St. Christopher’s and Phases of Recovery
There is no perfect guidance for how to be the church together in the time of this pandemic. None of us have ever done this before. When we are unsure of what to do—when it is perhaps impossible to know exactly what to do—it is helpful to go back to roots for guidance. In planning how St. Christopher’s will be the church through the different phases of our community’s response to covid-19, the leadership has gone back to our roots: the Baptismal Covenant. Whenever we baptize someone, among the questions we ask them (or their parents/godparents) are “Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers?” And “Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?”
Gathering together to break the bread of the Lord’s Supper is not an optional part of our Christian life. And neither is loving care of our neighbors, who are due the love and care we would give to Christ himself. We must strive for sacramental fellowship, and we may not endanger the lives of our neighbors. In these times, these two promises create the tension that we hope is generating a careful, creative, and faithful response to the situation we are in. This response is outlined below.
In our deliberations, we have emphasized continuing to be the church, providing as much accessibility as possible, and trying to save lives. We believe that this plan is true to all three goals and to the promises we renew at each baptism. In brief, most of our life together will continue as it has for the last few months. Our primary worship services will remain online. The building remains largely closed, with staff and teams/committees doing much of their work at home. Pastoral care will remain primarily phone and email based, with the possibility of exceptions for low risk situations. Formation for all ages will also remain online.
On Sunday mornings, we plan to continue the practice we have established of praying the whole Eucharistic liturgy, without elements but with an act of spiritual communion. Spiritual communion is an old practice designed for times when a person or community desires communion, but does not have access to it (usually because of health reasons or extreme hardship, such as in times and places of war). We believe and hope that Christ is present in a special way in this act. It is not expected to be a congregation’s default common public practice. We are in uncommon times, and the Sunday morning liturgies, online, remain our temporarily normative worship experience. If you’re picking one time to join us in worship a week, we hope you’ll choose the full online gathering of our community.
And, we believe that we can now supplement these whole-community liturgies with small, simple, in-person Eucharists on the church lawn. You will see how we think we can do this laid out below. There is still risk to this, though we are taking every step we can to mitigate the risk while having the liturgy be recognizably the Eucharist. With new rubrics from the bishop, we believe that we will now be able to celebrate “no contact” Eucharists. Let us stress that no one is obligated to attend these in-person liturgies. Those who are feeling ill or who are especially vulnerable because of demographic or underlying health reasons should stay home and participate only in online worship, with the church’s full blessing. Those who are uncomfortable coming to an in-person liturgy, even with the arrangements we plan to make, should stay home and participate only in online worship, with the church’s full blessing.
We are committed to making these Eucharists as accessible as possible. This begins with scheduling as many of them as we can sustain. We anticipate beginning with eight discrete Eucharists a week. Parishioners will have to sign up for them in advance, noting how many members of the household will be attending. Once we are regularly offering the Eucharist again, it will become appropriate to have extraordinary Eucharists, as possible—as in, short simple services in your backyard if you are unable to attend one of our regular services, or if your kids need a Wiggle Worship style but cannot be trusted to keep physical distance. We encourage parishioners who cannot come to a public liturgy to consider whether someone else in their household (or para-household—who is bringing you your groceries?) might come and be commissioned as a special case Eucharistic minister.
All of this plan is subject to change with new guidance from health authorities or the bishop. And we know that the logistics will evolve as we learn what is needed for our community and how we can best do this work. We offer this plan with prayer, hope, and caution.
Worship
Gathering together to break the bread of the Lord’s Supper is not an optional part of our Christian life. And neither is loving care of our neighbors, who are due the love and care we would give to Christ himself. We must strive for sacramental fellowship, and we may not endanger the lives of our neighbors. In these times, these two promises create the tension that we hope is generating a careful, creative, and faithful response to the situation we are in. This response is outlined below.
In our deliberations, we have emphasized continuing to be the church, providing as much accessibility as possible, and trying to save lives. We believe that this plan is true to all three goals and to the promises we renew at each baptism. In brief, most of our life together will continue as it has for the last few months. Our primary worship services will remain online. The building remains largely closed, with staff and teams/committees doing much of their work at home. Pastoral care will remain primarily phone and email based, with the possibility of exceptions for low risk situations. Formation for all ages will also remain online.
On Sunday mornings, we plan to continue the practice we have established of praying the whole Eucharistic liturgy, without elements but with an act of spiritual communion. Spiritual communion is an old practice designed for times when a person or community desires communion, but does not have access to it (usually because of health reasons or extreme hardship, such as in times and places of war). We believe and hope that Christ is present in a special way in this act. It is not expected to be a congregation’s default common public practice. We are in uncommon times, and the Sunday morning liturgies, online, remain our temporarily normative worship experience. If you’re picking one time to join us in worship a week, we hope you’ll choose the full online gathering of our community.
And, we believe that we can now supplement these whole-community liturgies with small, simple, in-person Eucharists on the church lawn. You will see how we think we can do this laid out below. There is still risk to this, though we are taking every step we can to mitigate the risk while having the liturgy be recognizably the Eucharist. With new rubrics from the bishop, we believe that we will now be able to celebrate “no contact” Eucharists. Let us stress that no one is obligated to attend these in-person liturgies. Those who are feeling ill or who are especially vulnerable because of demographic or underlying health reasons should stay home and participate only in online worship, with the church’s full blessing. Those who are uncomfortable coming to an in-person liturgy, even with the arrangements we plan to make, should stay home and participate only in online worship, with the church’s full blessing.
