An Update from our Pastors

June 28, 2021

Dear friends:

All are invited to join us as we return to in-person worship this Sunday, July 4, at 9:15am!

We recognize the mix of emotions and various levels of comfort with returning to in-person worship. We hope to make the space feel welcoming and safe for all who would like to attend.

Below are guidelines we will use for the first weeks that we are together.

Gathering Practices

• **We strongly encourage everyone, fully vaccinated or not, to wear masks indoors (except those under age 2)
• **Outdoors, masks are optional for everyone
• **Capacity will not be limited at this time, at least during the summer, when attendance tends to be lower and we expect to have enough space to distance ourselves.
• **Since infection is airborne, we are not worried about touching things like bulletins, hymnals, and microphones.
• **We will provide masks and sanitizer, by the entrances.
• **We suggest limiting congregational singing to outdoors or the very end of services.

We are open to ongoing changes in the coming weeks as we continue to monitor trends in the community.

As we open up our church doors once again, we understand that there are some who are more comfortable continuing to worship from home. For the near future we plan to continue sharing the worship services through livestream on Zoom. Services will continue to be recorded as they are with our online services for later viewing. If you would like to receive the link to our weekly online service, please contact shannon@ecsmc.org. Or you can listen to our weekly sermon on your phone by dialing 605-475-0195.

Community Meals: We continue to serve take-out meals and build relationships with our neighbors at our Community Meal every Monday from 5:00-6:00pm. Please join us!

Grace and peace,
Pastors Don & Mim

P.S. Our lead pastor is currently on sabbatical and will return in early August.