Onsite Worship Protocols for Summer 2021
Trinity continues its onsite worship services with relaxed safety protocols. Below are the updated protocols for the Sunday morning worship service applicable through August 2021:
Preparations for the Trinity building and personal behavioral expectations include:
- Thorough cleaning on a regular basis, with frequently touched surfaces being sanitized.
- Middle and side entry doors to the sanctuary will be propped open and will remain open for the entire worship service (minimizes touch contact with the door handles and increases ventilation within the sanctuary).
- Bottles of liquid hand sanitizer will continue to be available for use in the narthex. The water fountains outside the restrooms will remain unplugged and covered on Sunday morning. Please bring your own personal water containers or bottles. No food or beverages will be offered on Sunday morning.
- During Sunday morning worship the wearing of a face mask or covering is optional for those who have been fully vaccinated. A small number of face masks will be available on the narthex table for those who feel more comfortable wearing a face mask during worship,
- If on Sunday morning you are experiencing a fever (in excess of 100.4oF), coughing, shortness of breath or other symptoms potentially indicating COVID-19 infection, please refrain from attending onsite worship on that morning.
The worship service itself will continue to be a little different than what we were accustomed to in pre-pandemic times. The revised worship service characteristics will be:
- We anticipate that our Sunday morning onsite worship attendance is likely to increase with the relaxation of CDC safety guidelines. To the degree possible with the increased attendance, individuals and family groups should attempt to find seating in the pews while maintaining social distancing.
- Bulletins in the traditional format will be printed and available for all attending the onsite worship service. These printed bulletins will not be distributed by ushers but will be available for pickup on the information table positioned in the center of the narthex.
- The narthex information table will also display copies of the weekly Communicator, information on upcoming special offerings and mission events, as well as prayer request slips and offering envelopes, with pencils to assist in filling in those forms. Completed prayer request forms and offering envelopes can then be deposited in offering baskets located at the sanctuary entry doors.
- Hymnals, Bibles, pencils and attendance pads will still be absent from the sanctuary pews. Hymnals and Bibles will be available in the narthex on a cart. Worshippers are requested to return the hymnals and Bibles to the cart at the conclusion of the worship service.
- There will be no vocal choir performances until September. Vocal and instrumental solos, performed from the dais, will continue, as well as the periodic performances of Trinity’s hand chime choir from the front of the sanctuary. Congregational singing of the hymns is permitted.
- During the summer there will be no children’s sermon or children’s Sunday school classes, so children will remain with their families during worship. No nursery attendants will be provided, so use of the nursery room will be limited to parents and their children, as necessary. (Our intention is to resume our children’s programs in September.)
- There will be no collection of offering during the service. Offerings will be deposited in the offering baskets located at the sanctuary entry doors.
- On Communion Sundays (first Sunday of the month) servers will not be distributing the communion elements. Trinity has a supply of prepackaged communion “kits”, each with a wafer and sealed juice cup, which will be placed on tray tables near the sanctuary entry doors, to be picked up by worshippers when entering the sanctuary. (Our intention is to return to communion element distribution in September.)
- Following the benediction and postlude, after-worship socializing is permitted in the sanctuary or narthex.
