Freely Gathering In COVID Times

Our state is rapidly approaching a time when a number of venues will exclude people who are not vaccinated against COVID-19. However we have official word from the Queensland Government that places of worship DO NOT have vaccination entry requirements, and therefore churches do not need to exclude the unvaccinated.

This does mean as a potentially mixed vaccinated/non-vaccinated venues, our church will continue to have limits on numbers which we will manage, and we will continue to operate under the requirements of the COVID Safe Checklist for Restricted Businesses. Practically this means continuing to clean regularly and abide by mask wearing guidelines (which is currently no masks).

This stance lines up with the approach that the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia has recommended, and our church board has ratified. The recommendations from the PCA are:

  1. Exhort all members and ministers to work hard at maintaining the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, treating issues of vaccination as a matter of liberty of conscience not determined by church law (Rom. 14:22, 15:4; WCF chapter 20).
  2. Declare that in light of the Bible’s teaching on the free offer of the gospel and the unity of the Church that no Presbyterian Church should deny entry to unvaccinated people for the public worship of God (Matt. 28:19-20; Gal.3:28; Jas.2:1-3; John 17:21-23).
  3. Remind all leaders and members of our churches of their obligation to love their neighbours and therefore, voluntarily and willingly, to use all reasonable methods of preventing the spread of disease, including self-isolating for the appropriate period if they show any symptoms of an infectious disease or have a positive COVID result, even if asymptomatic.

If anyone has any concerns about any of this please reach out through the church office (office@livingchurch.org.au, 3398 4333) so we can talk this through.