Regathering and Church Operations

Employees are directed to work from home. If an employee must go into the office, the visit should be brief; the employee must use hygiene best-practices and avoid close contact with others. The recommended distance to keep between individuals is at least six feet.

 

Regathering
 

Guidelines, Check-List, and Covenant

• May 13, 2021 - Parish Regathering Updated guidelines / 13 de Mayo - Pautas de Actualización de  Reencuentro Parroquial
• Opening the Church Building for Private Prayer (November 19 2020) / en español 
• Coronavirus Liability Exposure Memo  (July 20, 2020) / en español
• Check-List for Regathering / en español
• Covenant for Regathering in Worship / en español

 
Guidance from DC and Maryland

• Washington, DC
• Maryland

 
Regathering Plan Examples

• St. Anne's, Damascus
• St. Monica and St. James, DC
• St. Bartholomew's, Laytonsville
• St. Paul's, Waldorf

 
Regathering Parish Survey Examples

• St. Paul's, Waldorf
• In Person Worship Preliminary Questionnaire PDF / Word Doc
  

 
Cleaning of Church Buildings and HVAC Maintenance

• Guidance and product recommendations for cleaning and disinfection of church buildings and proper HVAC maintenance.  

 
registration and Attendance Tracking

As congregations plan on regathering, there may be questions on seeking to implement a registration and/or check-in system, at least for an interim period, to comply with capacity restrictions set by local jurisdictions and a check in system for contract tracing purposes. The following solutions may be helpful in assisting this process:

• Church Membership System: using the parish membership system to track attendance will have the benefit of keeping participation data connected to parishioner records, and also allow parishioners to become more familiar with using the church membership system for signing up for services along with the other features. Membership systems can also have the benefit of enabling the office to assign volunteers to particular roles as greeters, ushers, eucharistic ministers, etc.
  • ACS Realm: a congregation using the Realm system for membership may want to use it to implement registration and/or check in at services. A service can be set up in the Event Registration section, and opened for registration with a capacity limit. Those attending can register and include guests, and those attending can self check in or can be checked in by a greeter.
  • Servant Keeper: a congregation using Servant Keeper cloud edition can utilize the event registration and a volunteer can use the Greet and Attend App on a mobile device at the door to check people in if needed. 
• Cognito Forms: an online forms manager with a free plan that includes quantity limits to ensure that you don't have more people attending than you have capacity for.
• Eventbrite: a free system that provides registration, ticketing, and event check in features. 
• ReOpen.church: a free basic church registration online app that allows parishioners to register before attending worship
• SignUpGenius: a free/premium online forms and event registration system that includes event registration features. Forms limiting capacity are only available in a low cost premium plan. 

 

ESSENTIAL PARISH OPERATIONS

• Maintaining Essential Parish Functions
• Families First Coronavirus Response Act Required Notification to All Parish Staff
• Essential Employees/Volunteers editable letter for parishes

PARISH ONLINE MEETINGS

• Parish Committee and staff meetings; annual meetings and annual meeting elections