COVID UPDATES
Updates about Covid-19 and Worship Gatherings
CURRENT UPDATES
Masks are no longer required per updated provincial guidelines. Some still choose to wear them for a variety of reasons and we respect either choice.
Registration is no longer required.
Please choose to worship from home via online if you have any cold/flu like symptoms. This is a good new norm.
We have a section of the sanctuary that will remain socially distanced for those who’d prefer this arrangement.
We are reintroducing our “name-tag” system for anyone who comes to in-person worship gatherings. Once you are in the foyer, please stop by the tables and fill out a name-tag. These benefit us in two ways. First, we can hopefully have a little help with names as we continue to come back together. Second, the colours will give others a sense of how to engage with you.
For clarity: we do not require our volunteers to demonstrate proof of vaccination. We ask that all of us use wisdom and think of others, no matter the illness we might have (cold, flu, etc.).
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RED: I want to love you from afar. Whether for vocational or personal reasons, I’d prefer to be socially distanced today.
YELLOW: I’m cautious, please ask before hugging, etc.
GREEN: I’m comfortable connecting with you socially in pre-pandemic ways.
UPDATE: 02/11/22
Hello Church Family,
As you know, the current wave of Covid (Omicron) is not over…but we are moving toward the end. This is good news! With this in mind, we wanted to update you on what to expect for this coming Sunday. Our plans continue to be rooted in love and in the ‘spirit’ of AHS’s requests of us.
Here’s what to expect for Sunday morning:
Masks will still be required to be in the building until we enter “phase 2” of the reopening plan. (This policy will exclude kids under 12 starting next week Sunday.)
Registration is no longer required.
Please choose to worship from home via online if you have any cold/flu like symptoms.
We will have a section of the sanctuary that will remain socially distanced for those who’d prefer this arrangement.
We are reintroducing our “name-tag” system for anyone who comes to in-person worship gatherings. Once you are in the foyer, please stop by the tables and fill out a name-tag. These benefit us in two ways. First, we can hopefully have a little help with names as we continue to come back together. Second, the colours will give others a sense of how to engage with you.
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RED: I want to love you from afar. Whether for vocational or personal reasons, I’d prefer to be socially distanced today.
YELLOW: I’m cautious, please ask before hugging, etc.
GREEN: I’m comfortable connecting with you socially in pre-pandemic ways.
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We know that these past two years have been hard. Right now, we all have lots of emotions to sit with as these changes are happening. We invite you to allow Jesus to sit with you in all of it.
In the coming weeks, as we move into Alberta’s “Phase 2,” we will update our church policies accordingly.
May we step into a season of transition, healing, and hopefulness together as a church family!
Pastor Kurt and the Brentview staff team
UPDATE: 01/19/22
Dear Church Family,
As we continue to navigate our postures of prayer, discernment, and love during this challenging season, we appreciate the ways in which you have remained engaged. You are truly a gift.
This week as we navigate a way forward, we plan to gather both in-person and online. Here’s what to expect if you choose to join us in-person:
We will limit our capacity to 100 persons per service. Please register.
We will ask that children sit with their parents. We will provide activities for them to engage in while seated with you.
We will include some singing in our time of worship.
We take communion, both for those online and in-person.
We will continue making decisions on a weekly basis. Pray with us that the Holy Spirit would be our guide and that love would be our aim.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Kurt and the Ministry Staff Team
UPDATE: 01/12/22
Dear Church Family,
We want to continue expressing our appreciation for the ways that you have remained flexible and open-handed when it comes to making tough choices about in-person gatherings. In every choice, we attempt to make love of God, neighbour, and the vulnerable our primary criteria. We will continue to do so.
We remain committed, for this season, to a week-to-week process of evaluating the Covid situation for our particular church context.
When it comes to Alberta Health Services and the government of our province, no major changes have been made regarding guidelines for churches. In the “spirit” of what AHS has been asking of us in general (limit contacts, avoid large groups, etc.), we discerned it best to only offer online worship gatherings for the first two weeks after the holiday break. Now, let’s look at the factors relevant to this particular week.
