Summer 2021 Covid Protocols
Our Regathering Team met this week to discern if our fall plan and in-person rubric needed adjusting. Earlier this summer we were hopeful that we’d be back inside for Rally Day, but based on the rise of the Delta variant the team has recommended the following:
SGC worship & programming will remain outside (and online) for the foreseeable future (including Rally Day).
The team also laid out a new rubric for church-run programming that allows us to remain in-person safely and make decisions quickly as case numbers rise/fall.
NEW IN-PERSON RUBRIC
Red: Outside or Online only, contact-free greetings & masks encouraged even outside
~ only exception is funerals, just family masked allowed inside, Google Meet available for non-family members
Orange: Outside or Online only for worship, contact-free greetings & masks suggested
~ low-risk activity masked small groups okay in large rooms with open windows
~ family only or seating cap inside for masked funerals in-person
Yellow: Outside or online encouraged for worship, masks & contact greetings are up to personal comfort levels
~ low-risk activity masked small groups okay in large rooms with open windows
~ masked funerals okay inside with distance & windows open
Grey: This is the only category we were comfortable returning inside, but even then with clear protocols (masking, distance, windows open, etc)
BAD WEATHER
Sticking with our current policy. If the weather is on the fence, we can take a hearty New Englander gamble for outside. If the weather is obviously bad, we'll go online only, but won't turn away people who didn't get the memo and show up at church in-person.
VENTILATION
We are looking into getting a ventilation assessment and some potential grant funding.
CHILDREN’S PROGRAMMING
The CE Committee is still in discernment about what’s possible. But for anything in-person it will follow the above rubric and be outside for the foreseeable future.
OASIS MULTI-CHURCH YOUTH GROUP
Our youth will also follow the new rubric, resuming in-person programming outside, as well as adding a new weekly in-person opportunity for middle schoolers. We are also discerning semi-regular online options for families who are not yet ready to be in-person even outside.
MUSIC
For now music will remain largely pre-recorded, and when there is live in-person music it will be instrumental or only solos/duets. We will be in discernment about what that means for the choir program. We will continue our monthly guest musician program.
FELLOWSHIP HOUR
We will not be serving food or drink in the near future. People are welcome to BYOB on the lawn. We are also in discernment about ways to make Fellowship Hour engaging with special service projects or prayer-shawl-making instruction or other fun community building that doesn’t involve serving food. Stay tuned or email me if you have ideas.
RALLY DAY
We are most likely going to do a BYOB picnic & lawn game version of Rally Day out on the lawn. But as noted before, we will not yet be worshipping inside until case numbers drop significantly. But we still want to make this feel like a special Sunday to encourage people to reconnect with their church home and kick off the program year.
REIMAGINE CHURCH VISIONING PROCESS
We will start advertising the church-wide dates for this program and will be announcing the team members soon. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about: we have been chosen as one of the first ten churches to participate in a new program through Yale Divinity School, funded by the Lily Endowment, to help facilitate visioning processes for churches. This is a very appropriate time to be reimagining church together as we try to figure out how to be church together now that it’s clear Covid isn’t going to disappear quietly or quickly.
OFFSITE PROGRAMS (like service projects, group studies, performances, hike days, retreats, etc)
The guidelines above are about what kinds of risks and safety precautions our specific institution is capable of managing in our particular space with our particular staff & volunteer pool. If your program is at another site, they have different staff, different facilities, different capabilities, different risk levels, so their policies are up to them. We simply ask you to be thoughtful about researching the health & safety protocols in place at those institutions and whether or not it is wise for a Spring Glen Church associated group to engage in those activities at that site.
RENTAL GROUPS
Click here to see the policy for outside rental groups using SGC facilities.
