This page compiles information related to our congregation regarding the COVID-19 virus and its impact on our ministries.
Last updated: December 14, 2021.
Office Open: Mon-Thurs, 8:30am-12:30pm, Fri 8:30am-3pm
Public Worship Status: In-Person 9am and 11am, Online 9:30am
School Status: in-person
Preschool Status: in-person
as of December 3, 2021
Masks are now mandatory for all people attending public worship, except for leaders when physically distanced, and for receiving Holy Communion. We are also limiting seating to 50% capacity. Pre-registration will generally not be required.
August 24, 2021
Over the past few days, the BC government has again made some announcements that affect the life of our congregation. We're thankful that the impacts are relatively small at this time, but there are still a few things to be aware of.
The big change is a renewed mask mandate for all public indoor spaces for those 12 years of age and older. This applies to our public in-person worship gatherings. We continue to encourage things like extra cleaning of hands, respecting the distance between others who wish to maintain that distance, and not attending if you do not feel well.
The announced capacity limits on organized indoor gatherings do not apply to public worship services, so there is no requirement for pre-registering.
The other big news from yesterday (Mon. Aug. 23) was the introduction of a proof-of-vaccination requirement for certain indoor group events. This requirement does not apply to public worship. At this time, it's unclear if it will apply to other church events such as meetings or classes; we're seeking that clarity and will update you as we're able.
April 8, 2021
Our school has updated its Health and Safety Plan to reflect the new mandates and guidance from the BC Ministry of Education. View the April 2021 revised plan.
November 19, 2020
This afternoon BC's provincial health officer issued an order suspending most public event activities until Dec. 7. This includes our public worship, so we are immediately suspending all church-related in person events until then. This does not include our school, however. More details are in this news piece.
October 27, 2020
We are finalizing preparations to resume in-person worship beginning Nov. 1. We will still meet online at 9:30am Sundays, then in-person at 11:00am Sundays and 6:15pm Wednesdays. More information is available in this news piece, and you can register for in-person worship and/or find out more info about that on this page.
September 2, 2020
Our school is ready to open on September 8, following BC Ministry of Education protocols. You can read our Restart Plan and Health and Safety Plan for more information on how we're working to keep our staff and students safe.
September 1, 2020
We are going to be working towards meeting in-person again for worship and study opportunities. More information will be coming soon about the details of that, but we will be starting with contacting our members by email or letter, asking for input, as well as beginning to plan smaller gatherings. For the immediate future (the next few weeks), our Sunday livestream will continue to happen as it has over the past few months.
June 2, 10:10am
Our elementary school welcomed back a portion of our students who have elected to come back to partial in-person learning today. Our staff has developed a comprehensive safety plan which we will follow in keeping all students, staff, and families as safe as we can.
June 2, 10:00am
Our School Operations Team, in consultation with preschool staff, has made the difficult decision to cancel the remainder of the preschool year. While there were a few students interested in returning and we had a safety plan ready to be implemented, the team determined it was not feasible for us to be able to operate the preschool with very low enrollment. We're saddened to have to announce this, since we so enjoy our preschool families and we're so impressed with our staff and our program. We are planning to return in September, provided it is safe to do so, and we have online pre-registration available for parents wishing to enroll their child in September 2020.
May 20, 2:10pm
Following the announcements last week from the BC Government, our school and preschool staff and leadership teams are currently making plans towards at least a partial re-opening beginning June 1. School students will be welcomed back on a voluntarily, part-time basis, and teachers and staff are making preparations to deliver education in more of a hybrid model with both in-person and distance-only methods. We plan to close the elementary school year as planned on June 17.
Our preschool director is currently surveying our current families to gauge interest in returning June 1, and will make a determination as soon as possible.
Both our school and preschool are accepting applications for registrations for this coming fall. While things can change, our desire at this point is to re-open our schools for in-person education in September 2020, with the important qualifier that we will do that as long as we're confident it can be done safely.
April 20, 3:30pm
The health and safety of our students, staff and their families remains our highest priority. We continue to follow the direction of the public health officials in making fact-based decisions when it comes to our school and preschool. Given that the current recommendation surrounding COVID-19 management and schools remain unchanged at this time, the Concordia Lutheran School Operations Team (SOT) has made the decision to extend the temporary closure of our preschool for another month. Because of the nature of the program, no continuity of learning has been put into place; therefore, May's tuition payments will not be processed. We will re-evaluate the need to remain closed for the month of June on Tuesday, May 19th.
