Author: Alex Alahverdian

Dear Parishioners and St. Illuminator’s Family,

We are open and look forward to seeing you in Church this Sunday. If you plan to to join us—and we hope you will, please re-familiarize yourselves with our revised Church attendance guidelines below.

Prayerfully and Sincerely,

Rev. Fr. Mesrob Lakissian and the Board of Trustees

Church Attendance Guidelines – February 2021

Capacity

Under current New York State and City regulations, the capacity limit for the Sanctuary is 50% of maximum occupancy.

Reservations. We strongly recommend that you make reservations by calling or e-mailing the Church office by Noon the Saturday before you plan to attend (212-689-5880 or office@stilluminators.org). We will ask that you provide the names and telephone numbers of all who will join you. Reservations will be on a first come first served basis after preference is given to families with Hokehankist requests.

Before You Come to Church

Stay Home If. We ask that you please abstain from coming to Church and remain home if you have any reason to believe that you have been exposed to the virus or are experiencing any unusual symptoms whether or not those symptoms are associated with a cold or the flu or COVID or are otherwise not feeling well. We implore you to err on the side of caution. We will both ask and observe if you are exhibiting any symptoms and, regrettably, cannot allow you to enter Church if you are. No exceptions.

Take Your Condition into Consideration. We ask that in all events you take your age, general health and any underlying medical conditions or other risk factors into consideration when deciding whether or not to come to Church.

Upon Arrival

Hand Sanitization. We will require you to sanitize your hands upon arrival.

Temperature and Symptom Check. We will check your temperature and ask if you have experienced any unusual symptoms within the past week. Regrettably, we cannot allow anyone who has experienced symptoms or whose temperature exceeds 99.5° F to enter. No exceptions.
 

Mandatory Sign-in. We will require you to write your full name, legibly, in the attendance book along with your mobile phone number. Each person in your party will be required to do the same.

If Capacity Reached. On days when demand for attendance is great, we will give preference to those on the R.s.v.p. list and may not be able to admit you if doing so would cause us to exceed our capacity limit.

Mask Mandate & Social Distancing

Mask Mandate. We will strictly enforce our mask mandate. Masks must be worn at all times by all persons when inside the Church building.

The mask mandate will extend to altar servers as well. Der Hayr will be masked at all times when preparing and handling the Gifts, when administering communion and at all other times except during the sermon and when making announcements. All other altar servers will be required to wear masks at all times.

Social Distancing. We will continue to require all persons to practice appropriate social distancing at all times when inside the Church building.

Communion

Communion will be offered to all congregants who wish to receive the sacrament, as before, on the hand, except that Der Hayr will be masked when administering communion and will no longer honor requests to receive communion in the traditional way.

Hand Sanitization. We will require all those wishing to receive communion to sanitize their hands before approaching the altar and again after receiving communion before returning to their places.

Keep Masks On. We will also require that communicants keep their masks on when receiving the host from Der Hayr and only undo their masks to consume the sacrament after they have retreated from the altar to a safe distance and only long enough to do so before reapplying their masks.

Fellowship Hour
 

Regrettably, we are not able to resume fellowship hour at this time.

Remote Participation
 

We will continue to live-stream the Sunday Divine Liturgy every week over our social media channels. We are happy to make special arrangements upon request to ensure our elderly or technologically limited parishioners are able to partake in services at a distance.

We thank you for your cooperation and support.