› Worship in the Sanctuary Returns!

Beginning Sunday, June 27, 2021

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n May 27 the Session of Swarthmore Presbyterian Church met to receive a report from SPC’s COVID-19 Team on the current status of the pandemic and, given the current status, their recommendations for safe practices for indoor worship. From the COVID-19 Team, we learned that on June 3, 2021 we will likely have met Session’s criterion of two successive weeks of COVID-19 incidence in Delaware County of less than 10 per 100,000 people. In anticipation of meeting this threshold, the Session is eager to welcome the congregation back to worship together in our church home.

SPC will resume in-person indoor worship in SPC’s Sanctuary on Sunday, June 27, 2021

While the good news of the COVID-19 Team leads us to wish that we could resume indoor worship immediately, the Session and staff will be taking these next weeks to prepare with care and intention for a soft opening. Among other things, we will be attending to a thorough preparation of a building, much of which has been unoccupied for over a year; ventilation conditions that will enable us to optimize circulation of air while maintaining a comfortable temperature during warm and humid months; the care of the congregation’s children, who, without access to vaccination, remain the most vulnerable among us; and the training of an AV team to provide live-streamed worship services in place of pre-recorded services; and the re-thinking of our Sunday morning practices, including the many roles of volunteers. Furthermore, these weeks leading up to June 27 will be spent completing plans that were already underway, such as making the Sanctuary and the building more accessible, including the installation of a new electric door into the lobby of Fellowship Hall.

Carrying out these next Sundays in online and outdoor worship will also enable us to honor the programmatic plans that have been in the works, such as our Senior Blessing and year-end celebration of volunteers. We hope, too, that, if you are able, you will enjoy the unanticipated blessings of outdoor worship.

During June you will receive more information from SPC about the temporary safety practices to which the Session will be asking the whole church family to adhere, such as mask-wearing, social-distanced seating, and refraining from congregational singing. (Vaccinated members of the choir will sing, wearing masks while socially-distanced.) Foremost on our mind is a responsibility to protect the youngest among us. An important future threshold for revising, for example, our mask-wearing practice, will be the opportunity for children of all ages to be fully vaccinated.

Given that many of us are away during the summer, July and August will provide an opportune time for the church to have a “soft opening” to indoor worship. Projecting toward September, the Session, with guidance from SPC’s COVID-19 Team, will carefully consider plans to enable greater numbers of in-person worshipers on a Sunday morning. Stay tuned!