Monday June 29 2020
A daily e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
Dear Friends,
 
Your Covid-19 Response Team of the Session has been meeting every week. Prior to that, our Science Advisor Peter Yau has been in weekly conversation with me, your staff, and your Session. We’ve been asking: What now? What’s next?
 
We cannot predict the future. We don’t know how “phase four” of our recovery will go. If Covid cases and deaths continue to drop and area hospital ICUs remain uncrowded, we feel like our plan at First Presbyterian Church *may* unfold as noted below. If things change, these plans will change.
 
The organizing principle of our work has been this: we do not want our church to become an incubator for this virus. We want to be a “super-spreader” of Gospel-love only, not of the Corona Virus. Your Covid-19 team would prefer to be too cautious, too slow, and too thoughtful. Why? We want to keep people safe. We want our sanctuary to be a sanctuary. A safe place.
            
Note also, First Presbyterian Church will not “open fully” until we’ve safely reached “phase five,” when a Corona Virus vaccine is found, tested, and available. 
 
After September 1^st, we hope to resume some form of limited face-to-face worship in our sanctuary. Right now, we’ll limit the total of number of leaders and participants to 50 people; this number may change when we get closer to that date. We will attempt to preregister for worship. We will rethink how we do communion. We will, likely, not engage in congregational singing (as singing is known more widely to spread aerosolized air and singers more deeply inhale that air). Spoken liturgy will be limited. All persons will wear face masks and we will exercise physical distancing of six feet. We’ll have no paper bulletins. We’ll have no coffee hour (and doughnuts!) after worship.
 
Currently, face-to-face meetings at the church are considered on a case-by-case basis. Either I or the Covd-19 Response Team will make those decisions. Face-to-face  office appointments with me may be arranged.
 
Should you come to face-to-face events? 
 
The CDC recommends these guidelines. If you fit any of these categories, rethink your participation:
 
* People 65 years and older
* People who live in a nursing home or long-term care facility
* People of all ages with underlying medical conditions, particularly if not well controlled, including:
* People with chronic lung disease or moderate to severe asthma
* People who have serious heart conditions
* People who are immunocompromised
* Many conditions can cause a person to be immunocompromised, including cancer treatment, smoking, bone marrow or organ transplantation, immune deficiencies, poorly controlled HIV or AIDS, and prolonged use of corticosteroids and other immune weakening medications
* People with severe obesity (body mass index [BMI] of 40 or higher)
* People with diabetes
* People with chronic kidney disease undergoing dialysis
* People with liver disease
 
So, we’ll not be back in face-to-face worship until September at the earliest. As stewards of creation, we recognize that keeping our flock free from situations where Covid-19 could be spread is a sacred goal. The body is a temple of God.
 
1 Corinthians 6:19-20     Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body.
 
Questions? Comments? 
 
Give me a call, anytime. 
 
* * *
 
Take on Race:
 

Why do we talk about structural racism?  Racism is not primarily about individual prejudice or an individual’s beliefs and attitudes. Rather, racism in the U.S. is a socially constructed system. Some people are advantaged, and others are disadvantaged, merely because of their skin color, ethnic identity or their ancestral background. Social power and prejudice have combined to treat people differently, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Some people are privileged while others are oppressed. As a consequence, there is unequal and inequitable access to resources such as money, education, information and decision-making power.