CORONAVIRUS UPDATE: JUNE 18th

ANNOUNCEMENT OF PLAN

TO RESUME IN-PERSON WORSHIP SERVICES

ON SUNDAY, JULY 12

We are so grateful to all of you who responded to the survey on re-opening the church building. Some of you are eager to resume meeting together for Worship in person, recognizing the need to follow CDC guidelines, state regulations, and common-sense practices to safeguard the health of all who choose to attend. Others of you are more cautious about re-opening the church building and prefer to wait longer before coming to Worship in person. The Session has heard all of your voices and respects the various opinions and perspectives you have shared with us. Thank you!

At its meeting on Thursday, June 18, the Session voted to resume in-person Worship services on Sunday, July 12, at 10:30 AM. Between now and then, the Session will work out the details to make the experience as safe and worshipful as we can. It will not be like it was before the pandemic. Masks will be required for all attenders. Strict social distancing protocols will be followed in the church building. We will be able to accommodate a maximum of 70 people in the Sanctuary. We are looking at an online sign-up process to ensure that we won’t need to turn anyone away at the door.

For those who choose not to attend in person, we will continue to live-stream our services each Sunday in the same format we have been using since March.

The church is a place of grace. This is a judgment-free zone where we encourage all of you to make the decision that is best for you and/or your family. Recent research indicates that longer exposures to indoor spaces where people are gathered increases the risk of COVID-19 transmission. While we will employ recommended mitigation measures, there remains a risk associated with in-person Worship.

Those of you who are 65 or older may want to hold off attending in person. We encourage those who have underlying medical conditions and are particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus or other illness to stay home for the time being. If you or another member of your family are sick, please stay home and worship with us via the live-stream on YouTube. We don’t want anyone to take any unreasonable or unnecessary risk of getting sick, nor do we want you to put anyone else at risk.

There will be more information about what to expect if you choose to join us in person on July 12 and after.

I love you all. More importantly, Jesus loves you all. Our Father in heaven loves you all. I have missed gathering with you all in person for Worship. I have missed it and you terribly. I look forward to seeing all of you who choose to come to church in person beginning on July 12. For those who cannot or choose not to return to in-person Worship yet, I hold you in my heart and pray for the Lord’s grace to abound to you day after day.

We all long for the day when church life returns to something more resembling normal. In the uncharted waters in which we find ourselves, we want to be faithful to what we believe the Lord desires of us as a church. We pray for the spiritual, material, physical, emotional, and relational well being of every member of our church family. We are looking to the Lord for His guidance in every step we take for the health and well being of the Faith Church family.

God bless you all and keep you in His care.

Pastor Neil