It is my delight to tell you that, given the changes in federal and state guidelines, and the changes in diocesan guidelines, under advice of the Coronavirus Response Team and the Vestry, effective immediately I am moving our congregation to Phase 3 of our Plan for Safe & Faithful Ministry in the Pandemic. 

So, that means a lot of things are changing as we begin to open up...

At Sunday Worship, there are several adjustments:

• We will lower our distancing to 6ft in between households, which means we now have fifteen pews available for attendees. Today Jerry Hall is redoing the roping to increase our seating capacity (thanks Jerry!). 
• We are reopening the "Soft Space" for kids at the front and the back of the church. The risk of COVID transmission is now clearly through respiration and not touching surfaces (see here and here). Of course, kids are in no way required to use the soft spaces, and they can always bring their own toys, but we hope that this will make families start to feel more welcome back at church. 
• We will resume use of home-made communion bread by our amazing Communion Bread Bakers! (Love baking and want to join this ministry? Contact me for more information!) We will also resume carrying forward the bread and wine with the alms and offerings, just as the prayer book requires on page 361. 
• Following the service, we will begin hosting an outdoors coffee hour (weather-permitting). Our sexton will setup a table, coffee cups, and glasses in the St. Francis Garden and our amazing and hospitable Coffee Hour Hosts will make coffee and lemonade to put outside. We cannot do food yet, but I'm hopeful the diocese will also lift that restriction soon. (If you can follow instructions to make coffee and lemonade and have a hospitable spirit, contact me for more information on joining this rotation—we do still need a host for this Sunday!) I'm going to setup an iPad outdoors as well so we can still talk with those doing coffee hour on Zoom!
• Masks will still be required indoors, per diocesan guidelines, so that we can keep the vulnerable safe—especially our children who cannot yet be vaccinated. But when we are outdoors (like at coffee hour) masks are optional. 

And remember, this Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, so wear red and join us in person at either to our service of Holy Eucharist and Harpsichord at 8:30am (sign up here) or our Bilingual service of Holy Eucharist with incense at 10am (sign up here). The 10am service will continue to be streamed live on YouTube for those who cannot attend in person. 

We are also now ceasing the offering of Monday evening Eucharist at 5:30pm and have returned to our normal practice of one weekday offering of Holy Eucharist and Healing on Wednesdays at Noon. 

Our building is also now open for normal hours (generally 8:30am-5:30pm, unless a group has scheduled the space for later or earlier), with the Parish Office now open from 10am-2pm. I've asked Cindi to ask our Parish Office volunteers if they would like to start helping out again. If you've got the time to help out for an hour (or more) within those 10am-2pm hours, let Cindi know. 

This means that ministries and groups can begin reserving space in the building again for meetings by contacting Cindi. When reserving space, remember that even if everyone is vaccinated, masks are still required indoors. (If you reserve space outdoors, masks are not required). Also, be sure you reserve a room that will enable distancing. And, remember, at this time food is still not permitted—but you can absolutely have coffee, so long as you keep your masks on when not drinking it!

I'm also starting to do more pastoral visits and am looking to restart regular ministry with our Eucharistic Visitors and Stephen Ministers. So, if you'd like to see me (or a Eucharistic Visitor to bring you Communion or a Stephen Minister to walk alongside of you in a tough time in your life), please contact me. 

And be sure to save the date for our 155th Anniversary Celebration on Sunday, June 6. The 10am liturgy will be a historic liturgy from the prayer book in use when we were founded and we are planning on doing a festive reception of some sort outside, depending on restrictions at the time. We're even going to have Bob & Katy Couch's classic rock band perform!!

I look forward to seeing more of you soon. Please reach out if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.