Friends,
Over the past 18 months, your Session has been hard at work trying to navigate the life of a congregation in a pandemic. At the center of our work has been care for the health of our congregation and our community, and to continue to faithfully serve Christ and witness to the love of God though our worship, mission, and study. It has been a challenge for all of us to figure out how to be the church, the faithful church, through all of the changes, concerns, and adaptations. With the rise of the delta variant, the current vaccination levels in our region, and the current hospital utilization levels, it is time for another change and a reminder that we take these steps as a result of our faith, not in spite of our faith.
While we will return to worship in the building and on zoom this Sunday, September 26th, we will be requiring masks to be worn and worn correctly for the entire time in the building. We will be removing some pews to enable us to space out from one another. You should expect to hear and see more reminders about these precautions as we gather together in worship.
Our musical offerings will shift, as we will not be singing in the sanctuary. We realize that the change to singing may be the hardest part of all of this as we long to sing together and reflexively sing some things. However, we don’t hold back when we sing together, so we need to hold back from singing altogether. We will be asking for submissions of recorded music by those of you who are comfortable doing so, in order to keep music in our services.
Session is taking these steps out of our faith, in which Christ calls us to care for our neighbor, in which the people of God are instructed to care for the city in which they live, and in which we are reminded that the body of Christ needs to be healthy to do its faithful work.
In Christ,
Your Session