Jeff Wilson Pastoral team member with Church Unlimited talks about how the pandemic has affected church services ( Tiffany Goodwein/CHATNewsToday)

By Tiffany Goodwein

Targeted measures see church sizes reduced

Nov 15, 2020 | 8:29 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB- New targeted measures implemented in Medicine Hat on Friday in order to curb the spread of COVID-19 has meant a smaller service for some churches come Sunday worship.

The city entered enhanced status on Friday. Under the new measures imposed by the province, church services were required to reduce their gathering capacity by a third.

Jeff Wilson is a pastoral team member at Church Unlimited. He said when the new regulations came down on Friday, his church wasn’t required to change much.

” We are lucky, or blessed I should say, that our full congregation can come because we have a sanctuary that seats a thousand and we only have 120 if everybody came, so we can do the social distancing, and spreading everything apart,” he said.

THe church, which is known for its outreach with the city’s vulnerable was closed for six months and since then they have tried to reopen as much as possible to serve those in need.

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Pre pandemic the church would provide showers and laundry facilities to those in need on a daily basis. Since opening up two months ago, the church has only been able to provide the service on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Other church activities are also expected to be impacted in the future.

The church’s annual Christmas at the DC which supports families in need is going to see some big changes.

The event usually encompasses a big banquet with over 400 people, but due to restrictions, the banquet will be canceled.

Instead this year, groups of 15 families will be entering the church through staggered times, only staying at the church for around five minutes, collecting gift cards, presents, candy and taking a social distant picture with Santa.

” We wish we had more time with them but we still wanted to do something this year, even though it is a difficult time to bring everyone together,” Wilson said,

Wilson said 300 people in need have already signed up for the event.

Christmas at the DC takes place Dec. 10.