An Update from Session on COVID-19
May 5, 2020

Dear Faith Family,

As a Session, we have been prayerfully considering next steps that both care for our members and support our local community. With the beginning stages of reopening now taking place, we want to communicate with you a basic plan for the coming weeks as we try to get back together safely. We recognize there are divergent views on this matter, so we want to empower you to make your own choices related to public interaction while showing kindness and grace to those who may have differing views.

All of these decisions are subject to change at any point, should our current COVID-19 crisis trends shift. We will be monitoring our local community situation closely.
Small Group Gatherings
Those willing to participate may return to small group gatherings (e.g. Life Groups, Youth Bible Studies) in accordance with safe social distancing protocol. We believe groups can gather with safeguards in place, but are fully supportive if groups prefer to continue online interactions. Contact your group leader for more information.

Worship Services
We are aiming for mid to late June to resume in-person worship services. We have tasked our staff team with preparing for these services by putting together plans for worship format, music rehearsals, social distancing protocol, cleaning and sanitizing procedures, and communication strategies. Please be aware that for a time our services will look different from our services before the pandemic. They will most likely be shorter in length; we will be more distant from one another, and we may need to have multiple services in order to accommodate our faith family safely. We will also be providing an online viewing option for those who desire to continue worshipping with us from home.

While we await the day when we can all gather together again for worship, if you would like to gather in small groups to view and participate in the virtual worship services together, please let us know. If you need help finding a small gathering to sing, pray, and learn from God’s Word together through the virtual services, please contact us at info@epclongview.org.

Main Office
The main office will remain closed at this time, but the Session will reevaluate that situation in three weeks. Most staff will continue to work from home and all communication options will remain open for you to use in order to contact us. Visit us at www.longviewepc.org for more information.
We hope this helps you with the beginning stages of our 'get back together' plan as a faith family. As always, if you have a question you can contact any of the Elders. Our desire is to thoughtfully and prayerfully initiate a plan that both connects us in worship and keeps our community safe. Thanks for your help in advance for making this happen! If you would be interested in helping us to reopen, with things like cleaning between services, please contact us at info@epclongview.org. Thank you again for continuing to pray with and for our faith family, our community and world.

With hope in Christ,

The Longview EPC Session

Doug Ashley, Buck Birdsong, Cindy Brelsford, Kerri Daugbjerg, Kathy Diamond,
Shawn Frazier, Shelley Kral, Michael McMahon, Eric Skoog, Matt Yost, Lisca van Zyl
Longview Evangelical Presbyterian Church | Website | 903.234.0032