Coronavirus and Grace
Statement from Session - 3/14/2020
As you know the COVID-19 virus, better known as novel Coronavirus has been rapidly spreading. Your Session takes our responsibility as a spiritual community seriously and as such are doing what we can to help contain the outbreak and to support one another as we journey together through this trying time. We just had an extensive meeting to determine what steps we are going to take to keep our community safe; both our congregation and the greater community.
Because so much about this virus is unknown, and because it appears that people are likely to be contagious even when they are not symptomatic, there really is no clear way to prevent the spread other than hand washing, and through what experts are calling “social distancing” in order to slow the spread of this disease and to help prevent overwhelming our healthcare system.
Your session met and seriously considered the issue at hand.
We realized that this is not about us.
While we may want to continue living a normal church life, these are not normal times. By creating spaces where people are put at risk to either spread or be infected, no matter how slight we might believe that risk to be, we do not want to inadvertently add to the COVID-19 crisis. The decisions we have made have not been easy ones, and they were not arrived at lightly. But we believe they are in the best interest of the long-term health and safety of those we serve.
Accordingly, we have decided to suspend our communal worship and activities at least through March 28. We know that this decision may not be popular, but we believe it is right.
We WILL worship, however. A group of folks are preparing a worship video that will be available to you tomorrow on the website and Facebook. It will have features of the worship that you are used to, and will continue the series, Entering the Passion of Jesus: Picturing Ourselves in the Story, as we move through Holy Week. We will alert you by text, email and Facebook when the service is ready for viewing. We encourage you to worship with your household!
We are called to love God with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind. Loving with our mind means we celebrate the wisdom of medical and public health professionals. Medical and public health professionals are resoundingly advocating for significant action. Loving our neighbor means we do the hard things necessary to keep them safe. We make this decision not out of fear, but of love.
We believe that for the next two Sundays, at least, in-person worship is not worth the potential harm to our communities. At the same time, we recognize the need for community, and the need for a faithful message of hope in the midst of chaos and uncertainty.
In addition, all group activities in the building have been suspended for the next two weeks with the exception of the pre-school, which will follow the lead of the Fort Mill School district, Saluda Center, AA and AlAnon. Those groups will be asked to regularly deep clean their spaces.
The staff will meet to decide office presence and will update you when we know that.
This will pass. In the meanwhile, your Elders are taking seriously their calling to lead and guide this community and it is an honor to serve with them. We will continue to monitor the situation and reevaluate within the next two weeks.
If you want to jump on a few things now (more info and instructions to come):
As you know the COVID-19 virus, better known as novel Coronavirus has been rapidly spreading. Your Session takes our responsibility as a spiritual community seriously and as such are doing what we can to help contain the outbreak and to support one another as we journey together through this trying time. We just had an extensive meeting to determine what steps we are going to take to keep our community safe; both our congregation and the greater community.
Because so much about this virus is unknown, and because it appears that people are likely to be contagious even when they are not symptomatic, there really is no clear way to prevent the spread other than hand washing, and through what experts are calling “social distancing” in order to slow the spread of this disease and to help prevent overwhelming our healthcare system.
Your session met and seriously considered the issue at hand.
We realized that this is not about us.
While we may want to continue living a normal church life, these are not normal times. By creating spaces where people are put at risk to either spread or be infected, no matter how slight we might believe that risk to be, we do not want to inadvertently add to the COVID-19 crisis. The decisions we have made have not been easy ones, and they were not arrived at lightly. But we believe they are in the best interest of the long-term health and safety of those we serve.
Accordingly, we have decided to suspend our communal worship and activities at least through March 28. We know that this decision may not be popular, but we believe it is right.
We WILL worship, however. A group of folks are preparing a worship video that will be available to you tomorrow on the website and Facebook. It will have features of the worship that you are used to, and will continue the series, Entering the Passion of Jesus: Picturing Ourselves in the Story, as we move through Holy Week. We will alert you by text, email and Facebook when the service is ready for viewing. We encourage you to worship with your household!
We are called to love God with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind. Loving with our mind means we celebrate the wisdom of medical and public health professionals. Medical and public health professionals are resoundingly advocating for significant action. Loving our neighbor means we do the hard things necessary to keep them safe. We make this decision not out of fear, but of love.
We believe that for the next two Sundays, at least, in-person worship is not worth the potential harm to our communities. At the same time, we recognize the need for community, and the need for a faithful message of hope in the midst of chaos and uncertainty.
In addition, all group activities in the building have been suspended for the next two weeks with the exception of the pre-school, which will follow the lead of the Fort Mill School district, Saluda Center, AA and AlAnon. Those groups will be asked to regularly deep clean their spaces.
The staff will meet to decide office presence and will update you when we know that.
This will pass. In the meanwhile, your Elders are taking seriously their calling to lead and guide this community and it is an honor to serve with them. We will continue to monitor the situation and reevaluate within the next two weeks.
If you want to jump on a few things now (more info and instructions to come):
- Sign up for our Announcement Only Text Messages
https://www.remind.com/join/gracecong - Please continue to send your tithes and offerings. Even if we are not physically together, we still need to pay our mortgage, our staff, our bills and our commitments to mission partners.
- https://onrealm.org/gracefortmill/Give
- Text GRACEFORTMILL and any amount to 73256.
- Your Elders will be checking in with you.
- Check in with each other!
- A couple of our young moms (Katie Rutland and Lauren Davis) have offered their time to run errands, deliver food, While they would appreciate 24 hours notice, if it is last minute, they will do their best to make it work. If you NEED help, or if you want to OFFER to help them, email mustardseedmoms1720@gmail.com or call 803-250-5828.
- Let me, or the elder on call (this week it is Jeffrey Scott) if you have any pastoral concerns.