An Update Regarding COVID-19
Health authorities say that the best protection against coronavirus is to wash your hands with soap and water for at least 25 seconds on a regular basis. / Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
Dear Friends,
As news continues to circulate around COVID-19, I’d like to keep you updated on how our church is planning and preparing for its impact on our life as a community.
Our church has been keeping regularly apprised of Toronto Public Health’s recommendations and have been adhering to best practices including ensuring hand-sanitizing stations are available at the entrance for any ministry event, and that frequent contact surfaces are sanitized regularly. We have also modified some higher-risk practices to better accommodate the kind of healthy and safe environment that our church ought to be. A recent public health inspection of our church confirmed that the precautions we’re taking are appropriate at this time.
We continue to strongly encourage frequent hand washing, proper techniques for coughing/sneezing, self-isolation if returning from an area with a known outbreak and choosing to remain home if you feel unwell. It is important to take these good, wise precautions—not only for our own health, but for the health of those who are most vulnerable in our community.
We’re certainly in very new and unfamiliar circumstances – with COVID-19 just declared a global pandemic, the reality that local transmission of this disease is likely to happen in Toronto is clearer than ever before. Given this reality, some churches have chosen to stop services while others have chosen to remain open. For now, we are choosing to remain open, but we are aware that we may be asked by public health officials to stop gathering, and contingency planning for that possibility is under way.
While no ministries have yet been cancelled or postponed, in the event that they are, we will ensure these changes will be communicated through these channels:
On the front page of our website
On social media (@knoxtoronto across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter)
Via email (to participants or, if church services are cancelled, to all members and in the weekly email)
Via phone (if you require phone notification of ministry changes, please contact the church office to request this)
It is important, as followers of Jesus, that we remain in the mind of Christ. We should refrain from hoarding for ourselves, choosing to live into God’s kingdom of abundance and trusting that even as we leave enough for others God will provide for our needs. Similarly, we should cooperate with any instructions given by our governments or public health agencies that are given to protect, contain, or respond to this disease – knowing that, while earthly authorities may be broken and make mistakes, they exist for our well-being and should be respected.
Even amidst global fear, we are called to care for the very least, which includes those who are most susceptible to this virus. We should care for our neighbours, refraining from any temptation toward racial bias and checking in on those who may not have family or friends nearby. We should also remain mindful that the Christian story is one that looks at death closely—especially during this Lenten journey toward the cross—and we find that death has marked our world in many ways but that it has been overcome. We remember that, even in death, the God of all life promises life more abundant than we presently know.
I hope that, as followers of Jesus, we might continue to love the city and serve the world to the fullest extent that we can. May we seize upon opportunities to pray with others who are anxious, connect with those who feel alone, journey alongside others realizing that even in this situation our God meets us, equips us to be the very hands and feet of Christ, and calls us to be a blessing to others.
Your pastor,
Nick
The Rev. Nick Renaud
Assistant Minister
(416) 921-8993 x.3231
