We eagerly anticipate the opportunity to gather again for in-person indoor worship! However, we also know that doing so in this season of covid-tide requires some extra precautions. Therefore, we ask you to RSVP for worship. An “RSVP” doesn’t mean we’re trying to keep people out of the church; rather, it means we’re trying to plan for those who will be in the church. By RSVPing for worship, you will help us maximize our seating capacity, allow more people to access in-person worship, and make the worship experience safer for all involved.
How to RSVP for Sunday Worship:
- Online (our preferred method):
- Make sure you’ve signed up for our church email list. (If you already receive e-news and daily devotionals, you’re on the list!)
- Each Tuesday at 9:00 AM, we will distribute an email to our full congregation, inviting them to RSVP for worship on the upcoming Sunday. (You can only RSVP for one week at a time.)
- Click on the link in that email to RSVP using Sign Up Genius.
- When you RSVP, make sure you are including any of those in your household who plan to attend worship that Sunday.
- RSVPs for our weekly worship services will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. If there are no spots available when you first log on, check back later in the week — more spots may be made available as we organize our sanctuary seating. You can add your name to the waiting list and will be notified as additional seats become available.
- To aid in our planning, please complete your RSVP by 9:00 AM on the Friday of any given week.
- If you have questions, or need to change your RSVP, please contact Susan Matacavage (susan@wesleychurch.com).
- If you don’t use email, please follow the directions to RSVP by phone.
- By Phone (only for those without access to email):
- Call the church office (610-865-5715, ext. 12) on Tuesday morning between the hours of 9:00 AM and 12:00 PM.
- When you RSVP, make sure you are including any of those in your household who plan to attend worship that Sunday.
- RSVPs for our weekly worship services will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
- If you have questions, or need to change your RSVP, please contact Susan Matacavage at 610-865-5715 ext. 12.
In order to make the worship experience safer for everyone, you must RSVP in order to attend Sunday morning worship on any given week. While we intend to reserve a few seats each week for visitors from the community seeking a church home, we will likely be unable to accommodate “walk-ins” (those who have not RSVP’d) from our congregation. In order to make this process work, we need cooperation from all in our Wesley Church family — and we thank you in advance for your help!
What can I expect when I come for in-person worship?
When you come to in-person worship, you’ll first stop by one of our outdoor touch-free temperature screening stations. (These temperature screenings are for your informational purposes only — no personal health information will be recorded or reported to any health agency.) Please put on your mask before you arrive at these stations, and continue to wear your mask at all times while on church property. This will help us create a safer worship experience! (Here at Wesley, our motto has been: Love one another… enough to wear a mask!) If you do not have a mask, one will be provided for you. If you cannot wear a mask, we ask you to engage with our worship services at home via Facebook Live or the church website.
Our greeters will direct you to the attendance table in the center of the atrium, where you can check in and find out where you’ll be sitting. In this RSVP process, we’ll do assigned seating so we can maximize the amount of individuals who can attend worship while also observing social distancing.
Our ushers will direct you to your pew before the worship service. You’ll find your bulletin there waiting for you! The ushers can also direct you to hand-sanitizing stations located in the atrium, if you should need one. After the service, an usher will dismiss you from your pew so we can stagger our exits, all in an effort to avoid crowding or congregating in the atrium.
To reduce the risk of indirect contact transmission, we’ve temporarily removed books (hymnals and Bibles), pens, pencils, tissue boxes, prayer cards, and envelopes from the pews. If you anticipate using any of these items during the worship service, we encourage you to bring them with you. If you would like to sign out a hymnal from our church library for this purpose, please contact the church office. If you have brought an offering with you, please place it in one of the secure offering boxes located at the entrances to the sanctuary. You can also place prayer requests in these secure boxes, or use the digital prayer card on our church website.
In the early stages of this reopening process, we will not engage in congregational singing, as some research suggests this might further spread aerosolized droplets and increase the risk of contracting COVID-19. In some ways, the musical portions of our worship services may feel more like “special music.” We thank you for your patience with this! If you want to sing out loud with gusto, we encourage you to do so safely from home by tuning into our Facebook livestream or website recordings.
We know that this season of covid-tide brings with it a great many changes to our in-person worship gatherings. Know that all of these practices and procedures have been implemented with your safety in mind. By observing these practices, we are better able to care for ourselves, for one another, and for our community. We believe this kind of care is part of what it means for us to live into Christ’s call to “love one another”!
