Church is back!
Good news from Holyrood – we can resume services from 26th March. Thereafter all services will be at 10am every Sunday unless the coronavirus regulations change.
We will follow the safety procedures that were put in place last autumn as follows:
You are asked to bring a mask with you which should be worn throughout the service. There will be a table at the entrance with hand sanitiser and tissues for you to use. You will pick up an order of service booklet (and pew slip) from the table at the back of the church which you will be asked to take away with you and keep for your own use, bringing it back every time you come to church. Please take the pew slip home and recycle with you usual paper waste.
There will an indication on the pews as to where you should sit. These places will be 2 metres apart, staggered through the pews. Use the centre aisle to find a place to sit and the side aisles to leave. Only people from the same household should sit in the same pew. When you go up for communion, you should go in single file up the centre aisle and return to your seat using the side aisles. Communion will be only the wafer and the priest, wearing a mask, will administer this standing in front of the altar. Please wear a mask when you go up to receive and only consume the wafer when you have returned to your seat and can safely remove your mask momentarily.
There will be no hymn singing, no physical passing of the peace and no refreshments after the service. Any social interaction must take place at a social distance outside the building, not inside. The toilet will only be available for emergency use.
Please don’t come if you have any symptoms of Covid-19 – you all know what they are – or if you are shielding. Online services will continue to be available on the SEC website for the foreseeable future.
It will be lovely to see you all again in church. If we do have a problem with keeping a safe distance then we may have to review the arrangements but we are not all that many in number so should be OK.
We look forward to welcoming everyone back to worship at St Margaret’s but, for those who are unable or nervous about coming back, the Scottish Episcopal Church is offering an online service. This can be accessed via a link on scotland.anglican.org from 11am every Sunday.
