SEARCHING FOR A SAFE WAY FORWARD

How soon can we worship together in person?  That’s the question on my mind, and I expect it is on yours.  We have kept engaged and connected through outstanding virtual worship, Zoom fellowship hour, parking lot outreach activities, and front step ministry activities such as the HOPE and WE LIFT UP projects for our neighbors.  Yet I miss seeing your faces in person, hearing organ music, learning together on Sunday mornings, and worshiping in our beautiful sanctuary.  

How and when can we start meeting in person?  How can we reduce the risks of moving church back into our church building?  The Executive Team and Official Board of Union Avenue have pondered this question over the past year.  The arrival of COVID vaccines enabled us to launch concrete and constructive discussions about reopening the building and resuming in-person worship. 

We envision a careful, phased, and data-driven process.  We will build in contingency plans for recalibrating and revising plans depending on how the virus and its variants evolve down the road and how our various levels of government respond to such developments.  Balancing enthusiasm to regroup with caution and responsibility, we hope we can open the building for in-person events by late summer or early fall if all goes well.  We also plan to begin some in-person, outdoor gatherings, now that weather permits.

In its March 21 meeting, our Board asked me to appoint a task force, such as recommended in the document Holding Our Plans Loosely: Returning to Church 2.0 from the Wisconsin Council of Churches (which has become the gold-standard for many faith traditions, including the Disciples of Christ).  This task force, co-chaired by Kathy Davis and Britani Chase, will gather data and advise the Board about moving forward toward any public in-person activity in the building.  We will strive to maximize the safety of everyone entering the building while allowing certain forms of in-person ministry to proceed.  This task force will continue to guide our Board as we adapt to the changing circumstances of COVID-19’s impact upon our community and our congregation.

We look forward to close communication with you as we plan, recognizing that the pandemic has and may continue to shift and evolve.  The task force will be eager to entertain any questions you have so that we can safely move forward together.  We will keep you informed as our conversations proceed.  I welcome your questions:  enolakproctor [at] gmail.com or by telephone.  Please join me in supporting the task force and its leaders with your prayers.

— Enola Proctor on behalf of the Official Board