Summary

• Celebrate hiring Melissa Moore-Winslow as next Children’s Director

  • Overlapping with Kate Ballard the last two weeks of June

  • Melissa will step down from Session to become an employee

• Phase 2 In-Person Worship Begins May 30

  • Masks still expected

  • Every pew is open, but we alternate sides of the pews to give some space between households. With this plan, we can fit close to our normal pre-COVID worship attendance

  • Congregational singing is now allowed with masks still on

  • Able to mingle inside after worship instead of heading outside immediately, but no snacks yet

  • Still open windows as weather permits to allow ventilation

• Phase 3 In-Person Worship Begins June 20 (moved up one week)

  • Masks optional – make the masking choice that makes you feel most comfortable or safest

    • We will not be asking if worshipers are vaccinated

  • Seating remains the same as Phase 2

  • Choir can sing in worship in the choir loft

  • Pulpit and lectern come forward to their pre-COVID positions

  • Still open windows as weather permits to allow ventilation

  • Mingling after worship without snacks (same as Phase 2)

• Fall Worship Begins September 12

  • Adult Sunday School 9-9:45am

  • Worship Service 10-11am

  • Children’s Sunday School plan TBD

  • Possibly all clear on COVID, but we’ll finalize that at the end of summer

• Choir Loft Getting Matching Pews

  • The current pews in the choir loft do not match the rest of the Sanctuary, and they are too long to enable an aisle on both sides of the choir loft

  • We will move the front row pews, the pew in Chandler Hall, and one of the pews from the back of the Sanctuary to the choir loft

• Pastor Cody will be on Sabbatical June 1 through August 24

Longer Version

Phase 2 In-Person Worship – May 30

We chose to start our Phase 2 in-person worship 8 weeks after vaccines became generally available to all adults in Colorado. The logic behind this decision was to give everyone who wants a vaccine the chance to get it plus 6 weeks to let that vaccine become fully effective (first shot + second shot + 2 weeks). That leads us to May 30 for the start of Phase 2 in-person worship.

• Masks still expected

• Every pew is open, but we alternate sides of the pews to give some space between households. With this plan, we can fit close to our normal pre-COVID worship attendance

• Congregational singing is now allowed with masks still on

• Able to mingle inside after worship instead of heading outside immediately, but no snacks yet

• Still open windows as weather allows to allow ventilation

Phase 3 In-Person Worship – June 20 [moved up one week]

We chose to start our Phase 3 in-person worship 3 weeks after we start Phase 2 to make sure our loosening restrictions haven’t created any health and safety issues. If there is another major COVID wave in our community or if there are COVID issues that arise in our church, the start of this phase could be delayed. When we start Phase 2 in-person worship on May 30, that means June 20 for Phase 3.

• Masks optional – make the masking choice that makes you feel most comfortable or safest

  • We will not be asking if worshipers are vaccinated

• Seating remains the same as Phase 2

• Choir can sing in worship in the choir loft

• Pulpit and lectern come forward to their pre-COVID positions

• Still open windows as weather allows to allow ventilation

• Mingling after worship without snacks (same as Phase 2)

Fall In-Person Worship – September 12

As we considered our Fall worship schedule, we focused on five major factors.

• We have people who prefer late worship (a large group)

• We have people for whom adult Sunday school is their primary discipleship approach (a medium group)

• We have people who prefer early worship (a small group)

• We have children and families (a small group, but this is an area of focus for growth and we want the next generation to feel at-home in worship)

• One of our major church goals coming out of COVID is to invest in and restore relationships

Through the lens of those five factors, we evaluated several options. We explored our pre-COVID Sunday plan (worship at 8:30 and 10:30). We explored keeping a single 9:30 service. We explored adult Sunday school 9-10 and a single worship service at 10:30. And we explored adult Sunday school 9-9:45 with a single worship service at 10.

In my conversations with people across our congregation, 10am worship seems to be the intersection between what is “acceptable” to our early and late worshiping groups. Most of the early worshipers I have spoken with said 10 would be the latest they would endorse, and only because it would allow everyone to be together and invest in relationships. Most of the late worshipers I have spoken with said 10 would be the earliest they would endorse, and only because it would allow everyone to be together and invest in relationships.

The Session believes that 9-9:45 Sunday School and 10am worship service gives us the best opportunity to invest in all five of the major factors listed above. It requires everyone to give more on the timing than they would prefer, but it allows us to invest in relationships by being together every week. It also enables pastors to more easily teach adult Sunday school classes.

Choir Loft Getting Matching Pews

The current pews in the choir loft do not match the rest of the Sanctuary, and they are too long to enable an aisle on both sides of the choir loft. For choir members with any mobility issues, the current arrangement is very difficult for them to enter and exit the choir loft. Adding an aisle to the left and right would create a more symmetrical look and improve accessibility for the choir.

We will move the front row pews, the pew in Chandler Hall, and one of the pews from the back of the Sanctuary to the choir loft. The front row of pews are often too close for our worship programming, so their removal should alleviate some congestion. For example, we already remove the front row to fit the Christmas trees during Advent. We also have difficulty fitting all the bells up front when we have Communion by intinction. Larger wedding parties also have difficulty fitting everyone up front. So removing the front row alleviates some common spacing problems without sacrificing much seating capacity.

We are also hoping to move the current choir loft pews up to the balcony to replace those pews. Most of those pews are in very bad shape structurally, and their small size makes seating awkward for groups larger than two people. We measured the space, and there should be ample room to access centered pews in the balcony even with the slanted ceiling.