Your Church Council had its first meeting of the new church year on August 4. Planning for the church year began, despite uncertainty about the impacts of the Delta variant of Covid-19.
The Council continued work on the evolution of the church’s reopening in a way that seeks to balance safety with a careful return to full use of the building. The Council agreed on the following plans.
- During worship, which is available to all, only vaccinated people will be on the chancel and able to speak unmasked.
- While congregational singing will continue to be prohibited, ensembles and soloists will be allowed during live worship when masked and after verification of each singer’s vaccination status.
- Church small groups may begin to gather in the church and will remain masked, unless the small group (less than 8) decides by mutual consent that the mask is optional.
- A new consideration for the Council is utilization of the building by outside partners. Partner groups must be vaccinated and follow current CDC and King County Public guidelines for their events.
- In upcoming meetings, the Council will consider guidelines for children and youth.
The Council reviewed finances, especially in light of significantly diminished use of the garage by outside parties. Giving remains at 95% of budget (hooray!), and staff and committees are working hard to keep spending down. However, we know that moving to live streaming worship and preparing the building for full usage will increase our costs. Now is a great time to get current with your 2021 pledge, if you can. Our mortgage reduction fund, the fund created when we built the building to pay the mortgage, has been nearly fully utilized. If you are able, you might consider an extra gift to help pay the monthly mortgage.
In the next months, we look forward to being together in the sanctuary, and to expanding on our work on Lenscrafting: An Anti-Racism and Cultural Competency Vision for First Church Seattle. Your congregational leaders have been going through training, and our next phase is to include the full congregation in the work. This is exciting work that First Church is piloting for the Pacific Northwest Conference.
If you have any questions about the work of the Church Council, please don’t hesitate to contact any of its members.
Violet Boyer
Chair, Church Council