In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the One God, Amen
The peace and love of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ be with you all.
Ekhristos Anesti – Alithos AnestiChrist is Risen – Truly He is Risen
We thank God for every condition, concerning every condition and every condition.
We are thankful to the Lord for all His love for us, for keeping us safe and that He is giving us the ability to pray together once more.
I am really thankful to all of you for your cooperation during this past year. You have all contributed to the success that we have reached today.
We have gone from the church being closed, quarantining, and praying at home to 7 people in the church. We have slowly advanced to where we are today with our 75 persons in the church and keeping the 6 feet social distance. Of course this has been a very trying time for all of us.
I am very happy to say that there are new guidelines from the governor that will improve our ability to worship together once more.
At this point, the guidelines allow us to resume service at full capacity. The social distance requirement has been removed for those who have been fully vaccinated and although the new guidelines allow those individuals who have been vaccinated (beyond 2 weeks) to remove their masks indoors and outdoors, there is still a requirement to wear masks indoors when it is crowded. We will make some great changes that will allow us to resume our worship services as we had done with a couple of minor temporary changes.
Here is what we will do in order to make everyone feel safe while attending service – The following changes are effective as of Saturday 5/29/2021:
1) We will go back to full capacity and will no longer require registration – doors will remain open
2) We will not make any calls prior to attendance and we will no longer check temperatures – we will have the hand sanitizers at the entrance and in the church and we encourage everyone to use them regularly as well as frequent washing of hands
3) In order to avoid asking who is or who is not vaccinated, we will still require everyone to wear masks during the service in the church (at least for the time being)
4) Anyone attending service inside the church needing a mask break, can enter the social hall or go outside for a break and return back to the church (masks MUST be worn properly (over the nose) upon entry into the church)
5) Re-evaluation will happen as numbers of positive cases continue to go down and number of those vaccinated goes up
If anyone still needs information regarding vaccination, please contact me as soon as possible.
NOTES:
Over the last year we have learned the habit of attending the church from the beginning. Since the doors will not be closed as before, this does not mean that we should arrive late. Let us not lose this beautiful blessing of arriving early to church.
“O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You.” (Ps 63:1) “يَا اللهُ إِلَهِي أَنْتَ. إِلَيْكَ أُبَكِّر”
Since social distance will not be maintained, all family members must sit together. This will allow us to best accommodate everyone inside the church.
Deacons must be in church by 8:15. Vestments/Tonias will be blessed only one time. If you arrive after the blessing of the vestments, please pray among the congregation.
As before, if you have any COVID related symptoms, please refrain from attending church. If you have had any international travel or have come in contact with anyone who has traveled internationally you must still quarantine or obtain a negative PCR test 5 days after arrival in the USA.
We will continue to do our part in order to keep everyone safe. May God continue to protect His people, children and His church.
I am looking forward to seeing you all again and praying together.
Please share this with others.
Be safe in the Lord.