Happy Monday WPUMC Friends and Family!
If you were unable to join us live yesterday, you can still worship with us by using THIS link. 

Happy Monday WPUMC Friends and Family!
If you were unable to join us live yesterday, you can still worship with us by using THIS link. To hear Sunday's scriptures, watch below (Kevin Eronimous, Isaiah 63: 7-9 and Layla Carpenter, Psalm 23).

We are almost ready to begin our next in-person worship experience - Courtyard Worship. We will have our first Courtyard Worship on August 2nd, and continue as long as it is safe to do so.
 
WHAT IS IT?
Courtyard Worship will be both a live-stream and limited in-person experience. In addition to our worship leaders live-streaming the worship service on Sundays at 9:30am from the courtyard, we will start allowing a limited number of individuals/family groups to attend the service.
 
WHO CAN ATTEND?
Because we will have a limited number of individuals or family groups permitted (8 family groups maximum), there will be a digital sign-up sent out each week the Monday prior to Sunday's service. We will trust that if you sign up one week, you'll leave room for others in subsequent weeks. The service will continue to be live-streamed each week at 9:30am on Facebook and a link to the worship will go out in the Monday all church email.
 
WHAT CAN I EXPECT WHEN I ATTEND?
When you arrive to a worship service that you have signed up for, you will have agreed to some participant expectations (see below). You can expect to be greeted and temperature-screened by an usher/volunteer, who will then direct you to a marked-off area for you/your family to set up your own chairs. You can expect to see other masked worship participants from a distance that you are welcome to greet, but not close enough to offer hugs or handshakes.
 
You will be expected to be seated and respectfully quiet at 9:25am when we start streaming our worship live with the prelude through to the end of the recessional and until our tech person says we are "clear" from our live stream. You can expect to experience worship "in the round" as all worship participants will be encircling the courtyard with the worship leaders in the center. You will be directed NOT to sing during hymns, and the experience will be a more observational one than the high-participation worship services we are used to.
 
WHAT ARE THE PARTICIPANT EXPECTATIONS?
When you sign up to attend a service, you will agree to these expectations and directions:

• Sign up in advance (for family groups larger than 4 persons, sign up for two slots)
• Bring your own chairs to the church for seating
• Please use the facilities before coming to the church as the building will only be opened for emergencies
• All participants must wear a mask for the duration of your time at the church (3yrs and up)
• Please do not attend if you've experienced any of the following symptoms in the last 21 days: sore throat, cough, chills, body aches, shortness of breath, loss of smell, loss of taste, fever at or greater than 100 degrees Fahrenheit
• Approach the courtyard from the Arizona side of the building
• Agree to be temperature screened at the usher station
• Maintain a distance of 6 or more feet between your family group and others
• Proceed to your designated sitting area and stay in that space until the worship service is over and you are given directions for exiting
• Agree to be in your seat and quiet by 9:20 am and staying in your designated place until we are given the live-stream all-clear (after postlude)
• Agree to not sing during the hymns
• When the worship service is over, please follow the directions for exiting the courtyard and proceed directly to your car or head home
• You are asked to not gather or congregate after the worship service
• Understand that in the event of significant weather, in-person worship will be cancelled
• Agree that if you ignore any expectations, or are unwilling to adhere to them, that you will leave the gathering for the sake and safety of others

 
WHY ARE THERE SO MANY RESTRICTIONS?
Our main goal is to keep our community healthy and safe. Having to put forth so many restrictions on presence and participation feels strange and not at all inclusive or welcoming. We understand the tension here, but choose to require high expectations for participants to ensure the safest experience possible, while still offering some sort of in-person connection.
 
Please remember that any in-person activity carries a risk of infection. We are doing all we can to mitigate the dangers, but cannot completely eliminate them.
 
At the same time - we miss being together! And hope that this in-person experiment is one that offers connection and community, even in an altered way.
 
Please feel free to reach out to me with questions or concerns, and look for Courtyard Worship sign-ups on Mondays for the following Sunday.
 
Peace and love, Rev. Sandi

Happy Monday to our WPUMC Family and Friends!

I just got back from a visit to Texas to see my parents and siblings - it was a good visit, and also eye-opening to see the different ways that various states are dealing with the COVID-19 Pandemic. We were diligent to wear our masks when we went to the store, washed our hands often, and stayed mostly in my family's homes.

While I was gone, I watched the numbers of Coronavirus cases rise in both Texas and Colorado. It definitely is a sign that we need to continue to be diligent, mindful, and cautious in our day-to-day activities. At WPUMC, we are starting to slowly see more activity in and around the building with our tenants, and are still planning to commence some Courtyard Worship in the coming weeks-information about that will be available next week. However, we will continue to rely on technology as the main way to connect us for worship, meetings, and other church activities.

This is not easy, by any means, but I continue to prioritize the health and safety of our congregation above all else. "Do No Harm" is the motto we're living by, with the knowledge that in the longevity of this pandemic, we can only mitigate the dangers not eliminate them. And we are aware that some sort of physical connection with others is an important part of community . . . it seems every decision is right and wrong at the same time.

Keep our congregation and leadership in your prayers! We are getting through this together. Reach out - call, email, text - stay connected with one another in love and care in these days.

Peace and love,

Rev. Sandi

WPUMC Members and Friends,
 
I hope you all had a good Fourth of July! A couple of Sundays ago, we sang Lift Every Voice and Sing, which was adapted from a poem by James Weldon Johnson - this is the third verse:
 
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand.
True to our God,
True to our native land. 
 
The poem was put to music by Johnson's brother, and first sung by 500 school children in celebration of President Lincoln's birthday on February 12, 1900 in Jacksonville, FL.
 
As this song and its powerful words have been resonating in my head, I continue to be aware of the work that we need to do to assure that all people are able to live lives of freedom and be counted as worthy by the world.