The Provincial Board have reviewed their current guidelines on meeting for Worship and have issued the following guidance, which will be continually monitored:

Northern Ireland

Due to the growing number of reported Covid-19 positive cases in Northern Ireland, the PEC is asking that all congregations suspend physical worship for 4 weeks, resuming worship no earlier than 15th November (subject to review if the current situation continues to deteriorate).

England

As England is now in a tiered system of risk, we are advising the following according to Tiers:

Tier 1 (Medium)

Current Church guidance remains in place as well as any additional government guidelines that may be imposed.
 
Tier 2 (High)

Physical worship can continue under current Church guidance with the following additions:

• Local Congregations committees will review their current measures. If there is uncertainty around observance of the measures, the congregations will temporarily suspend physical worship.
• Any congregations that has more than 50% of their members coming from outside the immediate local community, will suspend physical worship. People are discouraged from using public transport or car sharing.
• If congregations continue to meet, strict observance of social distancing must be enforced. In addition to this, face coverings must be worn on entering the building and not removed for the duration of the service.

Tier 3 (Very High)

• Physical worship should be suspended for at least four weeks and will only resume when the risk level has returned to Tier 2 or below.

Note: Ministers & those attending worship should not be travelling from home into an area that is in a different tier to get to Church.