{"id":20665,"date":"2020-06-23T14:17:58","date_gmt":"2020-06-23T18:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecoaster.net\/?p=20665"},"modified":"2020-06-23T14:17:58","modified_gmt":"2020-06-23T18:17:58","slug":"avon-church-to-open-for-137th-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecoaster.net\/2020\/06\/23\/avon-church-to-open-for-137th-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Avon Church to Open for 137th Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>St. John\u2019s Episcopal Church, a summer chapel in Avon, will once again be opening its doors on June 28 for it\u2019s 137th season.<\/p>\n

St. John\u2019s, located at 100 Woodland Ave., is Avon\u2019s oldest church.<\/p>\n

When the church opens its doors on June 28 it will be the second time they do so while the country was facing a pandemic. The church was open during the global pandemic of 1918.<\/p>\n

Church representative Sarah Sibbald said Bishop William H. \u201cChip\u201d Stokes of the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey gave permission to churches to open after they came up with a game plan to so safely.<\/p>\n

Sibbald said they will follow specific guidelines which include putting ribbons up to close some pews to create social distancing and requiring masks be worn.<\/p>\n

\u201cFamilies can congregate together,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are a small congregation.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the changes is there will be no hymnals in the pews and the church will instead leave out bulletins for parishioners which will include readings and hymns for that service.<\/p>\n

There will be seven visiting priests who will stay at the church\u2019s cottage with their families for a summer getaway.<\/p>\n

St. John\u2019s, she said, decided they will have Morning Prayer services but will not yet hold Holy Communion services, even though the bishop approved them.<\/p>\n

Sibbald said there will also be signage to guide people and greeters will welcome church goers.<\/p>\n

She said parishioners welcome the opening of the church.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are happy to go to a live service,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re still here, especially at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sibbald said, as per the bishop\u2019s guidelines, the church will be collecting contact tracing information from those who attend services, so if someone tests positive those who attended that particular service will be notified.<\/p>\n

Sibbald said she will be researching the history of the 1918 pandemic to see how the church responded at that time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St. John\u2019s Episcopal Church, a summer chapel in Avon, will once again be opening its doors on June 28 for it\u2019s 137th season. St. John\u2019s, located at 100 Woodland Ave., is Avon\u2019s oldest church. When the church opens its doors on June 28 it will be the second time they do so while the country […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoaster.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20665"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoaster.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoaster.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoaster.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoaster.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thecoaster.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoaster.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoaster.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoaster.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}