Friends in Faith,
            At our Council meeting for the month of June, the Church Council determined that we are ready to make changes to our in-person worship at Faith Lutheran Church in line with Phase 2 of Montana’s re-opening. We want to be clear with all of our members and friends at the outset that we are taking on higher risk by making these changes. The main purpose of the shutdown was to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus and we have done that up to this point. As we move forward in our re-opening phases, we acknowledge that we do so with continued risk of infection and any re-opening measures for the church bring with them higher risk for infection at church. Still, we respect everyone’s autonomy as free and sovereign children of God, and are moving forward accordingly with the hope that members of our community can make reasonable and faithful decisions as we all continue to respond to this pandemic.
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The changes to our in-person are as follows:
  1. We still encourage anyone who is in high risk categories to worship from home. We will continue to have worship videos and printed sermons available for anyone who wants them so do not feel like you need to worship in-person to be a part of our Sunday gatherings. In fact, Pastor Seth and the Church Council hope that many of our members will continue to stay home for their own safety and well-being.
  2. We still ask that anyone with a fever, cough, sore throat, or are showing symptoms of any sort of illness to worship from home. While most of our aches and illnesses during this time will likely be from things other than COVID-19, now is not the time to take chances with our neighbors’ health if we can reasonably avoid doing so.
  3. We are making masks optional for those worshipping in-person. We will still have masks available for those who want to wear them, but we are no longer expecting the whole congregation to wear masks at this time.
  4. We will begin checking temperatures at the door and ask those who register a fever to return home to worship there. The church has purchased a digital thermometer to read the forehead temperatures of worship attendees from a short distance. If you have a fever, we will ask you to return home to worship for the sake of others worshipping that day. We encourage everyone to check their own temperatures at home before planning to attend worship gatherings in-person so that we do not have to turn anyone away.
  5. We will resume sharing Holy Communion at our in-person worship gatherings via “continuous communion” rather than gathering at the rail. ELCA leaders have consulted with epidemiologists and virologists who have instructed us that there is significantly higher risk for us to commune while gathered at the rail, as is our normal practice, instead of communing continuously in a line. Gathering at the rail increases our risk due to many different people kneeling and touching the same places as well as by making it difficult to maintain some physical distance around the altar. We have been wisely advised to practice what is deemed “continuous communion”, in which worshippers will come up the aisle to the front, receive the bread and the wine, leave cups in the basket and return back to the pews up the aisle on the other side. Pastor Seth and whoever is distributing with him will wear a mask during communion distribution and Pastor Seth will take over preparing communion before church so that we can ensure proper sanitary precautions are taking place and better keep track of who is setting up.
  6. We will still refrain from congregational singing until Phase 3. Group singing has been proven to increase the risk of spread across indoor spaces like ours so we will continue to have special music instead of congregational singing for the time being.
  7. We continue to ask that people refrain from shaking hands or hugging. We will still greet one another and pass the peace across the pews, but we will do our best to maintain physical distance.
  8. We will continue to refrain from having coffee and fellowship time after church in the narthex. We encourage people to talk and catch up in person, but it is best to plan to greet one another outside of the building as there is significantly lower risk of infection outside than in.
  9. We will do our best to sit in every other pew as marked out with red tape to maintain some physical distancing. We have had more people coming to church the last few weeks and it has been harder to space everyone out as more people come, but we will continue to try to space people out as best as we can.
  10. We will continue to reserve the balcony for worshippers in high risk categories who prefer to have as much physical distance from others as possible. There have been requests from some of our members that space be set aside for extra distance from others and the balcony is the best place to do that. We will continue to honor their request.
We ask that everyone do their best to respect our medical leaders who are trying to guide us through this pandemic crisis, as well as show grace to one another. There are many differences of opinion about the timing of re-opening, the necessity of masking, the severity of risk, which businesses are “essential”, etc., but times like these, times of tension, stress, and anxiety, are precisely why Christ brings us together as his body of believers. We are called to build one another up and not tear each other down, just as God in the Holy Spirit does for us. Now, as much as ever, we should heed the instruction written to the early Christians worshipping in Ephesus, “I therefore…beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.” – Ephesians 4:1-3
 
The Church Council of Faith Lutheran Church

Sunday Worship

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