Current Factors that Help Inform our Decision this Week
Covid cases case are still rising dramatically
Hospitalizations are also increasing, but ICU admissions have not yet reached high numbers
Severe disease is less likely than current variants—so far, especially for those who have some level of prior immunity
Schools are back in session
Further, most of our staff who were ill over the past two weeks have recovered. Staff who were potentially exposed to Covid (but did not get sick) are also in the clear at this time. By taking two weeks off, we are grateful to have avoided spreading Covid to other staff unknowingly and beyond.
And with all of this stated, let us again remember: God’s love compels us to do our part in caring for our church family and our neighbours by acting with wisdom, even when it involves sacrifice.
Next Steps for the Current Week
With all these factors considered, we have decided, after prayer and discernment, to move back to in-person worship services for Sunday January 16th. However, we want to let you know that they will have a different format than previously, at least for this current week.
We will have two services (9am & 11:15am). We will be limiting registration to 100 per service for this particular week. You can register using the links at the bottom of this email.
We are asking that children sit with their parents for this week. We will provide activities for kids to work on at their seat.
We will not have in-person singing this weekend. This is temporary. We want to proceed with caution—not out of fear, but out of due diligence. This variant spreads with greater ease, and a collection of projected voices aid in this, so we want to be wise.
We will have other forms of worship this Sunday. Singing is only one aspect of many when it comes to worshipping Jesus as Lord. We are excited to explore some of these other areas with you.
We ask that if you have any symptoms, at all, that you stay home and join us online.
If you are part of a Volunteer Team, and are planning to attend in-person worship, we need your help! Please consider signing up.
Lastly, I want to thank all of you who are doing the work in the trenches: nurses, doctors, teachers, essential service workers, and so many others. We know that many of you are weary. Tired. Emotionally drained. God sees you. We see you. We know that this continues to be hard.
“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:14),
Pastor Kurt and the Ministry Staff Team
PS: You still have time to join a One Group this round! We will be looking at the topic of our narratives or picture of God. Who is God? Is God truly good? How does a clearer picture of God change everything?
UPDATE: 01/05/22
Dear church family,
We are grateful for the kindness we have felt from many of you as we have had to make tough decisions about in-person church gatherings during this pandemic.
Today, we want to give you an update on the plan for this upcoming Sunday. Since the previous two updates (read them here) have mapped out the territory concerning our posture (love) and our discernment process, we will get right into the factors we are currently holding when it comes to our in-person gatherings.
As we have learned from Alberta Health Services, Covid-19 positivity rates have greatly increased. There are a few important things that AHS (as we continue to be guided by love and in considering the ‘spirit’ of AHS’s requests of us) stated in their update this week that we want to keep in mind:
“We must make all efforts proactively to limit the number of in-person interactions that happen on a daily basis.”
“Given how fast Omicron is spreading, now is the time for each of us to make changes that impact the case counts, and therefore the downstream flow into hospitals.”
“Our actions now will make a substantial difference to the resilience and capacity of our health care system, not just in the next few weeks but in the long term as burnout and fatigue are very real and will not be gone overnight.”
“We cannot know with certainty what our future holds, but I do know beyond the shadow of a doubt that we will all be best served by acting in the next several weeks with the good of our communities in mind.”
The leaders at AHS are asking us to honour healthcare workers and our neighbours by choosing to sacrifice for a short season. As followers of Jesus, we have the opportunity to model the self-sacrificial love of Christ by laying down our rights, which is something he both modelled and taught (Philippians 2:1-18).
We also want to let you know that more than 1/3 of our staff team is ill, some diagnosed with Covid and others who are undiagnosed but have Covid-like symptoms. No one is severely ill at this time, but we continue to prioritize not exposing members of our congregation to this virus.
Also, beyond our staffing challenges, our current volunteer pool is lower as several families at Brentview have contracted Covid or other illnesses over the holidays. Please pray for our staff, their families, and for all of the families within our church who have been affected by Covid.
Keeping all these things in mind, we have decided to remain in an online-only format for this upcoming Sunday.
