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Dear Church Family,
The ever changing nature of the Coronavirus pandemic has caused us to constantly monitor the situation, listen to the guidance of our public health officials, and use our Covid Task Force and local church leadership to evaluate the information we receive. It requires flexibility from our church, and we are thankful to you for that.
Our church has established great protocols to keep people safe, and you have done a tremendous job of following our instructions. We feel as though Versailles Baptist Church is as safe as any church could possibly be at this time. Still, we wish to be good citizens and partner with state and local health officials in helping protect people at a time when Woodford County cases are at an all-time high. As Christians, we do not live in fear but we do walk in wisdom.
On Thursday evening our Covid Task Force of Medical and Public Health Professionals along with members of our Ministerial Staff met to determine how we should proceed in light of the State of Kentucky’s new guidance to churches released on Thursday afternoon. With that in mind, here is how our team has decided our church will proceed in the upcoming weeks:
· This Sunday we will have both of our worship services IN PERSON at 9:00 and 10:30 as well as Members Meeting at 5:00pm, all as previously planned. You are doing a fantastic job following the protocols, and we feel confident in them to keep you safe at the current level of local cases. This is a special Sunday for us as we will have a baptism, many have prepared testimonies to share as part of our Thanksgiving Share Service, and we have a scheduled Members Meeting.
· Preschool will be available for both services this Sunday. The Governor has not issued any further restrictions on Preschools, so we will continue with that ministry for both services this Sunday.
· Out of respect for the state’s request for churches to worship online and because of the Thanksgiving holiday causing an inevitable rise in cases in the days that follow, we will have worship ONLINE ONLY on November 29th and December 6th. Many in our community are making sacrifices, and we want to show that the church partners with each of you making sacrifices to keep people safe. The cases are already at an all time high, and our Covid Task Force believes they will undoubtedly grow in the 3-14 days following Thanksgiving. Worshiping online only these two weeks is the most caring thing we can do for our church and community.
· We will reassess things the first week of December in hopes of returning to in-person worship on December 13th. We have a very strong desire to do Christmas Worship Services in person at Versailles Baptist.
· Sunday School will be ONLINE ONLY from now through the end of the year. In-person Sunday School is our greatest health risk because people do not have the space to distance in classrooms like we do in the sanctuary. Sunday School classes are asked to meet via Zoom or another online platform.
· No in-person K-5th grade Children’s Worship from now through at least December 6th. We will extend this through the end of December if Woodford County elementary schools continue to meet virtually. We want to partner with our local school system to keep children safe.
· Hanging of the Green will still happen on December 5th. Our reservation process allows only 3 families to be in the sanctuary at a time thus drastically eliminating any exposure.
· Our Christmas Musical on December 12th and 13th and Christmas Eve Services are still scheduled to happen pending further evaluation. We fully expect to worship together in person for these Christmas celebrations.
Our Covid Task Force, Ministerial Staff, and Deacon Chair feel as though this is the best decision for our church. We are making these decisions out of love for you and to partner with our community in keeping Covid at bay.
We look forward to worshiping with you in person this Sunday before we worship online the two weeks following Thanksgiving.
In all of this, let us be reminded of our great God and His calling to be His people. Whether we are gathering in person or online, we gather to Worship Him! Let us be faithful in our worship, faithful in our Sunday School involvement, and faithful to our community as we seek to minister to them.
Should you have any questions, feel free to contact me or a member of our Covid Task Force.
Pastor Michael Cabell
Covid Task Force: Lee Hicks, Angela Dearinger, Jody Jaggers
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