Dear DuPage UU Church Members and Friends,
Next month will mark the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic and one year of our church returning to in-person church. We have required masks for Sunday morning and group activities in the building to help protect those who are vulnerable and to lower the chance of congregants contracting COVID and flu while at church.
We have been monitoring the levels of COVID-19 and flu cases over the year and it has currently descended and plateaued to a level that we feel is safer than anytime in the past three years. Starting April 1st, DUUC will no longer require masks in the building. We will continue to recommend wearing masks and highly recommend that congregants are up to date on their COVID-19 and flu vaccinations. This also means that limits on room capacity and eating spaces have been removed.
We still have several safety and air quality mechanisms in place. The CDC recommendation for high occupancy spaces is to replace all of the air in the room with fresh air five times an hour. Our HVAC system for the sanctuary exchanges and filters the air in the room up to twenty-five times an hour. Five times the recommended amount. We do have several parts of the building that do not have forced air and we have high-capacity air purifiers in these places, especially the restrooms and the meeting rooms where we have religious education classes.
We know there are no easy answers to COVID protocols. We recognize that changing our mask mandate to highly recommended but not required, may mean that some people may choose to limit their participation in our programming. In order to be as accessible and inclusive as possible, we will continue to offer our Sunday Worships and other programs in multiplatform options. Staff will continue to monitor COVID and flu numbers as well as news on possible new variants closely. We will communicate quickly and clearly with the congregation of any changes that may need to be made in the future.
Signed,
rev. mandi, Steve, Sheri, and Francisco
