Corona – cancellation of FCG events

Stood from: 15.03.2020
Dear brothers and sisters, friends and interested people!
We are living in turbulent times and currently we are receiving notifications about new developments on a daily basis. As you may have heard in the media, our government has determined that all social contacts must be reduced to a minimum starting on Monday, 16th of March.

Personal protection
This is for our own personal protection and especially for the protection of the elderly. As church leaders we consider it our responsibility to protect our members and therefore we strongly recommend that we suspend all our fellowship groups for the time being. We would ask you to accept this decision and I encourage you to use this time for personal prayer and for some special time with God. We will update you in time about any new developments.

Crisis as an opportunity
A crisis can be seen as an opportunity to slow down and in particular to make time for God and His word. Let’s use this opportunity! Furthermore, there is obviously the possibility to stay connected through modern technologies and/or to speak on the phone or via Skype.

Prayer
Let’s pray that the situation may calm down soon, so that we will soon be able to hold our Sunday service and fellowship groups in their usual form. May God bless all of you abundantly and show you His wisdom and His guidance! God has everything under control and also during this time we may look to Him, the author and finisher of our faith.

Collection
Since our current expenses are mainly covered by the Sunday collections, to avoid financial difficulties we would ask you to transfer your donations to the following account:
IBAN: AT61 1200 0504 1668 2700
BIC: BKAUATWW
Thank you for your support!

Service line of our church
For current, urgent and specific requests, you can still reach us at the following phone number: +43 660/2933250

General Information
Please, observe the common hygiene rules (https://orf.at/corona/stories/3155574). If you notice any symptoms, call the health hotline 1450 and follow the instructions. Please, also inform us as a congregation, so that we can provide support, if needed.

Stood from: 11.03.2020
As a measure to slow down the spread of the current Corona epidemic, the Austrian government has prohibited indoor events with over 100 participants until the beginning of April.

It is recommended to avoid to the extent possible social contacts to reduce the risk of infection.

The FCG leaders have decided to cancel all Sunday church services until the beginning of April based on the above-mentioned governmental provision or rather to hold the church services without participants via livestream, in order to protect all of our members and friends. You can access the livestream on our homepage (www.fcg-graz.at) or on our YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/c/FreieChristengemeindeGraz). We will inform you in time about further steps.

We encourage you to meet up in your homes or in small groups (e.g. your Bible study groups) to celebrate church services together, making use of our livestream. Please, forward this information to as many people as possible! We are looking forward to celebrating Sunday services in their usual form!

Furthermore, due to these circumstances we are forced to cancel the Israel workshop on Saturday as well as our congregational meeting on Sunday!

We are convinced that God is above everything and has everything under control and that we as a church may stand together and pray together for God’s kingdom to break through! We encourage you to pray throughout this whole situation, in particular for the people infected by the virus and for the government!

We hope for your understanding and will keep you updated! May God bless you abundantly!

The link to our YouTube-Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/c/FreieChristengemeindeGraz