Families and individuals all over Saskatchewan will be looking at forming social bubbles of up to ten people this week after the provincial government's latest updates to the public health restrictions.

As everyone prepares for a bit more social interaction after months of near-solitude, another group is opening up to see more smiling faces: places of worship.

On Nov. 27, changes to provincial guidelines forced churches, temples, and synagogues to limit capacity to only 30 people, regardless of the actual size of the facility. Now, the updates which came just this past Tuesday, Mar. 9, are allowing up to 30 per cent of capacity or 150 attendees, whichever is smaller.

Paul Reimer is the assistant pastor at Moose Jaw Alliance Church. He describes how the 30 person limit has affected their services over the past three and a half months.

"We started off opening up the live services to widows and single people who otherwise would have been alone in their homes. After that, we found we were able to open it up to more families."

Reimer also serves as the leader of the young adults' ministry at MJAC and says it was difficult to find ways to meet together and socialize with size limits and social distancing.

"You have to have everybody spaced apart and that really limits the kinds of things you can do as a young adult or youth ministry. So, what it looked like was more intentional, one-on-one coffee or phone meetings to keep in touch...but I think that this has been a great opportunity for us to dive into our faith on a more personal basis."

With the new capacity rules, Reimer says the congregation is ecstatic to get back to larger services. The size of the chapel at MJAC will allow for 150 attendees and pre-registration will be required.

"On March 21 we're going to be opening up as much as we can. I am just so pumped that it can feel more like a live service instead of just a virtual one."

Reimer adds that the church's various small groups and discipleship programs are still capped at 30 people for the time being.