 Pastor's Message 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. Sunday's scripture read by Bill Kittle (Exodus 2: 11-15): Special music sung by Nancy Leonard, accompanied by Maggie Eronimous, with video by Dustin Chitty: Courtyard worship begins this week 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. For this Sunday, please click HERE to sign up. *Note: Sign-ups will be live each Monday for the following Sunday. Only 8 individuals/families can sign up at this point. Thanks for waiting in between weeks to sign up so that others may get a chance. 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:
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 Giving and ministry quick links
Track your acts of service Make sure you report your acts of service (hours spent, dollars given, items donated) by using this simple form HERE. Our Goal - 2,020 Acts of Service in 2020! Comments are closed.
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