ND Board of Deacons Newsletter
5th April 2020
A newsletter was published only 2 weeks ago about how the COVID-19 pandemic situation affecting ND. In such a short time, a few things written are already out-of-date. While the principle of social distancing and following personal hygiene advice to ‘flatten the curve’ still stand, the definition of safe gathering is tightening.
The current advice from our government, as of the time of written, related to ND are:
Places of worship (except wedding & funeral) must not be open to public.
It is now unlawful to leave our home unless we’re doing the ‘essentials’ such as going to get food, work, seeing the doctor, plus a few excuses.
No more gatherings of more than 2 people in public places unless they are from the same family, or the gatherings are considered ‘essential’.
While there are number of ‘excuses’ that allow some of us to meet, in order to protect the well-being of everyone, ND board recommends our member not to ‘physically gather’ for any ministry reason. These guidelines are rather hard for us as we always encourage fellowship. God willing, this is temporal and thank God for technology to allow us to meet online.
As there is so much to learn and adjust to in this ever-changing environment, the Board set up a ND COVID-19 Action Team to handle the change in a timely manner. Over the last few weeks, a few people have been tirelessly exploring options to continue our Sunday Services and other gatherings online so we can continue worshipping God (via https://www.facebook.com/NDCCCS even without Facebook login), learning from him and maintaining fellowship (via phone or Zoom).
Laws have been changed rapidly and technology has a lot of variables. Over the last few weeks, we faced some challenges using the online platform for Sunday Service and we thank you for your patience accommodating our shortcomings. The team is gradually learning from our mistakes. Let’s keep praying for wisdom to stabilise the technology platform and provide an acceptable environment for us all to focus on worshipping God.
We’re not expecting the situation to ease off any time soon. We’ll also look into the following that affect ND operations:
Extend our AGM to plan for a viable online meeting. It means the schedule of a few items will be affected – election of new diaconate, Senior Minister appointment (and the related prayer meetings), etc. Please stay tuned.
Revise our 2020 budget to accommodate the impact of recent changes.
A changing world causes us a lot of inconveniences. However, it brings a lot of opportunities for us as well. Let's focus back on God’s love, power and mercy, and share these with our neighbours. Pray for them, care for them, and invite them to our online church. There is no law forbidding us to do this.