Saint Luke's Guiding Principles During COVID-19

Dear Saint Luke's Family,

While we remain safely sheltering-in-place at home, we also yearn to return to church gathering together. While essential in-person activity and work has continued around us, and more is being opened up, we naturally think about when the time will become right to "re-open church."

In consideration of return, Saint Luke's will be taking our cues from the virus, health science, and our particular context and calling. We continue to learn more from public health scientists about transmission, protection, and safe gathering practices when they will become possible again. This much, however, is already clear: the possibility of safely gathering again, for intergenerational communities like ours, will emerge slowly, and return to gathering will be necessarily cautious and gradual in phases.

Today, the Session of the church met and unanimously adopted general guidelines, in light of COVID-19, about gatherings and considering the eventual possibilities of return to our building and customs. Click here for the full document of these guidelines. This policy lays out what we know, what we reasonably expect, and how we will be guided in decision making about return to in-person activity at Saint Luke's.

General Guidelines About Gatherings and Return to Our Building and Customs:

As Christians, with God we prioritize the health and wellness of all God's people, sharing Jesus' special concern for those who are most vulnerable and marginalized.

As Christians we share a particular calling, and as a proud intergenerational and inclusive church, we are a particular kind of community organization that must be "necessarily cautious." We are not a business or a restaurant or a school. We have a particular call to give special attention in our decision making to the needs of those especially susceptible to coronavirus, including seniors, people with compromised immune systems, and those with respiratory and cardiac conditions. If gathering in person puts people at serious risk, even if it is not the people who are gathering, we must refrain from doing so.

The work of the church continues, and even continues to grow, as we wait to return. Thankfully, by the work of the Spirit, we do not forego our mission during this time of change. As the apostle Peter reminds us, "Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5). The church is not the building, or even gathering in person, it is the people of God loving in the way of Jesus. During the suspension of gathering, we have discovered new ways to fulfill our mission that are transforming our church for the better and will be here to stay.

Until there is minimal community spread, a coronavirus cure or vaccination, gatherings of the whole congregation together as we are accustomed are uncertain. Other hopeful developments like anti-viral medication, should they be realized, could also serve to mitigate the risks associated with gathering.

Therefore, our gathering in person will remain suspended, and the building and office will remain closed for non-essential use, through potentially July 31st, 2020. This action and timeline are consistent with the guidance and model of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta.

The CDC suggests that gathering in person can be considered, with strict safe practices, when "community spread" becomes "minimal." When that becomes reliably measurable and demonstrable, the Session will consider a necessarily cautious and phased-in approach to gathering again.
The Session will monitor and evaluate public health developments on a bi-weekly basis, next on May 8th. David will communicate updates regarding the suspension end date every other week in the Friday "Staying Connected" churchwide email.
This will regrettably mean canceling summer trips and gatherings like Vacation Bible School. Some summer trips have already been canceled by our mission partners, and it is likely others will follow.

As summer trips are so vitally important to our youth program, alternative experiences will be developed for our youth to learn and grow together. Phil Brown will be sending a separate announcement to youth and families for more information about youth summer programming.
As our mission trip experiences are vital to our outreach ministry and to our mission partners, we will seek alternative ways to support the work of our partners.
Vacation Bible School will instead be offered in alternative form during the fall.

We will continue to be a growing and loving church in the ways we have available for now. Sunday services, Sunday school, bible studies, prayer circles, youth groups, small groups and committees will continue to meet online.
Church pastors and staff will continue to work remotely.
The building will remain closed except for essential activities, like hosting Family Promise. The building will not be available for hosting large public gatherings like weddings, graduations, or memorial services.
There will be allowable uses of the building and columbarium to accommodate important and timely pastoral needs, provided they are small, socially distant, and safe. Celebrating life and ministering to the grieving are essential to our mission.

There is likely a time upcoming between now and a return to public gathering where a safe and stepwise approach, beginning with sanitary and safely distant small groups, can enable us to begin to resume being present together. (More information about what this might look like in the full guidelines here.)

This is a difficult time in our life, and to consider our return to gathering in the middle of a pandemic is also difficult. As advised by our health, community, and denominational authorities, we expect a very slow and gradual return toward something that will not resemble church business exactly as we have known it. While we wait for a full picture of public health management to develop and inform our decision making, some decisions we have already needed to make are sad and painful. Let's support each other in the grief that comes with these losses, and cherish the new and next good things God will do with us.

But this time is far more than waiting. It is active fulfillment of our mission in different ways, and it is preparing us for the next good things God will do with us. As we long for and consider a return to our building and customs, we will be who we have always been in the name of Christ: deliberate, guided by principle, vigilant about wellness, prioritizing of the vulnerable, and praying and working for the recovery of the community and world.

We love you all, and your pastors and elders are here to offer listening and support as we go forward wearily but expectantly.

In Christ's peace,