Smaller Services (less than 25+)
Smaller worship services will begin to regather in the Church Buildings for worship, with a continued online component for those who do not yet feel comfortable returning or who simply are not in town right now.
Faith@8
The Faith@8 Sunday Morning Eucharist service will regather inside in the Upper Parish Hall beginning on Easter Day. Participants must be masked, will sit six feet apart from people not in their family group.
Communion will be offered in one kind, and music will be instrumental only.
Tuesday Morning Peace and Justice — 8:00 am:
For the Time Being Tuesday morning services will continue on zoom. It has become a nice morning devotional practice for all of us to gather for prayers and reflection. We hope you will join us!
Wednesday Afternoon Peace and Justice Eucharist — 5:30 pm:
Post-Easter we will begin to gather for a brief Eucharist service in the sanctuary (on the church steps on nice days). participants inside will be masked and maintain physical distancing inside the space. The Service will last no more than 30 minutes.
Sunday Morning Principle Service — 10:30 am
Currently Memorial has permission to have up to 45 people in the Sanctuary for Sunday Morning worship. We will continue to offer our services principally on zoom, however we will begin to expand the roster of volunteers for worship this week, as well as identifying fully vaccinated seniors who don't do zoom very well that would like to come back for worship.
With the exception of postludes, Music will continue to be virtual for the time being. However if you are in the Sanctuary you will see and hear the music in much the same way you did at home and will feel like a full participant in the services.
COVID-19 Compliance:
In order to attend worship, all participants will need to sign in at the door, wear a mask and sit with their family group only. Children will be able to select their own Church Chair from the 'Prayground' and have 'prayground on the go' with a bag of activities and toys to take with them to their seat with their parents. Children over the age of 3 need to be masked at all times, and no eating (except for children under 2) is allowed in the Sanctuary.
There will be no inside coffee hour, though we are exploring of having coffee only outside on good weather days. So stay tuned!
Christian Witness and Worship in the Time of COVID-19
Christians have always had at the core of our values welcome, hospitality and care for the stranger. COVID-19 has put a lot of stress on these values as we have had to close doors, set up temperature, masking stations and work hard to keep people away from each other in order to stop the spread of this terrible virus.
As we re-gather, it is very tempting to say "Only vaccinated individuals can come to worship." I am sure more than a few of you would feel better if this were the case. But this continues to put our Christians values of hospitality in tension with our safety. Obviously this limits attendance of children, who are not yet eligible for the vaccine, and Jesus has something to say about that I believe.
It also reinforces the narrative that we are creating a two tiered society post COVID. The vaccinated and the unvaccinated. In Maryland, we have to also be conscious that even though Black and Hispanic populations are most at Risk for COVID, it is white Marylanders who are receiving the preponderance of vaccine.
While it is tempting to check COVID ids at the door, it would be impossible for me to do so faithfully as a Christian. This may be frustrating for some of you. And no one should come to Church if they feel unsafe. Church should not be a place we are scared to go to, for any reason.
We will continue to offer zoom worship as we have at a high quality for those who do not yet feel ready to come back to worship and of course for those who can't come in for a variety of reasons.
It will be a long process of re-gathering. I don't expect we will have anything approaching 'normal' worship until the fall at the earliest, particularly because we will soon have a capital project going on in the Sanctuary!
If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me or any member of the vestry.
