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​Church Council Approves

Return to Limited Worship April 17

First Lutheran’s Church Council approved the return to in person worship beginning Saturday, April 17 at a special meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 11. The major decision to re-open the doors to worshipers in a safe and responsible manner came at the recommendation from the Return to Worship Task Force on March 10. The task force made the recommendation to return to in person worship starting with Saturday evening services at 5 p.m. Saturday April 17 & 24 and all services (5 p.m. Saturday, 9 & 11 a.m. Sunday) starting May 1 & 2.

Our diverse task force came to this recommendation after first creating a guiding statement that “The goal of the Return to Worship Task Force consensus is a safe, phased return to in-house worship with regard to public health and minimizing risks to our congregation.” The task force felt the initial re-open is in line with this goal based on current medical evidence including the 7-Day Positivity Rate for Covid-19 in Iowa is down to 3.8% (as of our meeting date on 3/10) and we have currently the lowest number of Iowans hospitalized for Covid (167) since last July. Additionally, a majority of our worship leaders have now received the full dose of the vaccine. Throughout this process the task force will continue to meet bi-weekly to monitor the Covid data, and our recommendations are subject to changes as we monitor the evolution of Covid in our Cedar Rapids and Linn County community closely.

The Task Force reviewed and supported the public safety measures our staff have already put in place for this initial re-opening including requiring everyone to wear a mask, no singing, no communion, no passing of the peace or shaking hands with the pastor, no passing the offering plate, and no coffee or donuts. There will be no bulletins or hymnals. Worshipers would come in one designated door and exit another other. We will have worshipers sign up in advance online and cap attendance at 100 (25% capacity) of our 400+ seat sanctuary.

This date was partly chosen because our organ installer Parsons Organ Builders informed us the sanctuary will be open for us to use for services starting the weekend of April 17- 18. We will worship online and outside in the parking lot on Easter Sunday, April 4.
The crew will arrive on the Tuesday after Easter and will consume the sanctuary as a construction site that following weekend, April 10-11.

​The next job for the Return to Worship Task Force will be discuss what would have to happen to cause our team to push back or halt our current plans to re-open on April 17. We will also discuss what should be included in the subsequent phases of re-opening following our initial re-open (i.e. offering communion, shaking hands, etc.) and what health markers we feel we need to see for the church to advance through those individual phases in the future.

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Our Pandemic Responses:

Click each topic to be taken to the blog post.
Planned Resumption of Worship In-House
When & How We Worship Together In Person Again
Participating in Holy Communion At Home