We are committed to making these Eucharists as accessible as possible. This begins with scheduling as many of them as we can sustain. We anticipate beginning with eight discrete Eucharists a week. Parishioners will have to sign up for them in advance, noting how many members of the household will be attending. Once we are regularly offering the Eucharist again, it will become appropriate to have extraordinary Eucharists, as possible—as in, short simple services in your backyard if you are unable to attend one of our regular services, or if your kids need a Wiggle Worship style but cannot be trusted to keep physical distance. We encourage parishioners who cannot come to a public liturgy to consider whether someone else in their household (or para-household—who is bringing you your groceries?) might come and be commissioned as a special case Eucharistic minister.
All of this plan is subject to change with new guidance from health authorities or the bishop. And we know that the logistics will evolve as we learn what is needed for our community and how we can best do this work. We offer this plan with prayer, hope, and caution.
Worship
- Sunday morning liturgies will continue to be offered online, with music, scripture, preaching, and spiritual communion, for Wiggle Worship and the Rite 2 10:30 service. The online services are our “principal services” each week.
- In phase three, we will begin supplementing our principal online services with in-person, simple Eucharist services at other times during the week under the following conditions:
- Only 10 people or fewer (including the presider) will attend a service.
- All participants, people and presider, must wear masks. The church has a stock of disposal masks for those unable to bring one. We wear masks as an expression of the love we share for each other, the love commanded by Christ himself. Care for the community around us is a constitutive part of the Eucharistic act.
- All participants will maintain physical distancing of at least six feet between households.
- These simple Eucharists will be held outside. In the event of inclement weather, every effort will be made to reschedule for the same week.
- Liturgy will comply with the bishop’s directives for in-person worship:
- We will use wafers instead of homemade bread.
- The presider will consume the entirety of the priest’s host. The people’s bread will remain, until distribution, in a covered vessel. It will then be transferred without touch to patens for each household in attendance. This enables a no contact distribution.
- While wine will be consecrated, it will not be distributed.
- There will be no assistants at the altar—only the presider will handle the elements, and this handling will be minimalized. The presider will frequently wash hands and use hand sanitizer. Hand sanitizer will be available for all in attendance.
- All services will be said. At this time, we will only sing together online.
- Coffee hour remains suspended.
- The Peace may only be exchanged with distance and without contact.
- Parishioners will sign up in advance for the liturgy they plan to attend. Attendance will be scrupulously kept, for the sake of possible contact tracing in case of infection.
- In the event of surprise visitors, the presider will negotiate with visitors and regulars to try to find ways to accommodate all, while keeping attendance below eleven people.
- In the event of surprise visitors, the presider will negotiate with visitors and regulars to try to find ways to accommodate all, while keeping attendance below eleven people.
- On accessibility:
- Church leadership will make every effort to ensure that no one is denied communion because of the attendance limitations. Our main tool for this is providing as many opportunities as possible.
- Some parishioners will feel unsafe or be advised not to attend this kind of gathering, for medical reasons. If these parishioners have someone less vulnerable already coming into their home (nearby family or friends who bring groceries, do chores, etc.), we encourage parishioners to have that person come to a Eucharist and be deputized as ad hoc lay eucharistic ministers. (We anticipate the normal practice of LEMs bringing communion to homes to remain suspended.)
- Children are full participants at all liturgies at St. C’s, but parents are advised to note who else is signed up to attend a given Eucharist. The church’s children may find it difficult to distance from friends suddenly seen at church after months apart. In general, only one household with young children should attend an in-person liturgy at a time. The church is unable to provide childcare for these liturgies.
- As weeks progress, special consideration will be given for those who have tried to sign up and been unable to get a slot previously.
- Anyone who wants communion but for whatever reason is uncomfortable coming to one of these semi-public liturgies should contact Eric to see if alternative arrangements can be made.
- Weddings and funerals may take place with all of the above conditions.
- While all of this plan is subject to change with medical advice and directives from the bishop, we anticipate maintaining these practices for a long time (perhaps into the fall). Given the strictures of our space, we do not feel a need to be among the first trying to make major changes for phase four of the governor’s plan.
- Staff may use the building at will, while maintaining physical distancing.
- Parishioners and volunteers should enter the building only for essential tasks. If these tasks involve use of the church office computer, parishioners should coordinate with Parish Administrator Ackli Howell to ensure that distancing can be observed.
- In general, the building remains closed to outside groups.
- 12 Step groups and other groups or classes who are smaller than eleven people and can observe physical distancing may apply to the vestry for permission to meet. Such groups should plan to produce a safety plan that accords with public health recommendations and episcopal directives.
- Church committees and teams will continue to meet online.
- All church sponsored formation programs will continue to be online and at home. Church staff are continuing to work to enrich online/at home formation for all ages.
- All outreach activities may continue under the conditions for other activities, listed above.
- Outreach activities that require more than one person working inside the church building should consult with the vestry before resuming.
- Outreach activities that involve working with food must observe all CDC guidelines.
- In phase three, in-person pastoral care may resume for less vulnerable groups, with appropriate distancing. Most of pastoral care will continue to occur by phone and internet.
