Our Hoped-For Regathering
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A parish member recently commented, This whole pandemic thing has been beautifully handled by St. Mark’s, in my opinion. Zoom has been very satisfying, and I hope it or live-streaming will continue for the sake of those who cannot be at the church building on Sunday mornings.
But I realize I’m feeling confused about why we are not further along in resuming full services at the church. Other churches who appear to have no better handle on managing this than do we are opening and seem fine.
I realize there may be issues to which I am not privy, as it should be. But I think it would help to have some update to the parishioners. Feels like we are behind the curve on regathering. And it would help to know the rationale.
Great question! And one we are glad to have the opportunity to address with the congregation.
The roof replacement is one reason for the delay in return to full in-person worship. Without knowing exactly how much disruption and safety issues a project of this magnitude would cause we chose to not try to do more inside the church than the noon services until it was completed. Happily, the company is moving the work along and so far, (at least) we have not had the raining debris issues inside the church and safety issues outside that we were concerned about. We have covered the chancel organ pipes to protect them and the organ console as the roof directly over them is being repaired. Significant damage to the existing roof structure above the chancel pipes was discovered when Brent and the organ specialist (David Storey) went up to determine how best to cover them. This means the organ will be unavailable for a week or two at the minimum.
The other issue is the one we’ve faced all along in not being entirely sure of how this virus will behave. While health markers have been good, and many are vaccinated the Delta variant is causing a rise in cases in the unvaccinated and poses a threat to those with compromised health conditions and those under the age of 12. The mandate from the St. Mark’s leadership (both clergy and lay) from the outset of this disease was to wait to come back until we all could come back. This has meant not creating an “us and them” in terms of who could or would be comfortable in-person and those for whatever reason would not. We want to be one congregation, one community and that has led us to sacrifice individually for the sake of each other.
A third less pressing reason is the many members who are at last able to travel to see relatives, take vacations, go to the beach, etc. The refrain of this summer is, “We’re out of town.” Summer usually sees a dip in attendance but after 15 months of being cooped up almost all the families we talk with are planning multiple trips. We are thrilled for them.
During its July meeting, Vestry affirmed a hoped-for date of Sunday, September 12 to be in the church both physically and electronically at 10:30am as one congregation. Our goal is to maintain a Zoom connection for those at a distance and those still not comfortable being in person in the church. We are working on getting the necessary equipment to provide stable wifi in the church so that our Zoom members will be right there with us. Zoom is not going away. When we are able to renovate the interior (probably 2023) more work will be done to install a true sound system and more on-line capacity. We are recruiting our “Alter Guild” to help manage this and using the current noon in-person service to get our ministry folks back in the groove of arranging flowers, setting the altar, participating in the service, etc. Ministry team leaders are looking optimistically to Fall programs and a more familiar 2022 schedule.
What we cannot control is the virus. Recent Delta driven spikes have resulted in our Bishop once again mandating masks for indoor gatherings. The Vestry had and has maintained mask-wearing and safe social distancing for indoor worship. This will not change until the virus is sufficiently under control. If you are eligible and able to be vaccinated, please do.
From that day in March 2020 that the Bishop sent word out to close the church buildings we have been grateful that the clergy, leadership, and congregation of St. Mark’s has acted carefully and intentionally in managing first the disruption caused by the closure, the process and programs to maintain worship and community on-line, and to thoughtfully approach a return to full in-person “hyflex” worship (means incorporating in person and on Zoom) when we can all be back together again.