Upon the recommendation of the President of the Minnesota South District, in cooperation with the Governor of Minnesota, the following PLAN has been prepared for the reintroduction of indoor worship in our congregation. Although we had previously presented a plan to move forward with indoor worship beginning June 14th. the Church Council has decided to continue with this previous plan with recommended modifications.
Before hosting groups over 10 people, faith-based communities, places of worship, funeral homes and other venues that offer gathering spaces for weddings, funerals, and planned services such as worship, rituals, prayer meetings, Bible studies, must develop and implement a COVID-19 Preparedness Plan that addresses the following components. The Plan must be evaluated, monitored, executed, and updated under the supervision of a designated Plan Administrator within your organization. The plan must be posted in a location that will allow for the Plan to be readily reviewed by all leadership, staff, and volunteers.
The Sr. Pastor will be designated as our Plan Administrator – not with authority to regulate but to coordinate and communicate the details of the plan as approved by the Board of Elders and Church Council according to their respective powers.
Occupancy for the space must not exceed 25% of total capacity, maximum of 250 people in a single self-contained space. For us, this means a maximum of 100 people in the general seating of our sanctuary; however, see below for further limitations. Outdoor gatherings must not exceed 250 people. Our parking lot services have not exceeded 80 in attendance at any single service, but those who will remain in their vehicles with closed windows are not included in this number. In short, we should have no troubles whatsoever maintaining the limit for outdoor gathers with respect to our parking lot services.
Congregants should be encouraged to exit directly after services and return to their cars or other mode of transportation. Consumption of food and beverages should not take place.
Congregation leaders and those who serve in worship should read and become familiar with this plan. The plan will also be posted on our website and announcements as appropriate will be included in our Sunday bulletins.
Should more people present themselves for attendance at an indoor service than are provided for by our seating limitations, then those arriving first will be allowed to remain and those who arrive after seating is filled will be asked to return at a later time. Should this become an issue in our congregation, we will schedule additional service times for each week.
Those in attendance will be socially distanced by taping off sections of seating in the sanctuary. This provides seating for 24 “family units” with three to five people in each “family unit” for a total of 94 seats in the general seating in the sanctuary. However, the worship participants themselves will determine what constitutes a “family unit” rather than asking worship leaders or volunteers to regulate what constitutes a family unit. In other words, if two unmarried individuals agree to share a family unit space, they will be allowed to do so and we will not enforce arbitrary definitions of a family unit.
Common surfaces will be cleaned and the disinfectant should not be wiped dry between indoor services. This especially includes door handles and bathroom surfaces. A waste receptacle will be placed near the door of each rest room so that people can use a paper towel to open the door as they leave and deposit it in the receptacle. Hymnals will be removed from pews and worship bulletins are not to be reused.
By offering online resources, parking lot services, pastoral care by posted hours and by appointment, and controlled indoor worship opportunities, our congregation is providing vulnerable adults, people who have symptoms, such as fever, cough, sore throat, etc. to remain home and/or limit their exposure while continuing to worship. Those who come for indoor worship will be expected to wear a mask and we will have a limited number of masks available. They will be instructed to maintain proper distances.
We will ask indoor worship participants to enter to and exit form their seats in an orderly manner, to limit their movement in the building as much as possible, and to maintain distances from others, especially while indoors.
The distribution of Holy Communion will be by a continuous procession, with masked ushers or elders releasing each family unit at a distance from the next. Those who distribute the elements will visibly sanitize their hands before communion and may also wear gloves. If they come in contact with someone during distribution they should sanitize their hands again before continuing. The wafers can be dropped into the hand of the communicant and individual cups will be handed to communicants. We will no offer the common cup.
Offerings will be received at plates positioned by the doorways before and after the service. People can also mail in their offering or use electronic means to transfer money to the church for their offering.
The practice of singing possibly increasing exposure has been debated. It will be our practice to limit the sung liturgy, but to continue including singing for indoor worship. Those who are concerned about increased exposure on account of singing will be asked to utilize the parking lot or online worship services. At this time, we will not be including any musicians or vocalists during the service but will continue to use all prerecorded music.
The following links are recommended for those who would like additional information about guidance which has been issued for houses of worship: