Time for Tea
“Wonderful company, food and entertainment. A happy occasion.”
Question – how do you have a tea party in as Covid-safe a way as possible?
Answer – Afternoon tea in a box! (Plus some careful planning, some safety measures, some Lateral Flow tests for helpers, and some state-of-the-art ventilation).
After what has felt to many like a long and lonely seventeen months, it has been great to run several tea parties recently for some of our older friends and church members. These have provided opportunity to relax and enjoy time to catch-up with one another. They have been small-scale events with just a small number of guests and helpers each time.
Guests were served with their own individual box of sandwiches, scone, cakes, etc, with the added advantage that any left-overs were already packed up and ready to take home. The best china came out of course and our guests all felt very spoiled by these special occasions. Some spoke of this being their first ‘proper’ outing in a long time, and one gentleman said it was the best afternoon tea he had ever had!
As well as creating some safe space and time to linger and chat together, a little bit of entertainment was laid on – some Scottish music by Craig and Bob on one occasion and some poems by Alison on two other occasions.
It also felt great to be in the refurbished building for some of these tea parties, and I’m hoping that we can run some more of these in the future, giving opportunity to invite some of our other older friends.
Catriona Foster
Pastor for Older People
