Continuing to Wear Masks in Worship

• Posted on May 6, 2022
• by Sarah Marino
• in Community, Health and Wellness, Latest News, Ministries/Task Force News, Worship
• Comments Off on Continuing to Wear Masks in Worship

For the time being we are continuing to ask the congregation to wear masks during our public worship While we are aware that optional masking policies are held in many other public spaces we are continuing to be cautious for 3 primary reasons:

1. There are many people in our midst who are contracting the virus. In the past few weeks 5 families in our congregation (that we know of) have entered into quarantine because of COVID19. Yes, these aren’t life-threatening cases but they aren’t lightly symptomatic either.
2. Singing is a central part of our worship service, it’s how we praise God together and singing creates 77% more aerosols than talking (see CSU Aerosols Emissions Study).
3. We are determined to base our policy on protecting the most vulnerable among us, those who want to worship in-person with us and whose contracting of COVID could result in more serious side-effects.

That being said, we are allowing all smaller groups (committees, classes, renters, etc) who meet in our facility during the week to make their own decisions about mask-wearing The Re-Gathering Team will reconvene later this month to review where we find ourselves and determine whether our policy needs to change before the end of the church year. We welcome conversation and feedback about this, but wanted to be clear that our current policy remains in place intentionally

Peace,

Rev. Will Burhans