to Covid 19 and we know that all of us miss gathering to worship.  After much prayer, discussion and planning, the leadership at OCC has developed a plan to open the church for Sunday services on June 14, 2020.  We will need to adjust our services, at least for a few weeks, to make it as safe as possible.

 

Some of us may not feel comfortable or safe gathering to worship.  We want everyone to know that is ok.  Please know that making the decision to continue to worship at home does not mean a lack of faith or living in fear.  This is a personal decision that each of us must prayerfully make.  The service will continue to be streamed to Facebook & YouTube so you can worship with us from home until you are comfortable to join us in person.

 

Below you will find a list of some of the changes we will make to keep everyone safe and still allow us to gather to worship.  We ask that everyone be respectful and do their best to follow these changes.

  1. If you have experienced any of these symptoms in the last 14 days:
    1. Fever or chills
    2. Cough
    3. Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
    4. Fatigue
    5. Headache
    6. Sore throat
    7. Nausea or vomiting

or you have been exposed to someone that has tested positive for Covid 19, please stay home and use our online streaming service. 

  1. To be respectful of the thoughts and feelings of others, we ask that handshakes, hugging, and touching one another in any way (other than direct family members who you sit with) not take place at this time.  
  2. Masks are encouraged but will not be required.  
  3. Please utilize the hand sanitizing stations that are placed around the church building.  
  4. To minimize touchpoints in the building, 
    1. The doors will be propped open for touchless entry.  Please enter & exit the church using the doors on the right side of the entryway.
    2. Prepackaged communion emblems will be available to pick up on your way into the auditorium
    3. There will be baskets at the front and back of the auditorium to drop off your offering
    4. The drinking fountain will be turned off
    5. Coffee will not be provided.  Please feel free to bring your own!
    6. The playground will not be open for children to use as we do not have a way of sanitizing the touchpoints on the equipment
    7. There will be no paper bulletins
  5. We will not have any children’s programming or a nursery and those areas will be blocked off.
  6. We have roped off rows of chairs.  Please ensure you keep 2 open chairs in between families.  Elders will help direct you to your seats so we can maximize our space. 
  7. Once the service is done, we ask that you please visit outside the building.
  8. If you test positive or you are exposed to someone that tests positive for covid 19, we ask that you please let us know as soon as possible.  We will not share names but we want to ensure we notify our church family as soon as possible of any potential exposures.  

 

These temporary changes will cause our worship to be different than normal, but we feel it is the safest way to reopen the church for worship and look forward to gathering to praise God together!  Feel free to call the elders to discuss these temporary changes or to ask questions about them.