Over the past eighteen months a team of friends from Christ Church have been meeting to discuss and agree the best ways to keep our services as safe as possible. The team, under the direction of Daniel Pitt, formulated a detailed risk assessment which has formed the basis of our covid response plans.

Now that the government have announced the end of legal restrictions on many of the aspects that we have come to accept as normal, the group has met again to assess what changes we propose in the light of this relaxation.

At each decision point over the past year or so, the group has considered a set of criteria and made decisions based on them.

1. The R number (rate of infection)
2. The number of local cases and admissions to, and deaths in, GWH

The current measures are increasing rapidly week by week so, despite the legal changes to Government policy, we feel that, logically, we should not rush to change everything back to normal.

We are keen that no-one feels unsafe in church and so have decided for July and August to remain with current social distancing measures and to recommend the wearing of masks inside the church. Congregational singing remains to be decided and we expect advice on this in the coming days. We will of course continue to monitor trends carefully in the meantime and should things change for the better, reconsider our position accordingly.

The Re-opening Committee members are Simon Stevenette, Daniel and Caroline Pitt, Stephen Grosvenor, Chris Smith, Norma McKemey, Anne Macmillan, Sandie Rule. It is important that we listen to everyone’s views on this as whatever we do, we must do as a church community caring for each other.

If you can spare a few minutes, we would like to hear your views on our proposals or any other ideas you may have.