As we see shops and restaurants opening, you’re probably wondering what’s happening at St. John’s and when we’ll open our building again.
Even though Dr. Bonnie Henry, our provincial health officer, has said that religious gatherings of up to 50 people are allowed, we are following the Pacific Mountain Regional Council’s (PMRC) guidance, whose assessment is “that the risk outweighs the benefit of in-person gatherings at this time.” So, for now, that means that we will continue seeing your beautiful selves on Zoom on Sundays for the foreseeable future.
However, the good news is that a small team is working out the details of how we can open the building for small groups to gather, and the board is expecting to hear back from this “Next Steps” Team by mid-June. We will keep you posted.
New Protocol: sign in when you come into the church for any reason
If you come into the church for any reason, you’ll see we have a logbook to sign—there will be one in the lower hall and one in the narthex. We’re doing this in case anyone gets COVID—we want to be able to help the health authority contact other people who were in the building in the same time frame. So please do sign in when you are in the church for any reason.
As Deon Johnston, Bishop-elect of the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Missouri so aptly says:
"The work of our church is essential.
The work of caring for the lonely, the marginalized, and the oppressed is essential.
The work of speaking truth to power and seeking justice is essential.
The work of being a loving, liberating, and life-giving presence in the world is essential.
The work of welcoming the stranger, the refugee, and the undocumented is essential.
The work of reconciliation and healing and caring is essential.
The church does not need to “open” because the church never “closed”. We who make up the Body of Christ, the church, love God and our neighbors and ourselves so much that we will stay away from our buildings until it is safe.
We are the church.”