Returning to Church

I’ve enjoyed the last two Sundays getting to match faces with names and voices I’ve known since coming to PHCC a year ago. Some folks returned to Sunday morning in person worship on Easter and the Sunday after it now that they have been vaccinated. A few have told me it feels both familiar being back in the church building and weird being at church or anywhere else where there are people outside their immediate family. It appears we are all going to have to learn how to do church again in a post-Covid world, even as Covid is not through with us yet.

In the PHCC Executive Committee meeting last night we discussed ways of strengthening reconnection in person after so long of forced separation. There are a lot of complications, because some have been vaccinated but others are still waiting for vaccines. Furthermore, all of us may be interacting with people outside the church, as we go about our routines, who have yet to be vaccinated or are refusing vaccinations altogether. Questions as simple as “When can we serve donuts again?” have no conclusive answers and neither do more complex ones.

On the one hand, if folks have been vaccinated there is no reason for them to stay away from in person worship or even resuming Sunday School classes—as long as they continue to wear masks, social distance, etc. On the other hand, after a year of messaging to avoid in person groups outside one’s “bubble” there is a natural resistance to doing so no matter what safety precautions are taken. We all have some adjusting to do.

So, the Executive Committee has decided we will plan a few events that have no agenda beyond us just being back together in person as a church. We will still wear masks, socially distance, etc., but we will be together.

• On Sunday, May 22, the Sunday prior to Memorial Day Weekend, we will gather following worship to share light refreshments in a safe manner. If weather permits, we will meet outside; if not, we will meet in the Life Center.
• On the weekend of June 25-27, we will have an outdoors cookout or picnic with live music. If weather is bad, we may move it into the Life Center so we can still spread out.
  

Put these events on your calendars and make a point of looking forward to being together again.
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Please know that I and church leaders are making all this up as we go along. None of us has ever led a church out of a pandemic before. We welcome all ideas and all feedback as we go through the next few months. All we ask is that folks be gracious to one another as some of us are past ready to jump back in with both feet while others won’t be ready to do so until some unknown time in the future. We are all figuring this out at the same time, so there’s no judgment regarding your particular pace for returning to church.

If you are interested in helping with the two upcoming events mentioned above, please contact either myself or Jill Watson, PHCC Board Chair. We could use help pulling these events off and we welcome any and all to work with us.

Grace and Peace,
Rev. Chase Peeples