Evan McClanahan
UPDATED 5/30/20
As we navigate this fluid situation of quarantining and now reopening, advice and opinions vary across the board. As a church, we have limited those in worship and moved to live-streaming to continue, as much as possible, some kind of normal worship life.
Our plan is to move to a “full” service on Sunday, June 7. We already can hold the average number of those who worship to a 25% or 50% capacity. On June 7, we will have a full music service with communion. During the quarantine, we had a simpler service with less music and no communion. That spoken word service will be more or less what to expect when we have our 9:00 am service. As attendance everywhere is low, it seems wise to launch that service in the Fall.
For both practical and theological reasons, we will continue to take some precautions. Here is a link to the state’s recommendations. We will do or recommend the following:
- Maintain social distancing in the nave
- Pass the peace with friendly smiles
- Allow worshippers to grab their own bulletin
- When we begin singing hymns again and using the LBWs, we will provide a pre-sanitized LBW for you and keep a stack of LBWs in the narthex
- Wipe down commonly touched items like doorknobs, etc.
- Following the advice and standards for church gatherings, masks are recommended but not mandatory
- The Monday Night Bible Study and Sunday school will be on Zoom through May and maybe beyond
- The services will continue to be viewable on YouTube Live indefinitely
A few more details:
For Sunday School, we will go back to our 10:00 time, though I will start promptly at 10:00. I will be making coffee. I will be offering the class through Zoom as well as in person.
We will continue the “Ask Me Anything” Bible study via Zoom on Monday nights at 7:30 pm. Some who joined us on Zoom would likely not be able to join in person, so maybe that will become a combination of in-person and Zoom in the future as well. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to send them in. I will send out seperate emails with those links.