We know that not meeting in person means that some of us feel relationally disconnected. We are wired to be together! So, one thing we want to encourage you to consider is joining our next round of One Groups (short-term small groups, online). If you haven’t been in a group, this round would be a great time to connect to fill the social gap and to grow together in the way of Jesus!
Again, we want to thank you all for your ongoing support and engagement with Brentview during this time. Week-to-week as a church, we desire to root all of our decisions and actions (to the best of our ability) in love, the perfect Love that casts our fear (1 John 4:18). Please continue to pray with us and to love people who need added support during this season.
Grace and peace be with you all,
Pastor Kurt and the Brentview Ministry Staff
PS: If you were able to watch the sermon this past weekend, here are the two Spiritual Formation Exercises I invited you to consider:
Hindsight: 10 year & 1 year timeline
Look back at the past 10 years of your life. Use a blank piece of paper and draw a simple timeline. Ask God to reveal significant moments that shaped you, both good and bad. Pray through them and ask Jesus to reveal fresh wisdom that you have to gain with “hindsight.” Consider flipping the paper around and doing a more focused 1 year timeline as well.
Foresight: 1 word, 1 character, 1 passage
Consider a theme that God might be inviting you to lean into with him. Can you, with the Spirit’s help, discern a word that captures this focus area? Is there a bible character that reminds you of this characteristic? How about a passage of Scripture? (Example: “Courage,” “Paul the Apostle,” “Ephesians 6:10-20”)
UPDATE: 12/31/21
Dear church family,
As we said in our previous Covid update, we are committed to keeping you informed as we—with prayer and discernment—look at all the factors pertaining to the spread of the newest variant in our city.
Our foundational posture in all matters is Love. As 1 John tells us, “God is love.” As Jesus taught us: love God, love neighbours, and love enemies. This is the core of everything we do at Brentview. We are Jesus-centred and we are FOR our city and world.
This week, the spread of Covid (via omicron) has been alarming. The rate of known infections is rising each day. This news is something that we, as church leaders, want to take with utter seriousness.
For these reasons, and those outlined below—with several other Calgary churches—we have prayerfully discerned that we will be moving our worship services fully online for the weekend of January 2nd (9am & 11:15am).
Some of the Reasons for this Week’s Covid Update
As we have throughout the pandemic, we are following guidance pertaining to Covid in the “spirit” of Alberta Health Services’s requests of us. We’re also processing these things with medical professionals from our church family.
#1 In recent days, AHS has said the following:
“the Omicron variant is spreading far more quickly than any variant we have ever experienced.”
“…to mitigate the risk to our health-care system and to Albertans, It is also critically important to limit in-person contact with others and follow all measures currently in place.”
“Our best defense right now is to keep our social interactions small because wherever COVID has the chance to spread, it will. We need to limit our gatherings or postpone them altogether.”
“Wherever you go and whatever you do, you should anticipate that one or more people present in any location will likely be infectious with Omicron, even if they don’t have symptoms.”
This information demonstrates that one action we can take as a church—for this first week of the year—is to go out of our way to love our neighbours and the vulnerable by limiting larger gatherings at the church.
#2 We are considering the impact of Covid on our staff team (as well as others in our congregation). We have staff members who have either been exposed to Covid or who have contracted it in the past week. While no one is ill in a concerning way at this point, the possible transmission of Covid to our congregation is a legitimate area of responsibility that we want to hold with wisdom and care. Church should be a place of safety, rest, and renewal in Jesus—not a place to accidentally create further suffering through the transmission of this virus.
#3 We are taking note of the current registration numbers for our services this coming Sunday. They are lower than expected. What this tells us is that many of you are already self-selecting to join us in worship via our online streams at 9am and 11:15am. And while some of us may feel more comfortable attending in-person with the current health protocols in place, there is a large population of our congregation that believes engaging from home is one way to love people. Wherever you land on this particular spectrum, the lower registrations are a critical indicator that we take seriously.
#4 AHS announced that schools will be extending Christmas vacation by one additional week. While we aren’t bound to this decision as a church per se, it serves as another important metric to consider when deciding how to do what we can to love our neighbours and those who are most vulnerable during this new wave. It also invites us to take seriously our own role as a church in helping schools open back up sooner.
