It is May and was yesterday a beautiful day! I greeted people outside as they came in for worship and it felt good. Obviously, we weren’t “at capacity” but more people are returning to indoor/in-person worship. It was great to see people.
As you most likely have seen, the CDC has released new guidelines concerning what people can do if they are vaccinated, what they should continue to refrain from if they are unvaccinated, and guidelines over mask wearing for everyone. I am in conversations with a team of people from church and council to determine what these new guidelines will mean for us and how we gather for worship here at Holy Trinity.
The options we are considering serve a two-fold purpose. One, how can we gather in a way that brings as many people physically together to participate in as full a worship service as possible? Two, how do we provide an online experience to connect people to our community and worship who are still not able to gather in-person, whether it is pandemic related or geographical distance?
Some of those options being considered would be to move our primary worship service, on Sunday mornings, outside and only have an indoor service if weather dictates it. It would be similar to our outdoor Easter service at the building. This service, whether it is indoors or outdoors would be live-streamed to our website. This might mean the discontinuation of our zoom service. Also, since we had such a good time with an outdoor/midweek gathering last year, we would like to do that again.
Additionally, just so you are aware, we are not going to require people to be vaccinated in order to attend. We understand that some people have reasons for intentionally choosing not to do so. Therefore, when we gather, the safety protocols we will implement around distancing and mask wearing will be with the assumption that we are always in a mixed group of vaccinated and non-vaccinated people. Things we require when we gather indoors, will be different than what we require when we gather outdoors.
After a year of zoom and other forms of digital worship with reduced in-person experiences, we realize new routines and habits have formed. I have read that as many as 25% of the church going population has stopped attending during this time AND do not intend to return. As we continually contemplate the best way to worship during the COVID pandemic, please be mindful of the habits that you are forming, and have formed, and please keep worship part of them.
Lastly, to help us determine our worship schedule for this summer, please take a couple minutes to complete the following survey. Results will be anonymous. Please keep in mind this is not a vote to determine what we will do. We are gathering information to help us determine what we feel is the best course of action.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Tim