Author: peaceucc

Dear Peace Family,

Your board held its monthly meeting this evening and in it discussed whether returning to in-person worship is a safe and viable option for everyone at this time. While we miss seeing one another and gathering together very much (and assume that many of you do as well) we have made the decision to remain in online worship for at least the next month. When making our decision we considered the continuing alarming rise in COVID infections, hospitalizations, and deaths in our community and how those could affect us at Peace. We will re-evaluate the circumstances monthly and will be closely watching the above-mentioned numbers to ensure we make the safest decision for all of us. We remain mindful that vaccination status and compromising health conditions are important factors to consider now and moving forward and encourage those of you who are eligible but who have not yet been vaccinated to do so for your safety.

Finally, I do not want to confuse anybody, but I have recently taken my maiden name back and am now Amy Miller (again). Because getting everything changed around can take some time, certain things may still have my other name on them for a while. Please excuse me during this process, I hope to have it wrapped up before too long.

Peace and Blessings to everyone,
Amy

Dear Peace Friends and Family,

If you have been watching or reading the news lately, the rise in new COVID cases has probably not escaped you. For your church board this is concerning, as we value the health of every single individual and carry the knowledge that some of us have not been able to get vaccinated yet, most notably our children. Because we wish to be proactive in our consideration of how we hold worship, we met today to consider our options and to create a solid plan for moving forward. With the wisdom and guidance of medical professionals in our midst we concluded that the most responsible course of action is to resume online worship until after Labor Day and reevaluate the situation at that time. We will be carefully watching the COVID trends and use science and reason to guide our next steps.

It may feel difficult to go back to online services so soon after we resumed gathering in person, but we believe it would be far harder to cope with the knowledge that some of us became ill after meeting live. As Pastor Christen illustrated for us in today’s message, walking together and supporting one another as we go will get us all to the finish line.

Please reach out to me if you have any questions.

Peace and Blessings,
Amy

Beloved Church Family,

As you may have noticed when looking at the weather report, we’re expected to get a fair bit of rain this weekend, which calls into question outdoor worship!

Fear not, your trusty board and worship committee and staff have created an alternate plan to keep you all safe and dry! We will CONTINUE TO HAVE WORSHIP AT 9:00 AM as scheduled), but we will be moving INSIDE the sanctuary a week early. Because worship has already been planned, and worship bulletins printed, it will still be a shorter service, but we all determined it was better to be dry!

The sanctuary is still not quite ready for us…you’ll notice a little dust and smell a little must (the plan has been for this next week to give it a thorough clean and get the air vented out a bit to clean out the musty smell, but we don’t have that kind of advance notice).

So, no need to pack your lawn chairs. INSTEAD, be sure to bring your face masks. (If you don’t have one, we will have a box of disposal ones on-hand.) It is imperative for all over the age of 8 to wear them inside the building since our younger children have not been vaccinated, and since we will still be singing (I know, singing in masks is the worst, but we have to maintain careful safety until all have access to vaccinations).

It won’t be quite the triumphant Sunday I was looking forward to our first day back in the sanctuary, but it is the right thing to do. And what matters MOST is that we are together, and that we are safe, and that we are sheltered.

Please, please pass the word to any you know who are not online. We’ll also be sharing this via the prayer chain.

See you Sunday at 9:00. (we’ll return to our 10:15 time next Sunday and continue with that time here on out…).

Peace and love,
Pastor Christen