September 17, 2020

Dear CGS Brothers and Sisters,

On Monday night, The Session authorized us to begin hosting in-person, indoor worship services. So here's the plan, in brief:
  • When: Beginning September 27, 2020 (a week from Sunday)
  • Where: CGS Sanctuary
  • Time: 10:30 am
  • Internet Access: Both Livestreamed and Recorded
  • COVID Restrictions
    • Duration: 60 min. or less
    • Singing: Hushed or Hummed
    • Max Attendance: 130 (by reservation, to ensure social distancing)
    • Masks Required (people 6 yrs. and older)
    • Masks Encouraged (children 3-5 yrs.)
    • Hand Sanitizer--available

Early next week, an email inviting you to sign up to worship in-person will be sent out. Please check your spam/junk folder if you don't see it in your regular email.

So, you ask, why are we doing this now? The "short answer" is, after months of learning about this disease, watching its spreading patterns and learning best practices for containing it, we believe we can worship together relatively safely - if we follow the recommended restrictions. And if we can do so, we feel we ought to try - especially for those for whom gathering in-person is a greater need and desire than for others.

Some of you desire the "longer answer," so here goes. If you go back to March, we were compelled to shut down nearly all public and corporate life. We approached the virus as something of an approaching "blizzard" that would hit us acutely (as it did New York) and then maybe subside quickly. So we hunkered down and put all public life to sleep.

It slowly became clearer that maybe not all of us are gonna face a viral "blizzard" the way a few states did. Instead, we were going to experience the pandemic as a "winter" to be endured for something of a season's length - usually months. But it's become clearer (as some thought-leaders saw earlier on) that it's gonna be longer than a season. Some liken it to a "mini-Ice Age." Case in point, in a survey this past week of the greater Washington, DC area, most workers do not anticipate returning to their offices until Summer 2021.

In short, we're having to learn to live with a dangerous virus, not merely battle temporarily against it, for a longer period of time than most anticipated. I appreciate the tough realism voiced by one writer: "This is a fearful virus. We closed down the country to limit its lethality, we saved the hospitals, but guys. It's been six months, we must rejoin life. Yes, with full caution-masks, hand washing, social distancing. And with suppleness. But we must live again."

One area that has been rising on our radar is the new people moving to our area. As a father of a college student that has moved to a new area this fall, I've learned firsthand how limiting Zoom and recorded ministry is. Such electronically mediated ministry is helpful (not ideal) for maintaining preexisting relationships and community, but it is terrible for starting and forming new community. I know new individuals to Durham that are driving to Raleigh for church because they are desperate for in-person community. Others, including some of our own members, are heading to other churches because they re-started careful corporate worship a couple of months ago.

The CGS ReOpening Team and Session have always wanted to approach this moment with appropriate prudence, realism and faith. Consider the contrast between what we're doing and one element in the Governor's latest Executive Order. Health clubs are allowed to open to a maximum of 30% occupancy, provided patrons are socially distanced and that they "wear Face Coverings except when strenuously exercising." I chuckled when I read that. At the very moment when patrons are huffing and puffing, generating the greatest volume of hot, steamy, wet air, they are allowed to be unmasked. Our governor has been extremely careful during the pandemic, so this is a risk he, and the epidemiologists advising him, must regard as prudent enough.

What we're proposing is way less risky than the health club allowances. We're starting at a seating capacity of 13%. We require masks at all times, and all singing will be hushed or hummed - no huffing and puffing.

Some of you accurately note that the one place our plan is out of accord with the Governor's executive order is that he allows for only 25 in indoor "mass gatherings". But with tremendous respect and appreciation for the Governor's leadership in the pandemic to date, I've concluded that this is the one provision in the Executive Order that is significantly less nuanced than the rest. While health clubs can have more than 25 if that is less than 30% capacity, much larger facilities (e.g. Duke Chapel) are not allowed to.

We voluntarily submit to all of the epidemiological restrictions like masks, handwashing, distancing, etc. And we believe we can maintain all of those while gathering in numbers greater than 25. Because extended lengths of time spent in the same indoor space get increasingly risky, we have a hard stop of 60 min. and aim for shorter still. Since unguarded congregational singing has been a super-spreader event, we will sing few songs in a hushed or hummed manner.

A UNC Hospital doctor on our ReOpening Team told us that his Infectious Disease colleagues were complimentary and affirming of our plans. This was reassuring to us all.

We know that maybe a majority of you will not return to corporate worship at this time. Many of you have health vulnerabilities that render in-person participation very imprudent. Others of you are just plain uncomfortable gathering at the present time. You're not alone!  Many of our elders, staff, and families feel the same way. We wholeheartedly love and respect you, and we encourage you to continue to worship with us from home.

Over these months of recorded worship, we've invested in the technology that we believe will let us livestream the service very effectively (as well as make it available for recorded participation later). So as of September 27, you'll no longer have one option (recorded only) but three: (1) in-person worship; (2) participate in the livestream; (3) participate with the recorded worship later.

One thing to note about the livestream. If perchance we have hiccups with the livestream feed, as we apparently did with the drive-in worship in August, the recorded version uploaded later that day should have that cleaned up. So please know that we will do everything in our power to make sure that the majority of our congregation, given that you worship remotely, will have access to it all - even if the livestream gets interrupted for a few minutes; or, worse, has poor quality throughout.

In the very short Psalm 134, the great majority of Israelites heading home from the feasts exhort the minority who continue the in-person worship of the Temple. And they admonish the "nightshift", who tend the Temple worship away from the rest, to bless the Lord on their behalf and to be blessed by the Lord as well. In this crazy time, let the unity and peace of the church be such that we help each other bless, and be blessed, by our Lord Jesus - whether scattered at home or gathered together. My hope is that those of us who gather in-person will keep the fire lit and lights on as we all yearn for the day when we shall all be gathered together - heart, soul, mind, strength, BODY - under Jesus.


In faith, hope and love,
Pastor Chuck