COVID Guiding Values

Dear friends, As we move into the next phase of what we hope is the late phase in the global Covid-19 Pandemic, we are excited and languishing, cautious, curious and sometimes confused. The Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania has put out new guidelines in response to the most recent CDC guidance for fully vaccinated people. When we look carefully at good demographic data for the statistics we know are part of our CCRP life and circle of friends, we can safely guess that congregants are at least 70% vaccinated (12y and up) and/or are Covid recovering with significant antibodies (12y and up). This is a tremendously important threshold, however it is of course, only a portion of the population and we are never isolated from the greater community, where incomplete vaccination is currently only 50% for Delaware County. We are people who believe that children and their families should always feel welcome at every worship service. This is why indoor multi-generational gatherings, such as worship, will continue with the recommendations for schools from the CDC: masks and at least 3ft distancing with people who are not in your family or bubble of trust. We have already begun gradually applying some relaxations and changes to our life together. Adult meetings will be mask optional with the consent of everyone present, so please bring your mask until that is decided at each meeting. Youth ministries will follow the diocesan guidelines for youth, children’s activities will follow the guidelines for children. We will continue to offer the streaming of the 10 am service, and the weekday Prayer During the Day online. An outline follows this letter for your convenience, however, for the month of June we will be reducing seated distancing, offering a choice of hand sanitizing or hand washing when entering for worship, and increasing the number of people who can gather at worship. We are continuing both the 9am Zoom Morning Prayer service (it is lovely) and the handful of Tuesday Evening In- Person Eucharists (6 pm, 15, 22, 29). We will keep the reservation form for June: this keeps us from having to turn someone away while we inch our numbers up. The largest shift will begin In July when we will begin two Sunday services: 8 am and 10: 15 am. The shift in time for the second service is to give the staff more breathing room between services in the future. The early service will be a simple spoken Eucharist service with no music and the 10.15 am will have music, a soloist, and one congregational hymn at the end of the service. There will be no reservations, and therefore we hope that some of you will try the earlier service to help us balance out the number of people present at each service. I could not have made it through most of this era without the skills and determination of Mackenzie Alexander, Carole Nasella, Janet Kaido, the wardens, vestry, and for the last few months, Deacon Dennis Bingham. We have never closed, we have continued to proclaim and serve and strive every single day in Jesus’ name. I hope you will feel comfortable with attending in person worship soon, and that you will wear your mask as a prayer for those who cannot remove it due to illness, for all the medical staff who have born such a burden throughout the pandemic, wear it for places where the pandemic is still raging, and for that place in our common life where trust has been eroded. Let us hold one another in prayer and enter this new phase with patience and wisdom and a commitment to God who loves you so. In peace,
The Reverend Jane Gober