In the meantime, it is not too early to be thinking about registering child(ren) for our >2020/21 preschool and school programs. We are developing an online process for registration, and online registration will be available on Thursday, April 23. We appreciate your support of our preschool program and pray for our staff and families to remain healthy and safe until we can resume gathering in our classrooms again.
March 30, 2:30pm
Our office hours will be fluid over the next weeks. This week, the office was open today and will be again on Friday. However, we urge people not to visit the office at all. Phone messages are monitored daily. Pastor Michael is available, except for Fridays. Emailing him is the best option to contact him at this point.
Our elementary school "returned" today. Staff are currently connecting with families and putting together plans for delivering education to students at their homes, as per the directive of the BC Ministry of Education. No in-person events are scheduled at this time for church, school, or preschool.
Our preschool is closed until at least April 30. Staff and leaders will monitor the situation daily and will be in touch with parents with updates as needed.
March 19, 4:55pm
Concordia belongs to Lutheran Church–Canada (LCC), a national fellowship of congregations in Canada. Our LCC office has put together a page on its website with news, recommendations, and resources. Among the resources you'll find an excellent guide to home devotions that you can take advantage of, as you continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus in this time.
March 19, 4:20pm
Pastor Michael emailed the congregation today to give updates on worship, congregational care, and giving options. You can subscribe to our general email list by filling out the form on this page.
In addition, our School Operations Team made the difficult decision to temporarily suspend all preschool operations through April 30. Please see this news item for more information.
March 18, 4:10pm
Our first live-streamed time of worship will be tonight at 6:30pm. Please join us on our new YouTube channel for a simple order of service with prayer, Scripture readings, and a short reflection on the Scriptures.
March 17, 7:30pm
Our Governing Team met with staff and School Operations Team representatives this afternoon, and have made the following decisions with respect to the three major ministry areas: church, school, and preschool.
Church: we are suspending in-person gatherings for the time being, starting immediately. We will not gather at the church building for worship or other events. We will live stream in place of in-person gatherings, so that we may still receive the Word of God as a group, even though we'll be physically separated. The specific order of services is yet to be determined. Pastor Michael will also be making himself available for individual Communion regularly, to serve those who will be especially comforted by that gift of our Lord in this time. That schedule is still yet to be determined, but will be published by the end of this week.
Live streams, and well as recorded video, will be viewable on Youtube. Please subscribe to the channel—it will help both you and us! We'll post a video tomorrow, and will live stream a short devotional tomorrow night at 6:30pm in place of our regular Lenten midweek worship.
Congregational life is also important; we'll be seeking to serve one another with errands, etc., and will post more information Wednesday. We also encourage members to continue to give financially as you are able; etransfer and pre-authorized debit are available, and we'll give more detail on that Wednesday as well.
School: following BC Ministry of Education directives, we are putting plans in place for the continuity of learning following spring break, even as in-class instruction has been suspended. We will not be able to have students in the building, but staff will be delivering education in alternative forms.
Preschool: we are evaluating options, as there was no specific directive given today by the Ministry of Education. We will provide more updates when more information is available.
For our school and preschool communities, we do want you to enjoy the rest of spring break, knowing that your school leadership is working diligently to make decisions in the face of information that is being updated daily.
March 17, 2020, 12:30pm
BC Minister of Education Rob Fleming just announced that all BC schools are to suspend in-class instruction as of tomorrow. 99% of students are now on spring break, including ours. Minister Fleming has said that they will be working with education partners to put plans in place for some "continuity of learning" following spring break. That means the BC government is planning for classes to take place in some form, but not at school buildings. Our Governing Team and staff leadership are meeting today at 4:30pm to discuss all the latest developments, and we will post here following that meeting.
March 16, 2020, 11:30am
The BC Health Minister has just ordered that there be no gatherings of 50 or more people. The congregation's Governing Team is scheduled to meet Tuesday, March 17, and we'll provide more updates as soon as we are able.
In addition, the Health Minister said that they are consulting with educational authorities and are expected to provide an announcement regarding educational institutions tomorrow (Tuesday). Our staff and school and church leadership are monitoring the updates from the government closely and will make decisions about our school and preschool based on governmental orders in addition to our own health and safety factors.
March 15, 2020
Pastor Michael provided a pastoral letter to the congregation. Please also see a statement from our LCC Synod President, Pastor Timothy Tuescher.