Next Steps
We are currently working from a week-to-week approach to making decisions about in-person gatherings. We know that some of you will be glad to hear that we have taken this step, while others of you will be disappointed. You are ALL loved and are ALL part of this church family. We ask for your grace and your prayers during these next several weeks.
And lastly, as we said in our previous update: LOVE is what you can do during these cold and challenging weeks. If you know someone who is somewhat isolated, help them feel included. If you know someone in need, offer support. If you have resources you can contribute to the vulnerable in our neighbourhood, bring them to the church’s new Community Pantry.
God is love. God loves you, in incomprehensible ways! Let’s say it again: You are loved. May we lovingly step into this season with courage, compassion, dialogue without dissension, and the power of the Spirit of Jesus.
With all gratitude for this church family,
Pastor Kurt and the Ministry Staff Team
UPDATE: 12/23/21
Dear Brentview,
Covid-19 is still a challenge we all must face. It continues to present several unknowns while also causing harm and death to many around the world. To those of you who have dealt with Covid in a deeply personal way, we want you to know that we see you, we love you, and we are continuing to pray for and with you.
Brentview has one primary area that guides how we take action to implement ministry plans during this pandemic: LOVE. Jesus calls us to this core task. His disciples are called to love God, others, and enemies. As Jesus teaches and models for us, we choose love, even when it is self-sacrificial. This sort of love reveals God’s heart for humanity.
With the spread of the Omicron variant, and the recent request from Alberta leaders to use an added measure of caution during this season, we have discerned the following course of action.
Current Plans for In-Person Ministry
We will continue to offer in-person worship gatherings with capacity limits, masks, social distancing, and an overflow option meeting in the gym.
We ask that Jesus-centred love not only be the guide for discerning your own choices, but also the needs of others who call Brentview their home. If you choose to attend in-person, love looks like choosing to follow the Covid guidelines on behalf of others in the room. If you have any symptoms, love looks like staying home and engaging with the service online.
We will continue with our plan to move to two worship services beginning with Christmas Eve, and then on Sunday January 2nd (9am and 11:15am). By making more room in our sanctuary, we can love our neighbours by making our church more accessible, especially for those who are curious about Jesus or searching for a new church home. This will also create even more space for social distancing, while minimizing the need for overflow (at least for now). Between services, the main areas of our building will be sanitized.
We have decided to postpone our in-person Formation Classes launch (between services) to a tentative start date in February. This will allow us more time to assure that we are following protocols to the best of our ability.
We are asking that those who attend in-person do all that you can to maintain 2 metres between your household and others, especially in the foyer area between services.
A Few Questions & Responses
Q: What will Brentview do if the guidance from AHS and medical professionals changes in the coming weeks?
R: As we have done throughout the pandemic so far, we will continue to implement guidance from experts and relevant leaders. While the spectrum of opinions may be broad, with Jesus’s love as our ultimate guide, we will continue to follow the spirit of the guidelines given to us as a church in Calgary.
Q: Is this response rooted in fear?
R: No. Hopefully it is clear that Jesus’s commands to love are our foundation. Love (as a corporate body of believers) looks like following the best available information and guidance from those in medical and governmental authority. Our heart is to “look not to [our] own interests, but to the interests of others” (Phil. 2:4).
Q: What can I do to support Brentview during this season?
R: Many of you are already doing it! — Love. Love people in this church family and beyond. Also, pray. Pray against, what Scripture calls “the last enemy”—Death (1 Cor. 15). God mourns death and in the end, will defeat the power of death in the renewed creation. Pray also for your church family members who are all holding this extended pandemic season in uniquely challenging ways. Lastly, pray for Brentview’s many medical professionals on the frontlines: for their support, comfort, wisdom, and rest.
Thank You
As a leadership team, we want to say: Thank you. While it is impossible to manage a pandemic with perfect precision, you have offered loving support to your church leaders during this difficult season. We are grateful!
Grace and peace,
Pastor Kurt & the Brentview ministry team