• The Church Council has approved Sunday, July 11 as the date for a pilot Sunday back in the building for in-person worship.
• The COVID-19 Task Force, Deacons, and Trustees will be offering input and guidance ahead of and shortly after this date. In the days immediately following the pilot, these folks in leadership will confer and confirm that we are ready to continue worshipping in the sanctuary on Sunday, July 18 and after. Barring unforeseen (and perhaps unforeseeable) circumstances, Pastor Seth expects we will proceed with services in the sanctuary on subsequent Sundays.
• Factors that have informed this timeline include space preparations, staffing, and our values of inclusion and welcome.The Church Council approved Sunday, July 11 as the date for a pilot Sunday back in the building for in-person worship.
• Here’s the plan for where we’ll be worshiping the next few Sundays:
  • Sun, June 27 — outdoors at the Decorah Fish Hatchery
  • Sun, July 4 — outdoors in Phelps Park
  • Sun, July 11 — in the sanctuary for our pilot Sunday back

Much of the guidance from the CDC has changed in a short time, with vaccinations on the increase in our county and region and now generally available for people ages 12 and up. In response to these changes, our COVID-19 Task Force has proposed—and our Church Council has approved—setting aside our previous phased reopening plan in favor of guidelines that move more assertively toward resuming in-person gatherings while also retaining some precautions.

In recent days, the Decorah City Council has rescinded its mask mandate and Governor Kim Reynolds has signed legislation banning such mandates at the municipal level. Choosing to retain precautions—including requiring folks to wear masks during in-person worship—may seem heavy-handed in light of these lifted restrictions. I believe, however, that in this situation we are called to hold in balance two of our core values: our value of welcoming everyone, everyone, everyone and our value of embodying the justice of Jesus, who consistently gave priority to the needs of folks most vulnerable to harm over the prerogatives of personal liberty.

The Wisconsin Council of Churches offers a theological-ethical rationale for a measured return to in-person gathering in this piece. Here’s one important excerpt:

“…[W]e are not required to do something just because it is allowed. The apostle Paul advises Christians that “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” and that they should “take care that your liberty does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak” (1 Corinthians 8:1, 9). The minimum standard is not necessarily the guide by which the church should operate.”  

And so, in line with our mission to “build up our community,” we are designing our return to in-person worship with the welcome and wellbeing of folks who are most likely to be accounted “the least of these” (Matthew 25) in mind. We are continuing to take precautions, in part, because we are an intergenerational community. We value the presence and participation of children in the life of our congregation—including children under the age of 12, who are currently ineligible for vaccines. Continued precautions are also, in part, a way of caring for folks who may remain vulnerable to infection even with vaccination—including folks who are immunocompromised, medically fragile, and chronically ill.

These new guidelines allow for outdoor worship at a frequency to be determined through the summer months. An initial return to indoor worship has been proposed for June or July. We will begin with a one-off Sunday worship in the sanctuary as a trial run to help us identify protocols (for safety) and plans (for recording and eventual livestreaming of worship) that are in need of further refinement. These guidelines remain a living document and are open to revision as we go.

I’m grateful to our COVID-19 Task Force (Lorraine Borowski, Terry Sparkes, and Onita Mohr) for their prayerful work and to the Church Council for their shared leadership in moving forward.

If you have thoughts, questions, or concerns about these guidelines, we would like to hear from you! You may contact anyone on the Church Council (names below). You are also very welcome to contact me directly at pastor@decorahucc.org or 563.419.4362. It is important that we keep lines of communication open as we re-learn how to be church together in person while navigating this liminal time.

Members of Church Council: Margaret Betteridge (Moderator), Norma Jean Bosma, Cindy Goodner (Clerk), Phil Iversen, Sarah Iversen, Bill McClain, Onita Mohr, and Katheryn Russi

Yours in building up the Body of Love in the world,

Pastor Seth