It seems like for the last 16 months all we’ve done is adjust and adapt to new realities, responsibilities, and ways of figuring out how to stay connected as a church family. Just as we were looking forward to connecting in many of the ways we miss so much (and after a few weeks in our sanctuary thanks to an air conditioning leak…), here we are again adapting to a new reality and reconsidering our plans for the weeks ahead.
After meeting with our Covid Deacon Subcommittee (Jim Bishop, Kathia Hicks, Lawrence LaBeaud, Lisa Martin, Kelly Taylor, and Garlinda Walls) earlier this week and in many conversations with them since then, it is clear that the best way for us to continue to connecting as a church family will be to gather only for our worship services in Kelley Hall for the time being. We’ll meet for Morning Worship at 10am on Sunday mornings and Celtic Worship (monthly) at 5:30pm. We can spread out more easily in this space than the sanctuary, the entrances and exits are wider, and many of us feel more comfortable in that space now with the latest spike than we have in the weeks we’ve been in the sanctuary. If you can join us, please wear a mask and keep your distance while in Kelley Hall. If you’d rather worship from home during this spike, we’ll continue to record worship for you on YouTube.
The committee weighed all the options, emotions, and complications as we arrived at this decision. We wrestled with the knowledge that breakthrough infections among the vaccinated are still possible and all of our children under 12 remain unable to get vaccinated even as they return to school. We considered the choices individuals and families have to make regarding what they must do, could do, and could not do for the time being. While it’s not ideal and we all want to get back to worshipping in our sanctuary and returning to other activities, this is what we need to do to balance our desire to be together with our care for our community. This decision was met with great support during the business meeting on Wednesday evening.
Furthermore, the subcommittee has defined some markers (based upon the activity of the virus in our community) we will follow to determine when and how we’ll return to other activities (Sunday School, Wednesday Night Suppers, Study Groups, etc.). These markers are not time bound, but rather based off the active cases in our community. There’s the possibility we could still return to Sunday School in September, but we also may have to wait longer than we’d hoped. Here are the markers and how we’ll know when, where, and how we’ll meet. (If you can’t see the image below, click HERE.)
Click to access Guidance-for-Gatherings.pdf
For now this means, we’ll only worship in Kelley Hall. As cases drop, we’ll bring more activities back. There still may be some back and forth, some need for adapting, and a big need for grace with ourselves and each other. We’ve hung in together throughout this entire pandemic and done things we never wanted to do or thought of doing so that we could keep being a church family. Let’s hang in there a little longer for our own health, the safety of our community, and as yet another way we show our community that we’re doing our best to love our neighbors.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Brett
Follow Us!