Greetings beloved church family,
We are thrilled to announce that we are eagerly preparing for in-person worship services to resume inside our building! Our target date is April 3rd.
Many pieces are falling into place, but we have a few more opportunities for involvement from the community. In order to make the target safe in person gathering date a reality, we still need help with the following:
· Tech team volunteers to make the dual platform service run smoothly. Please contact Judy Stettner at office@mchenryuu.onmicrosoft.com for training and more information on supporting this critical team!· Volunteers to build 3 more “Corsi-Rosenthal” box air filters. Several small groups have stepped up to build 6 filters, but 3 more are needed to bring us up to the goal of 9 filters in the sanctuary. Contact Heather Madaus at hmmadaus@gmail.com if you can help.
As a community, we hold a range of opinions regarding how to best provide a welcoming and inclusive worship experience while safeguarding the wellbeing of our most vulnerable members. (As UUs, we probably wouldn’t imagine it any other way!) Despite our historic distaste of guidelines and rules, in order to regather, we needed to establish a place to start. Hopefully this will also give individuals a clear vision of whether they will feel comfortable joining an in-person gathering or will choose the virtual option.
Therefore, after much careful deliberation and consideration of the feedback from the congregation, the following guidelines were established:
· Masks: Everyone attending the in-person service will be required to wear a mask. (K95 or N95 masks are preferred.) We will have masks available for those who might forget to bring one.
· Social distancing: chairs will be spread six feet apart. Members of the same household will have the opportunity to sit closer. Everyone is encouraged to respect the physical boundaries of others.
· Attendance: will be limited to 31 persons in total in the sanctuary to allow for social distancing and reservations will be required. (This number can increase when the social distancing parameters decrease.) Information on how to register will be provided soon.
· Vaccinations: After considering feedback from the congregation and church staff, and to promote the safest and most comfortable environment for the majority of the community, proof of vaccination against COVID-19 will be required to register for the in-person service.
· Use of air filters: Nine Corsi-Rosenthal box air filters will be in operation in the sanctuary.
· Revision of plan: The board will continue to review relevant metrics and the evolving recommendations on a monthly basis and revise the plan in accordance with changing conditions. We fully expect to relax these requirements as conditions change.
If you would like to read a full description of the sources consulted and the reasoning underlying our decisions, you can read the full report here. The board is extremely grateful to Steve Lyons for the hours of time and effort he put in to organizing, clarifying and summarizing information into this report for us.
In Excitement,
Your board