a slow plan for regathering: the most conservative thing we’ve ever done
April 28, 2020
To the beloved saints of God who together make Galileo Church,
Grace to you, and peace, from God our Mother-Father and our brother-Savior Jesus. I hope this letter finds you strong and well, in body and mind and spirit, held close in the comfort of God’s own Spirit.
As I write, it’s been seven Sundays since we last gathered as a whole church for worship and friendship – at least, since we last brought our bodies to a space and existed there together. The coronavirus pandemic sent us all to our homes to shelter in place, partly for our own safety and partly for the sake of our vulnerable neighbors. I’m so grateful to Galileo folx who have graciously stayed home to avoid vectoring this dangerous virus to others. Good work, church.
Because of our long 2019 discernment about livestreaming worship, and our implementation of Inside Out at the end of 2019, we were well-prepared to share worship online during this weird, worrisome, stay-at-home season. Not gathering for the Holiest Week is one of the hardest things we’ve had to endure, but we maintained our commitment to “do beauty for our God-Who-Is-Beautiful” throughout. I’m so glad to be in ministry alongside Stephanie Hord, David Lee, Nathan, and Josh; and grateful for the skeleton crew of techs (Lance, Cait, David Grogan, and Amber, so far) that make it work, along with livestream hosts (Remi, Drew Brooks, and Cori) and assistants (DJ, Chris B, and Steve) who help people worship rather than watch.
We pivoted rather quickly, too, to virtual gatherings of various kinds, making the best use of several platforms to stay connected and connect more deeply. I am grateful to the gifted folx who host these gatherings, activities, and conversations (Remi, Steph, David L, Sean, Heather, puck, Kimberly, Josh, and more); and to everybody who has stretched beyond their comfort zone to prioritize being with church friends. The gift of your presence is a good gift, indeed.
Additionally, we have generated creative ways to offer material and spiritual help to each other. Thanks especially to Andrea G, Amber, and the Spiritual Care Team for their gracious care. If you find yourself in need of extra support (money, groceries, errand-running, conversation, counseling, prayer, résumé building, etc.), you have the resources of our whole church to call on. Ask, and you shall receive.
I cannot say enough good things about the members of the Spiritual Care Team and the Missional Logistics Team, as well as my colleagues on the pastoral staff. I’ve worked with a lot of church leaders over all these years. But this slate – well, we didn’t know how badly we would need clear-headed, imaginative, hopeful, practical leaders who are willing to get their hands dirty in this good work. But we got exactly what (who) we needed anyway. Thanks be to God.
But here’s the actual impetus for this letter: to articulate a plan for coming back. We are all so weary of not seeing each other face to face, so exhausted from being on edge about basic human contact. As I often say, “God doesn’t need the church, but God knows we do.” I need you, Galileo Church; I need your presence, heart and soul, mind and body, for my own human flourishing. I know some of you feel the same, because you’ve told me, or told us all, in your pandemic lamentations. So we’re ready to move out of day-by-day survival, ready to think about what the future potentially holds.
Two things it took us some time to figure out:
1. This situation isn’t binary. (Imagine that! lol) Until there’s a widely available vaccine against COVID-19, we won’t be able to celebrate a full return to confident, joyful, IRL gathering.
2. The government at every level – federal, state, local – will show deference to the demands of capitalism, even to the detriment of human health. Recommendations for “reopening” or “getting Texas back to being Texas” (said during the governor’s press conference as I wrote this) will be based on restoring the flow of money, goods, and services for economic health, not the physical health of the most vulnerable in the human family.
(And it will put the poorest people, the lowest-wage workers, back to work first. Brown and black people will be disproportionately at risk due to pre-pandemic systemic racism. The whole thing reeks. We’re not falling for it.)
Based on these two realizations, the church’s leaders have begun working on a slow, conservative plan to phase in togetherness. Yep, we said “conservative” about Galileo Church! We believe that it’s better to err on the side of concern for human health.
Here’s how we’re envisioning those phases:
Phase One: the one we’re in right now
-- Weekly worship is online only, with a skeleton crew of 5-6 people in the Big Red Barn. This is based on CDC recommendations that, for now, gatherings of more than 10 people should be avoided.
-- Gatherings, activities, meetings, and conversations are held over screens only.
-- Covenantal G-groups (using the winter 2019-20 roster) are encouraged to stay in touch and gather with each other virtually as they wish. Sunday night worship-parties-by-Zoom are supported with tech assistance.
-- MLT, SCT, and pastoral staff reach out actively to make sure G-folx are healthy, cared for, and receiving any help they need.
Phase Two: the in-between
-- Weekly worship continues online with a skeleton crew in the Big Red Barn.
-- Worship attendance IRL rotates on a schedule by the first letter of last names, to be worked out later, so that we maintain about 30 people in the BRB each week. And yeah, we’ll keep families together, even those with different last names. This is based on CDC recommendations that, in this phase, gatherings of more than 50 people should be avoided. Aiming for 30, plus the skeleton crew, gives us a little wiggle room.
