We’re reopening for communal worship

Returning to communal worship

We’re opening our doors again for communal worship.

All are welcome – we hope you can join us but understand that you may wish to continue to worship with us from home. Our services will be recorded or live-streamed to enable you to do this, and our telephone worship service will remain open which you can use if you don’t have access to the internet. We worship as one body, wherever we are.

Church will look and feel very different because we are following Scottish Government and Church of Scotland guidelines but please be assured that you will be warmly welcomed.

Before you arrive 

Spaces are limited to 50, including worship leaders, welcomers and musicians and so we ask you to register each week in advance if you would like to come to church to worship. You can register by phone or online. When you register we will ask you for your contact details which  we keep on record for 21 days in case these are needed to track and trace a COVID-19 outbreak.

Registration for the coming Sunday opens at 11am on Wednesday and closes on Friday at 1pm 

• online – through Eventbrite (tickets go live at 11am Wednesday)
• by phone – 07956 336953  11am-1pm only Wednesday, Thursday and Friday

What to expect when you arrive at church 

• There will be welcomers to help you navigate
• Our doors will open at 10.15am for a 10.30am start
• A one way system in the sanctuary of entering through the main doors and exiting through the side doors
• You will have to wear a mask or face covering during the service, and observe 2m social distance at all times. Hand sanitiser will be available.
• The Undercroft is out of use, although limited use of the accessible toilet is possible.

Livestreaming and recording of the service

We will be livestreaming or recording the service so that people can join in from beyond our walls. The cameras will not be obtrusive and are likely to focus on worship leaders rather than the congregation. If you would prefer to be seated somewhere out of camera range we will do our best to accommodate this – please ask one of our welcomers.

Where will I sit?

When you arrive a welcomer will show you to your seat. Our sanctuary is set out with 50 socially distanced chairs and pew spaces. If you have registered to come to worship as a household you can sit together, otherwise you will be 2m from the nearest person.

What to expect during the service

You can expect prayers, reflection and contributions from different voices from our community. There will be music and even hymns to listen to, but no congregational singing.

We will project elements of the service so that you can follow the order.

Because we want to minimise touching points there will be no hymn books or Bibles in the sanctuary, nor orders of service apart from a few large print copies for single use.

There will be no offering taken during the service – you may place a freewill offering on the offering plate, or cash in the secure donations box, on arrival.

What to expect after the service

After the service we encourage you to leave the sanctuary by the side doors, keeping a 2m social distance.

Under current guidelines we can’t offer tea or coffee at church but we would love to welcome you to our Sunday Zoom Fellowship at noon, wherever you are. We’ll send out joining instructions in our weekly email or you can contact us for details .