The Worship Committee has begun to develop a roadmap to recommend to session for returning to face-face-worship, and we would like your input. Click here for the survey.

The conditions for returning are, of course, out of our control so we have no calendar and no timetable. Our priorities will be protecting the congregation members’ health with reasonable precautions while also focusing on fulfilling the great ends of the church to worship, serve, and witness to God’s presence in the world.

Our denomination has published a thorough (20-page) set of guidelines for congregations that can be found here: Relaunching: Theological and Practical Considerations

It is clear that our online service will continue even after the quarantine is over.

This link will take you to a survey of four questions that will help us prepare for the stages of returning to worship in the sanctuary beginning with Maryland’s Stage 2. The governor’s office describes Stage 2 as permitting “smaller indoor religious gatherings [but without hymn singing] with strict physical distancing and appropriate masking requirements. Stage 2 includes numerous steps over many weeks towards recovery.”

Stage 3 permits “larger indoor religious gatherings [with singing and without strict physical distancing] when there is either a widely available and FDA-approved vaccine or safe and effective therapeutics that can rescue patients with significant disease or prevent serious illness in those most at risk to reach a full return to normal conditions.” 

You can find the entire roadmap to recovery from Governor Larry Hogan’s office: Click here for complete document.

Please weigh in. The more data we can gather, the better we can plan.

Blessings to you all,

Neill