Monday
02Nov2009
Hand Shaking and H1N1?
Monday, November 2, 2009 at 11:06PM Some of the local churches here in British Columbia have stopped hand-shaking in church. I'm wondering what is happening is other places. What is your church doing in this regard? Have you made any changes to your normal greeting patterns?
A few months ago, we made hand sanatisers available throughout our church building. We continue to shake-hands, but make it clear that nobody should feel they have to shake-hands if they are uncomfortable.
Blessings,
David Vandervelde
Reader Comments (3)
David,
We still shake hands but let people know they are not being unfriendly if they don't wish to shake hands.
Justin
(We were at Ground Zero of H1N1 last year in the U.S.)
We started making more sanitizer available too and also continue to shake hands.
Related to that, I did pump up the vigor of my yearly lecture. It goes something like this: We love you; we want to worship with you; we're glad that you're a part of the community here. However, what may seem like a minor cold to you can be lethal to some of our members. If you're sick please live out your love for one another tangibly enough to to worship with us in spirit rather than body until you're no longer contagious.
After about a decade of the same lecture (in various forms), people kind of chortle at me when the seasons change and I begin repeating it, but it has finally begun taking hold and I do once in a while hear people talk about not coming to worship, even though they would have liked to be there, "because they didn't want to make anyone else sick."
Grace and Peace,
`tim
We have made hand sanitizer available - specifically non-alcohol type so that it doesn't affect wood and other surfaces. But otherwise have not made any changes. We take an extended time of passing the peace, with folks generally going out into the aisles. Folks seem to enjoy this, so it would be a huge blow to only nod to a person on your left and your right, or to "rub elbows" with a person or two.