How do you handle it if your church seems to just stick its head in the sand with rising numbers? Masks and social distancing were required at one point, and now are not. No one wears a mask at services with hundreds of people. We attend online because we are not comfortable gathering in a large, singing crowd of unmasked people. We also know many people at the church do not believe in the vaccine. There are currently 3 people from the congregation in the hospital in serious shape with COVID. We live in Michigan and all the hospitals are a huge mess right now. My husband is a healthcare worker, and he can't believe the lack of regard for safety. There has not been a single peep from the leadership about changing the guidelines and bringing back masks. I just can't wrap my head around it and I am so discouraged. How is this the Christian way? When we talked to a friend last week who is a deacon, he just said, well it's about a 50/50 split on masks among the congregation. So....we just default to the 50% who are against it? Instead of following the recommendations of scientists and epidemiologists? That doesn't make any sense. Thank you so much for your posts, they have encouraged me and reminded me that my family is not crazy or fearful, that there are other Christians like us who are following the same protocols.
Some days, it really feels like the shroud of the pandemic will never lift from our lives. It's hard to keep walking this path when many have abandoned it.
I hope our church universal will heed your guidance. Blessings.
TY for this post. Question about sharing Eucharist. When in lockdown, we had drive-in pickup of prepackaged blessed wafer/juice for monthly Eucharist. Reopened in-person worship, 1 service/Sunday in May 2021, 2 services in Sept 2021 (and we livestream), everyone masked, every other pew blocked off, windows open, HEPA filtration units added. Pastor, liturgist, any other speaker remove masks when speaking. Choir and congregation sing while masked. Pastor recently requested/received permission from our COVID response team (on which I sit) to return to eucharist practice of folks coming forward to receive a piece of bread, followed by a small cup of juice. They pull down masks to partake. I am not engaging in this as I believe it's unsafe for nearly everyone to remove their masks, given that our congregation has both many vulnerable (even if vaccinated) elderly and young families with young children. Any thoughts/guidance? Our team has said no to Xmas Eve practice of individual candles that people would blow out. I'd prefer no candles at all, but we've agreed to have ushers use candle snuffers. Context: Our County and multi-county region have very high COVID numbers ~80+/100k/day. National Guard recently called in to assist our hospitals. Elective surgeries being delayed.
Thank you for this guidance Dr. Emily Smith. Again I am left feeling distraught about how to engage church. My older kids are vaccinated. My high risk 3 year old isn't. No one masks at our church anymore. They did when our state mandated it, but not anymore.
My pastor is a reasonable man, do you have any recommendations about how to bring these concerns up to him?
How do you handle it if your church seems to just stick its head in the sand with rising numbers? Masks and social distancing were required at one point, and now are not. No one wears a mask at services with hundreds of people. We attend online because we are not comfortable gathering in a large, singing crowd of unmasked people. We also know many people at the church do not believe in the vaccine. There are currently 3 people from the congregation in the hospital in serious shape with COVID. We live in Michigan and all the hospitals are a huge mess right now. My husband is a healthcare worker, and he can't believe the lack of regard for safety. There has not been a single peep from the leadership about changing the guidelines and bringing back masks. I just can't wrap my head around it and I am so discouraged. How is this the Christian way? When we talked to a friend last week who is a deacon, he just said, well it's about a 50/50 split on masks among the congregation. So....we just default to the 50% who are against it? Instead of following the recommendations of scientists and epidemiologists? That doesn't make any sense. Thank you so much for your posts, they have encouraged me and reminded me that my family is not crazy or fearful, that there are other Christians like us who are following the same protocols.
Some days, it really feels like the shroud of the pandemic will never lift from our lives. It's hard to keep walking this path when many have abandoned it.
I hope our church universal will heed your guidance. Blessings.
TY for this post. Question about sharing Eucharist. When in lockdown, we had drive-in pickup of prepackaged blessed wafer/juice for monthly Eucharist. Reopened in-person worship, 1 service/Sunday in May 2021, 2 services in Sept 2021 (and we livestream), everyone masked, every other pew blocked off, windows open, HEPA filtration units added. Pastor, liturgist, any other speaker remove masks when speaking. Choir and congregation sing while masked. Pastor recently requested/received permission from our COVID response team (on which I sit) to return to eucharist practice of folks coming forward to receive a piece of bread, followed by a small cup of juice. They pull down masks to partake. I am not engaging in this as I believe it's unsafe for nearly everyone to remove their masks, given that our congregation has both many vulnerable (even if vaccinated) elderly and young families with young children. Any thoughts/guidance? Our team has said no to Xmas Eve practice of individual candles that people would blow out. I'd prefer no candles at all, but we've agreed to have ushers use candle snuffers. Context: Our County and multi-county region have very high COVID numbers ~80+/100k/day. National Guard recently called in to assist our hospitals. Elective surgeries being delayed.
Thank you for this guidance Dr. Emily Smith. Again I am left feeling distraught about how to engage church. My older kids are vaccinated. My high risk 3 year old isn't. No one masks at our church anymore. They did when our state mandated it, but not anymore.
My pastor is a reasonable man, do you have any recommendations about how to bring these concerns up to him?