1. We believe that Jesus is Lord. He has conquered sin, sickness and death and offers eternal life (Mark 2:1-12, Matthew 8:17, 1 John 5:11-12). We therefore don’t need to fear what other people fear. Instead we can set apart Christ as our Lord, live lives of hope, and give account of this hope to our world (1 Peter 3:13-18).

2. God calls on us as Christians to not forsake meeting together, but rather to meet and encourage each other to trust and serve Jesus (Hebrews 10:24-25). We can and should do this in public and in private (Acts 20:19-21).

3. God calls on us to love our neighbour. This means doing no harm to others (Romans 13:10).

4. God calls on us to submit to the authorities He has instituted. In our case this means our government, our denomination and our elders (Romans 13:1-7, Hebrews 13:17).

Application of Biblical truths to our current situation

1. In seeking to balance the above Biblical truths, we plan to continue meeting in our regular Sunday church services unless directed to do otherwise by the government or denominational authorities. We will take sensible precautions to minimise the risk of our meetings causing the spread of sickness. This will include providing hand sanitiser and encouraging people to use it, discouraging physical contact such as hand shaking, and carefully managing the handling and service of food and drinks. We will also consider ways to facilitate physical distancing in our meetings.

2. We stress that no one is bound to come to church at this time if they do not wish to do so. As with all of us, those who do not attend church should continue to actively find ways to encourage other Christians and to be encouraged (e.g. texts, sharing words of encouragement, praying together over the phone etc). We commend our church website, which has many hundreds of Bible talks that people can listen to [chatswoodpc.org.au/sermons]. There are, of course, also many other good resources for people to access at this time. If you are planning not to attend a service, or small group, we encourage you to contact your Bible study leader (or a member of staff) to let us know how you are going and if there is anything we can be doing to help. Please be in touch. If you have a church-wide prayer request, you can send it to Eva at the church office.

3. We ask people not to attend our church services if they are feeling unwell. We also ask anyone who has travelled overseas or who has been in close contact with someone known to have COVID-19 to self-isolate for 14 days in accordance with government regulations before coming to church.