(Facebook/Nipawin Apostolic Church)

By Aaron Schulze

Church responds to restrictions

‘This isn’t forever’: Northeast church continues alternate services amid new restrictions

Nov 25, 2020 | 5:53 PM

Places of worship will be affected by the Government of Saskatchewan’s COVID-19 related health measures.

By Friday, Nov. 27, all places of worship must reduce capacity to 30 people, including wedding, funeral, and baptism services. No food or drink may be present or served.

For the Nipawin Apostolic Church, providing service amidst the coronavirus pandemic won’t change. Lead Pastor Jordan Gadsby told northeastNOW the church had been using digital and video technology for their services for years and have even upgraded equipment during the first provincial shutdown.

“I would love if it was easy just to do the things we’re used to doing,” Gadbsy said. “If not, we have an amazing team here at our church that is creative and finds ways to do cool things to connect people in our community. No matter what the circumstances surrounding us are, we’ll continue to do that.”

Gadsby said the church is better prepared to serve during the new restrictions than they were when the pandemic began. The church also added service times.

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“I’m sure we’ll continue with some form of in-person gatherings, but I expect a larger number of people will choose to stay home and make use of our online and remote connection options as well,” Gadsby said. “We understand how things can be frustrating right now, but this isn’t forever. We’ll continue forward together.”

With Christmas a month away, Gadsby said the church has already been decorated to begin their Christmas series beginning Sunday, Nov. 29. They had already planned to run four services on Christmas Eve, but expected a 50-person capacity. Gadsby expects the 30-person restriction to stay in effect by Christmas but they’ll find a way to work with that.

“It takes some energy to re-figure how to do things, but it doesn’t change our mission of giving hope… we keep finding creative ways to do that. I’m not worried about this negatively affecting the mission of the church,” he said.

The updated COVID-19 provincial health restrictions begin Nov. 27 and last until at least Dec. 17.