Church Winter Storm Guidelines

Winter has begun! The following are some general guidelines when there is a storm during worship:

1. Each person / family needs to assess the weather and decide for themselves if it would be best to stay home. If you feel that it would be best to stay home, why not take that opportunity to have your own family or private worship service? As a mission, perhaps you could think of some older members of the church and give them a call to see if they're okay and if they need anything.

2. If there is a parking ban in South Portland, and you need to drive to church, please seriously consider staying home. There is very limited parking in the parking lots, and the parking lots will most likely not be plowed anyway. In addition, if there is a parking ban, the Snow Angels will not have cleared the sidewalks so if you do walk to church please be prepared to trudge through the snow up to the doors. As a general practice sidewalks and parking lots will be cleared after a storm has ended rather than mid-storm.

3. We will post Sunday morning worship cancellation on TV WCSH channel 6. If the storm occurs Sunday evening or during the week, we will also post other cancellations on channel 6 as necessary. For individual groups (committee meetings, prayer service, choir rehearsal), the group leader will contact regular members if there is a cancellation.

4. Even in severe weather and worship has been cancelled, one of the pastors will be there to pray or to lead an informal service. There will most likely be no pianist/organist, and there will most likely be no Sunday School (kids or adults) or coffee fellowship.

5. If you decide not to attend church on a Sunday morning, please set aside your gift or pledge contribution and either mail or bring the following Sunday. Wintry Sundays are extremely difficult on the church budget when folks take this as an opportunity to skip a week's donation. Better yet, fill out a direct debit form so you need not worry about making up missed donations at all.

If you have any questions about these guidelines, please contact the pastors or church council chair, Chris Ward. Thank you!