• Decide as a Congregation Council when you begin worship again. Just because you can does not mean you should. Consider the age and demographic of your congregation to decide when it is right for you to begin in-person worship again. Pay close attention to the advice of our local health authorities.
• Check with your insurance carrier; some will not cover you if you begin too soon.
• Publish your service times and let people know what new practices of physical distancing and hygiene to expect when they return.
• Insist that people stay at home if they're immunocompromised. Many of our seniors are lonely, bored, and yearning for community in this crisis. They will probably not listen to you unless you insist.
• Disinfect the public spaces before people arrive, and between each service and gathering.
• Invite everyone to use face masks even during singing, as Covid19 is airborne.
• Train ushers/greeters to not shake hands or pass out bulletins. If you have screens in your sanctuary, don't use bulletins at all. If bulletins are necessary, place them spaced out in every-other-pew by Tuesday or Wednesday, as viruses don't live on the paper for more than 4-5 days. Some viruses live only minutes on paper, but we aren't sure about COVID-19 yet.
• Offering plates should be placed on a table as people enter and exit. Greeters can stand behind the table warmly welcoming worshipers from a distance.
• Prop open inside and outside doors (and if possible, bathroom doors), so no one touches a doorknob or handle.
• Pass the peace with a simple bow to those on your right and left.
• During announcements thank people for coming, and politely remind them not to shake hands or hug yet.
• Holy Communion instructions will be given later in this report.
• Offering at the doors as people enter and exit as mentioned above. Use the offering time to talk about the church's and synod's vital ongoing ministries. Let people write checks. Let them know: What's still happening? Why does it matter? How are lives being impacted? How is your church serving people during this crisis physically and spiritually?
• Offering counters should use the same protocols as bank tellers, sanitizing frequently and sitting at a distance.
• Greeters stand at the tables as people leave to thank them for coming and answer questions. Encourage greeters to check in with people and listen for needs.
• Continue to adopt and encourage electronic giving.

• Altar Guild and Communion Assistants must think of their work in terms of food service preparation, like going through a drive-through restaurant. Does anyone in your congregation work in the restaurant industry? Have any had food handing training? They could be a helpful resource.
• We do not recommend parking lot communion until your community has had 14 days of declining cases, and at that point, worship could carefully resume.
• Communion preparers must wash hands thoroughly for at least 20 seconds prior to preparing Communion. Washing is twice as effective as hand sanitizer.
• Gloves may be used to prepare, but can be deceiving. If a glove touches a contaminated space and then then a plate or tray, it still passes the contamination on. It is best to wash hands thoroughly and frequently.
• Common cup is usually the most sanitary means of communion since most germs are on the hands. This virus, however, is passed on by airborne droplets, and so we recommend not using either common cup or intinction until Phase 3.
• Although not recommended yet, plastic and glass individual cups could both be equally clean. Glass and reusable plastic cups should be soaked for a minute in soapy water after the service. Consider using a diluted chlorine soak after washing.
• Those preparing communion must wash their hands, then place glasses in trays sufficiently spaced so that communicants can take their cup without touching the others. After filling the cups with wine, the trays are placed on the altar. There is still the risk of airborne particles.
• Plastic-wrapped wafers are being considered (not recommended) and could be emptied onto patens without touching them. There should be separate patens for each communion assistant distributing bread.
• The wafer is safer: We do not recommend using bread for a while, whether homemade or from the store. Bread requires more handling than wafers.
• Pastor and communion assistants should wash hands during the offering. Washing is significantly more effective than hand sanitizer. (You've touched stuff during the service.)
• The pastor should consecrate the elements without touching them. The fraction and elevation are optional and should be omitted for the time being.
• Those distributing wafers should try to avoid touching communicants' hands as much as possible.
• Those distributing wine should only touch the trays, holding them out for communicants to take a cup.
• It is best, for a number of reasons, for communion assistants to commune last. This keeps them attentive to hygiene during distribution, and also makes the congregation aware that communion assistants are confident.
• Communing in one kind (only wafer) is acceptable, recommended, and appropriate. The crucified and risen Christ is fully present for them in, with, and under one element. (UMG 44D)