Since the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic just under two years ago, your First Church leadership has held public health and spiritual health as priorities as we lead our congregation through this unprecedented season. As we have done before, we are adapting to the current conditions in our community as the Omicron variant spreads, and are doing our best to adjust our ancient practices to new containers that better fit the covid-19 era.
First Church will continue to provide high-quality and accessible worship experience for our community in-person and online, live or later, and we are adapting our practices in the following ways:
- KN95 or equivalent masks will be provided free for all attendees of in-person worship. If you do not have a higher grade mask, you will be given one to wear during worship. Proof of vaccination will continue to be required for all attendees ages 12+.
- Holy Communion is an embodied experience of faith and is an important part of the worship service. For the time being, we will be sharing Holy Communion outside after worship. We will have tents for inclement weather, but be sure to bundle up! Elements will be blessed for our online worshippers during the service so that they can partake in Communion at home.
- Sanctuary signage will be updated to better guide attendees where to sit in the sanctuary to provide adequate social distancing.
- Speakers and Soloists during worship will continue to speak or sing masked or unmasked (we currently recommend all speakers or singers who wish to speak unmasked to obtain a negative covid-19 PCR test in the 72 hours prior to worship). We will be adjusting the location of our speakers to provide the maximum amount of space between them and the congregation.
- Committees and volunteers will continue to be encouraged to meet virtually when possible, while work teams can continue to gather in-person to accomplish tasks provided they are masked and vaccinated.
- We have chosen to suspend in-person music rehearsals for the time being for the First Church Choir. We will reassess the situation next month and will resume in-person rehearsals when the risk of covid-19 transmission is lower.
- As you know, volunteers create the space to safely offer in-person worship. We understand the need for each of us to make the best decision for ourselves and the people who are close to us when it comes to attending large group gatherings at this time. If we find that we do not have enough volunteers to safely offer in-person worship during the current omicron-fueled case surge, we will move towards offering either pre-recorded or fully online worship services until this surge has passed. As we have already seen last week, contingency plans when pastors or key leaders are not available will continue to be needed. If you are worshiping online, you can still volunteer in worship by recording scripture readings!
In prayer and service,
First Church Lay Leadership Team and Pastors