Beloved of GracePoint,
During our Overseers Meeting on Monday, March 15, your elders, made the decision to return to in-person worship services. Our first service together will be on Palm Sunday, March 28, 2021 at 10:30am (please note the special time for the first two services). We are so very excited to come together and to see you all again!
The obvious and appropriate questions maybe, “Why now?” or “What has changed?” Our decision was based on the following factors:
- Throughout the past 12 months our decision to worship outside of the church building has been due to a desire to be a testimony to our community and for the safety of our people. As the daily infection numbers lower within the county and throughout the state, along with the availability of a vaccination and our county moving to Phase 3, we feel that the pandemic has been “sufficiently mitigated.” These words were given last October as the benchmark we would apply to a reopening determination. As elders, we came to a consensus that we have now arrived at this benchmark.
- Assembling for collective worship, communion, and fellowship is vital and scripturally mandated. While we were willing to forgo assembling for a time, we believe it is time to come back together.
While we are excited to announce our reopening, please be aware that our services will not return for some time to the “normal” we all remember. We will be complying with the WA State guidelines for religious organizations. Chairs will be clustered throughout the sanctuary with 6’ of space between groups, face coverings are required, social distancing throughout your time at church is encouraged and we may be asked to not sing together from time to time.
We do respectfully ask that you not attend if:
- You are not willing to wear a face covering for the duration of the service.
- You are ill or have any symptoms of illness
- You have been recently exposed to the Coronavirus.
If you still feel vulnerable meeting in public given these parameters, we encourage your staying home. To support this decision, we will still be making our services available online and by phone.
We’re excited to be with all of you for Palm Sunday, Easter Sunday and each week thereafter!
Much grace and peace to you all,
Dave Gossett, for the elders
