Dear Manchester Nazarene Family,
I miss you! It has been too long since we have seen each other, talked together, sat together, been together! But that is about to change!
I am happy to announce that we will resume worship services on Saturday night, July 4 and Sunday morning July 5th. Here are the details.
In order to comply with the governor’s orders, we will resume public worship in two services.
On Saturday nights at 5:00 PM, we will hold a worship service that is socially distanced with required masks (conforming to the governor’s orders.). We will sit in pews marked with green tape. We will receive offerings in Offering Boxes placed in the rear of the sanctuary. We will use special, prepackaged communion elements when we resume that sacrament. Hand sanitizing stations will be placed throughout the facility. Doors will be propped open. Bathrooms will be for emergency use only; disinfecting agents will be in the bathrooms, meaning children under thirteen will need to be accompanied by an adult in the bathroom, to insure safe handling of disinfectants. We will converse outside the building in the fresh air as much as possible.
On Saturday night, the facility will be cleaned and sanitized.
On Sunday mornings, at 10:45 AM, we will hold our regular worship service with the same guidelines as the Saturday night services. We will sit in pews marked with blue tape. Coffee and continental breakfast will not be served; nursery service will not be available.
For the summer, we will suspend all Sunday School classes, as we develop plans for the fall.
We have created a reopening committee that will oversee the ongoing planning for both school and church, and is investigating best practices in the changing environment. We have been in consultation with Diversified Building Services (DBS), a professional cleaning company, to help us develop strategies to keep us all safe from contagion during these days.
We will continue to provide live streaming of our services into the fall season, as some will be unable to return when we open. We hope as many of you as are comfortable will return quickly, but we understand that each family must make their own decisions in this matter. Our goal is to make sure that in everything we do, we act with kindness and compassion, being willing to support those who might feel differently about things than we do, or who might not be ready to return to more traditional ways of doing things. After all, “The way we do, what we do” is as important as “What we do,” in the Kingdom of God!
Get your masks ready and consider which service you will attend. We will need some folks to attend the Saturday night service, so consider if this is possible for you. We look forward to the time when we can all be together in God’s house again!
Blessings in Christ,
Pastor Dan Whitney
Tithes and Offerings
Thank you to all who have been sending in Tithes and Offerings in various ways (including nailing them to my front tree!) Please continue to use the APP, the Mail, your online banking APPs and other ways to give your offerings. Also, we have established a new Compassion Fund for those in our congregation who may need financial support due to the recent events. To contribute, look for that designation on the Church App or write a note in the margin of your check.
Celebrate Recovery
Celebrate Recovery public meetings are scheduled to resume on July 16 under safe conditions.
For details, please contact Dave at 860 432 8251 or email him at Profdave8@cox.net
“God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” II Tim 1:7.
Watch mcnaz.com/recovery for further announcements