Rev. Cara Scriven, Lead Pastor
I am an avid Star Trek fan. Recently, I’ve been watching the series, Star Trek: Enterprise. The theme song for this series is based on Rod Stewart’s song Faith of the Heart. The opening lyrics are: “It’s been a long road, getting from there to here.” Every time I hear these words, I think of the last 15 months. It has been a long road, and many of us are tired and exhausted by this pandemic. When it began in March of 2020, none of us anticipated it would be over a year before we would gather again.
During this time, our community has experienced four waves of the virus. After each wave, Pierce County’s case numbers declined but we could not sustain anything below high risk of an outbreak according to Covidactnow.org. Based on Bishop Elaine Stanovsky’s guidance, we were limited as to how we could reopen. As vaccines increased, our spirits rose with the hopes that our congregation would be able to gather soon. Yet, our county’s vaccination rates have continued to lag behind our surrounding communities.
Throughout this pandemic, Puyallup UMC’s reopening team which consists of seven leaders has continued to meet. We have put in over 8 hours of meeting time, at the very least 8 hours of conversations outside of meetings, and countless hours reading studies, conference plans and expectations, and best practices. In addition, we have wrestled with the complexities of safety verses risk, doing no harm, what we can manage well as a large congregation, the varying readiness of members to shed their masks and/or return to in-person church, and our theology to love our neighbor.
As our team makes decisions, we continue to hold the health and well-being of each member in our minds. While we hope that our members have received vaccines if they are eligible, we know that some of our members are unable to do so because of their health. Thus, our team is working to develop a plan based on the most recent science so that all members including the most vulnerable among us, will feel safe returning to in-person gatherings.
In addition, we recognize the Apostle Paul’s admonition that what is “permissible” is not always “beneficial” to the common good. (I Corinthians 10:23). While some churches may act quickly to adopt less restrictive practices, we believe that a gradual reopening is the best path forward as we aim to love our neighbor and do no harm.
After reviewing our previous plan last month, our team recognized the need for our community to gather. Thus, we revised our plan so that our congregation could begin to hold masked outdoor gatherings of 10 or less people in July. These gatherings will at first be focused on integrating our two congregations and building community. We will add other gatherings, particularly those groups that have not met since March of 2020, as time and staffing allow. Starting in mid-June, you can expect to see sign-ups for these opportunities. If cases continue to decline, we will offer spaces inside the church for gathering as well.
Our reopening team will continue to meet as we work to create a detailed plan to reopen for worship in the Fall. We anticipate that any updates to our sanctuary will be completed by then and we will have developed a method to continue to provide online worship for members who cannot or do not yet feel safe attending worship in-person. In the next few weeks, our team will also be sending a survey to members to help us assess the church's preferences and attitudes. I encourage you to take the time to fill it out.
While there is great hope that we will soon be worshiping in person together again, I do want to remind you that it is hard to predict what this virus will do or how vaccines will work against variants. We must remain open to adjustments as needed for the health and safety of all.
May the love of God and neighbor continue to guide us all.