Hey, all,
Arizona is slowly…or not so slowly…reopening. I’m praying it’s the start of something good and will begin to regrow our economy.
At the same time, the hard truth is that the virus hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s still alive and contagious.
So when will Grace reopen?
No one is asking yet…and for that I am grateful. It shows great faith and maturity on the part of our Grace family. But since the state is reopening I’m guessing the question will come up. So I’ll respond before it does.
Community of Grace was one of the first congregations in the Valley to close its campus on March 14/15. We made that decision quickly based on the science we had at the time and it proved to be a wise decision.
As we continue to navigate a Covid 19 world, we will continue to look at science and reality and
slowly
look to reopen.
While we want to be together face to face, we are in no hurry to do so. We can still do mission and ministry together using these wonder-filled technologies like email, Facebook, Youtube, and Zoom. In fact, we have probably had more connections with each other via these new technologies than we had when the building was open!
Our first concern as your staff and board is your safety. Until we can safely meet on the campus we will hold off on doing so.
There are a tremendous number of logistics we have to work through before we can reopen once it is safe to do so:
1)
Social distancing:
How do we get people in and out of worship at safe social distances—especially in the heat? How do we reconfigure the worship center so that people can sit at least 6 feet from each other? How do we do communion? Offerings? Singing? How do we enforce masks? How do we get people from cars to the building and back with social distancing? How do we ensure social distancing in the restrooms?
The big question: If we social distance with masks, sitting 6 feet apart from each other, with no congregational singing, will that feel more like church than the online service? Here’s a picture from President Trump’s visit to Phoenix a few weeks ago. Imagine this is a worship service? Not very inviting!
