The governor’s press conference at 1:00 today didn’t change the guidelines. They are simply saying to follow the CDC guidelines. Those guidelines say gatherings no bigger than 10. We think that we can accommodate all those who are healthy and without symptoms who desire the Sacrament by limiting our attendance to 10 and asking families to stay at least 6 feet away from each other even at the communion rail. We also have all of our cleanliness protocols in place as we have already been practicing for the past two weeks. To accomplish this we would like you choose a single service between Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday and to sign up for it on-line at this link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/904084baaae2ca2fa7-divine
Right now, we have scheduled 12 services for this weekend but can add more. We will have four services tonight (Thursday), two services at 6:00 and two services at 7:00. The services at 6:00 will be spoken services. One will be in the Church and the other in the Chapel. At 7:00 there will be a service in the church with organ and a spoken service in the Luther room. The 7:00 pm Service in the Church will be livestreamed.
On Saturday we will have a service in the church with organ at 10:30 (which will be livestreamed) and a spoken service in the Luther room.
There will be no Bible class or Sunday School on Sunday. We will have spoken services in the Church and Chapel at 8:00 and again at 9:15. At 10:30 we will have a service with organ livestreamed from the Church and a spoken service in the Luther room.
All those services are on the website. If they all fill up or there are no openings in the only time that you can come, please e-mail Secretary.Redeemer@gmail.com. We have other celebrants and preachers and space and can add more if we need to.
This won’t be ideal but it will be Word and Sacrament. The procedures suggested by the CDC are no child’s play. This disease can kill. We all need to take it seriously. At the same time, our spiritual health is also serious and those who can receive it in good conscience and without endangering themselves or others are encouraged to do so.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Petersen