Advisory 21 Mar 2020
Dear Zion Bishan Members, there have been several major developments since last weekend, so please read this advisory carefully to ensure that we as a church are loving each other as we journey together through this COVID situation.
Firstly, after much prayer and deliberation, the Session of Zion Bishan has decided to continue our English and Tamil Sunday Services, but to suspend all Chinese Services for the next two Sundays. This decision was not an easy one to reach, with every effort made to balance the need for God’s people to meet and encourage one another with the need to be socially responsible. The 8:30 & 10:30 Services will continue, but with a reduced length of 60 minutes, a new mandatory limit of 200 persons per service, and with heightened physical distancing measures – both of the two later measures will be strictly enforced.
🚫✈ Secondly, as most of the new cases in Singapore are now imported from overseas, we can not state strongly enough that all Returnees from any country in the last 14 days should stay home and not participate in any church activities. This also extends to all members of their families/ households. We understand this technically exceeds government restrictions, but have decided that this condition must be met if we are to continue meeting responsibly.
👥📖 As such, we now strongly encourage members to consider meeting as AGs in homes to watch the livestream of the 10:30am English Service together. This is one way in which we can responsibly adhere to the MOH guidelines while ensuring we can encourage one another through prayer and the Word in this time. As each week goes by, the complete suspension of our services is becoming a more likely scenario, so if you are still not currently in an AG, please join one now (Contact Dn Danny @ 92394160 if you need help with this).
Please carefully follow the enhanced precautionary measures for this week:
😷🏠Do rest at home and do not attend any church activities if:
-> You are physically unwell e.g. fever, cough, flu, sore throat etc.
-> You have had frequent or close contact with any person who is unwell with fever and respiratory symptoms.
-> You have returned from or are part of a household with anyone who has returned from overseas from any country within the past 14 days.
-> You have participated in any Community Centre or Residents’ Committee activities in the past 14 days.
📝📲 If you are planning on coming in person to Services, please note that from this week onwards there will be a central entry point for all English services so we can strictly keep track of how many people are in each service. If we do hit the 200 pax limit, we will have to request that you come back for a later service (like the 5pm) or return home to livestream the service. As in previous weeks, please also fill in our online form for Contact Tracing before you attend service each Sunday: http://bit.ly/ZBCovid19 .
🎥💻 The livestream of our 10:30am English Service will continue to run for AGs and for those who are unable to be with us in person. From 10:30am, please visit the following link: http://www.youtube.com/zionbishan .
🙏🏼🙌🏽 Finally, let’s continue to pray for our leaders, who have deliberated with much prayer and discussion before reaching the present decision. These decisions are tremendously challenging to make so let us take this opportunity to rally around the leadership with intercession, trust, and support, and pray that our Heavenly Father will continue giving them wisdom to lead us through this season!
Zion Bishan Church Management