-- Prepare the BRB for IRL worshipers by sanitizing the space, removing toys from the toddler corral, installing foot grabs on doors, removing extra chairs from the worship space, spacing seating for 30 people with 6-foot social distancing, closing the Quiet Room.
-- Increase custodial service in the BRB to weekly sanitizing/cleaning.
-- Prepare IRL worshipers by publishing safety/hygiene guidelines for the BRB, including pre-worship symptom check, 100% wearing masks, disinfecting high-touch surfaces, frequent hand-washing, neither arriving early nor lingering after, maintaining social distance of 6 feet, etc.
-- Reimagine the practices of communion and congregational singing, both of which we love, and both of which are opportunities for contagion.
-- G-Kids and G-Youth continue to meet online only.
-- Virtual gatherings, activities, meetings, and conversations continue as needed. No IRL meetings on the church calendar.
-- Covenantal G-groups (using the winter 2019-20 roster, or perhaps an updated summer/fall 2020 roster, depending on timing) are invited to consider meeting in homes, outdoors, at the BRB, or online – whatever geography feels safe and appropriate to the consensus of the
G-group.
Phase Three: not quite normal, but close
-- Weekly worship online continues, and high-risk persons are encouraged to remain at home.
-- IRL attendance on Sundays is open to all, with hands-free greetings, masks encouraged, and reimagined communion practices.
-- Chairs in worship space are spread one chair’s width apart (families may regroup theirs).
-- Toddler corral and Quiet Room reopen.
-- G-Kids and G-Youth meet IRL, with extra adults on hand to assist with hygiene habits.
-- Continue weekly sanitizing/cleaning of the BRB.
-- The MLT, SCT, and participants in various online offerings will evaluate which of our virtual gatherings should continue virtually, which could migrate to IRL, and which have served their pandemic purpose and can fade out.
-- Food-sharing will not be recommended until a corona virus vaccine is widely available. S4 suppers, G-Coffee, and other “all-come” gatherings should be BYOFood.
-- Covenantal G-groups, with an updated roster that incorporates new facilitators, conveners, and co-hosts, begin a new season of in-person gatherings, including as part of their covenant a shared understanding of best practices for hygiene and safety.
Phase Four: vaccine party!
-- That’s all we want to say about that. It’ll be big.
If you’ve read this far, or if you skipped to the end, you’re asking: How long will each phase last, and how will we decide it’s time to move to the next one?
Here’s what we know for sure:
1. Phase One will last through May 31, at least. And to be honest, the current consensus among those contributing to this letter is that it will likely go longer. We’ll evaluate at the next MLT meeting, which is slated for Wednesday 5/20 (and every third Wednesday of the month.) Meetings are open; you just have to ask for Zoom access.
For now, we’re going by the fact that schools are closed for the school year. We know that colleges and universities in our area have already announced online-only schedules for the summer. In weeks to come we’ll have data for the spread of the virus under the partial openings of businesses announced by the governor yesterday. If there’s been a consistent decrease in diagnoses, with testing readily available, those will be signals that it’s time to think about moving to Phase Two.
2. We are in this for the long haul. We can imagine moving back to a prior phase if we sense (or know for sure) that we’ve moved ahead too fast. We’re not afraid to keep asking each other for more patience, more perseverance, more time.
3. We’re not scientists. But we listen to some good ones. For now, the consensus of those folx seems to be skepticism that now is the time to loosen shelter-in-place protocols. When a chorus of voices from local medical professionals, CDC officials, and other reputable experts start singing in concert that it’s time to come on back, we’ll listen to that, too.
The best document we’ve seen for determining protocols for the life of the church during this pandemic is the Wisconsin Council of Churches’ “Returning to Church Following COVID-19.” For now it’s on the front page of their website, wichurches.org, and we’re appreciative of their guidance.
There’s one more thing we know for sure: Galileo Church is in good health as a body of Christ. None of us is enjoying the restrictions on our being together, and indeed some of us are suffering mightily from the very isolation Galileo Church helped us beat back prior to the pandemic. We heartily encourage each one to make the fullest possible use of every opportunity we’re offering for human connection; those are reiterated and easy to find in the weekly e-newsletter. We’re grateful to note that communally, we have maintained good cheer and a robust system of mutual support throughout.
I’m thinking that’s gotta be the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the living Christ, who was – is – always thinking about how to restore relationships and put people back together with their beloveds. That Spirit is stronger than a virus. And by letting yourselves be open to the One, even while you close yourself off from the other, you have helped the world heal a little bit. Thank you, and thanks be to God.
Your church leaders pray for you constantly: “…May your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The One who calls you is faithful. God will do this.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23b-24)
hoping for your peace, praying for your health – Katie, for the MLT, SCT, and pastoral staff