Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope and pray that all of you are safe, healthy, and doing well, and that you've been finding some opportunities to enjoy the nice (if not hot) weather we've been having recently.
First, let me offer an explanation for why I have not sent out weekly updates the past few weeks. The reason is that there hasn't been much for me to update you on. Over the last few weeks, we have been in a holding pattern, awaiting the guidelines for Phased Regathering to be published by the Diocese. I'm glad to say that they have now been published, along with guidelines for outdoor worship. You can read them here:
http://www.thediocese.net/Customer-Content/www/CMS/files/Regathering_for_Worship_Outdoors_3.pdf
The Vestry and I met yesterday via Zoom to discuss these guidelines. What follows are the decisions that the Vestry and I made for the near future.
1. What phase are we in?
It was brought to my attention yesterday by one of our Vestry members that there is some potential confusion about what phase of regathering we are actually in. According to the Commonwealth of VA, we are in Phase II of our return to business with Phase III set to occur in July (July 12th). That means that many of the nearby churches are starting to gather again for some form of limited worship, as many of you probably well know.
But here's where things get confusing. We, Church of the Messiah, are not following the guidelines of the Commonwealth, but we are following the guidelines of the Episcopal Diocese of VA, since we are a part of the Episcopal Church. The Diocese has a different set of guidelines for phased regathering, and is approaching this much more conservatively than the Commonwealth. According to Diocesan guidelines, we are still in Phase I, which is me, the Priest, returning to recording/streaming services from the church with few-to-no-other persons present. Furthermore, during Phase I, the office staff and I are still required to work from home. That's why you see me continuing to work from home and stream our services alone from the church on Sunday mornings.
Phase II, according to Diocesan guidelines, may not be started until we have had a 14-day rolling average of decline in the number of new cases in our geographical area according to the Health Dept. We have not yet reached that place. This means that we are not able to begin Phase II at the present time, even if we wanted to. When we are able to begin Phase II, which will allow limited attendance, mandatory masks for every parishioner, 6ft social distancing at all times (that means no hugs or handshakes, by the way), no singing, and still no Communion, among other things, we need to present to the Diocese a plan for how we will safely go about handling the service(s). And then, of course, following approval, we need to be able to actually execute that plan.
Phase III, which is a full return to worship with singing and Communion, will only occur once the virus is eradicated or there is a vaccine available to ensure everyone's safety. That may not occur for quite some time, certainly not with the increase in cases that we now see happening in a number of States. And again, this is not necessarily going to be in line with what the Commonwealth of VA is doing.
2. So where do we stand?
After a lengthy discussion with the Vestry yesterday, we unanimously agreed that for the remainder of the summer at least, we are going to continue to remain in Phase I and have me stream our services from the church on Sunday morning. The reason behind the decision is several fold. First, the guidelines for Phase II ask me, the Priest, to ask all of you who are in the "at risk" category (65+ and/or with health issues) to remain at home even if we do reopen. That means that for a significant portion of you I would need to ask you to remain home. Second, there is a matter of manpower that would be needed to ensure that the guidelines are enforced. The level of cleaning necessary after each service alone was of some concern to the Vestry and I. We're not sure that we have the manpower to do this well right now given the overall age of our congregation. Third, several Vestry members have noted that there is some reluctance among a number of you to returning at this time. For all of these reasons, we are going to hold off entering Phase II for now, even when it becomes available for us to do so after the 14-day decline.
3. What about outdoor worship?
Just last week, the Bishop did give us permission to have outdoor services with a limited number of participants and the following guidelines: No Communion. Everyone MUST wear a mask for the whole service. And everyone would need to social distance at all times. At the same time, it is expected that I would continue to stream the services for those who could not or would not attend. This would mean that I would either need to get a PA system in place or do two services (one indoors and the other outside), because my iPad will not pick up the sound well outside.
After some discussion, the Vestry and I felt it was best not to do an outdoor service for the remainder of June, July, and August for the following reasons. First, the heat. Unfortunately, VA in the summertime is not known for its cool weather. With the strong possibility of high temperatures, combined with people needing to wear masks during the whole service, we felt that it might be difficult for some people to breathe or cause some to feel like they might pass out. We don't want to put anyone in that position. Second, much as with the Phase II indoor service, the set up requires quite a bit of manpower from the under 65 year old group and that might not be manpower we have at present, especially with people going away or having summer plans. The last thing we want to do is promise an outdoor service and then have no one to carry out all the set up and clean up. Third, to be perfectly forthright with you, we are still seeing increases in the cases of COVID-19 in our area and, for a number of us, that gives us a good deal of cause for concern.
What we did all agree upon is the idea that we would look at possibly doing an outdoor service sometime in September -- perhaps only as a one-off, mind you -- as long as conditions permit us to do so. We will be exploring that idea more at our August Vestry meeting. So please stay tuned for more on that.
Now, I know that there may be some of you who are not pleased by these decisions that we've made. Please understand that these decisions were not made lightly or easily. I fully understand how eager some of you are in desiring to get back to church and to have life go back to normal. I get that. Quarantine fatigue is a real thing. But please try to understand that the Vestry and I are most concerned with the safety of everyone in our congregation and, therefore, are wanting to handle everything very conservatively. Even if we do enter Phase II sometime in the near future, please understand that church will not be "normal." Masks, social distancing, no singing, and no Communion are going to be the way forward for quite some time. That will make church anything but normal. While I certainly miss seeing all of you on a regular basis -- and I know the Vestry members do as well -- I don't want to do anything that might put one of you at risk. That would not be acting in love, and we are called to acting lovingly toward one another.
That said, we will weather this time. Things will NOT always be like this. By God's grace a vaccine will be developed or medication will become available that will allow us to go back to our usual ways. In the meantime, we can pray and trust God to bring us through this situation. He will do it. He is faithful and He has this whole situation in His control. Even if we don't see it, it is true, because that's what He promises us in His Word.
Before I sign off, just a few last pieces of business. I know that some of you may still have questions. I want to be able to try to answer those questions as best I can. To that end, in the next week or so, I'll be setting up a Zoom "town hall" meeting for our church so that you can sign on and ask any questions of me that you'd like. Stay tuned for an email with a link to that meeting. Second, in order to get a better sense of where you all are regarding your comfort level with returning to church, I'll be sending out an online survey with a few short "yes or no" type questions. Be on the lookout for an email with that as well.
Please stay safe and well. As always, if you need to reach me, you may do so on my cell or via text or email. God's peace to all of you. You are in my daily prayers.
Yours in Christ,
Kyle+