Message from the Board of Directors
Your Executive Board (as well as each member) continue to pray about church. To accommodate the differing points of view and comfort level of members and attendees, we have been holding in person church and Sunday school services while maintaining online connectivity with Zoom audio. This will enable each member and attendee who desires to do so, to return to in-person church services and live music while allowing others to participate remotely at a level comfortable to them and their families.
In continued support of our church, we have included a few citations that we have found helpful and that we offer for your consideration:
The Definition of Church from Science and Health (p 583):
“Church. The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle.”
“The Church is that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick.”
Meeting together for church services and testimony meetings is a way of supporting each other’s progress and bearing witness to Divine Love’s embrace of all of us.
At the same time, each of us is at a different place in our dealings with the current situation. Some may feel comfortable going out and others not so much. When going out, some may take more stringent precautions than others. Some precautions are taken out of respect for others who may have different points of view about virus and contagion.
For the foreseeable future, we plan to connect each live Sunday Service and Wednesday Testimony Meeting to Zoom audio with the ability for both remote and in-person attendees to share testimonies on Wednesdays.
Elaborate recommendations and guidelines have been developed and published for reopening and operating businesses. We have reviewed some of those and feel the following guidelines are sufficient for our situation. Keep in mind that our true protection is not in these human rules, but the guidelines allow someone who is perhaps unsure about their safety to feel comfortable entering church and hearing a message of inspiration and healing.
Guidelines for Church (January 2021)
Distancing and Seating: Rows and seats will not be roped off. Based on our typical attendance prior to the shutdown, there is sufficient room for attendees to choose the amount of separation from others comfortable for them. Be considerate of others when choosing a seat. Attendees are asked to not congregate in the lobby before and after the service. The auditorium or outside areas are large enough to absorb several small groups, however.
Sanitizer: Hand sanitizer and wipes will be placed in each public restroom and on a lobby table or sideboard.
Quarterlies, hymnals: Attendees can bring their own quarterlies, hymnal, hymn print outs if they are not comfortable using church provided Hymnals and Quarterlies. Cleaning guidelines indicate that object not handled for 3-7 days can be considered safe. Attendees desiring to use a church quarterly can pick one up from the sideboard or table themselves, rather than have usher hand them out. Late attendees will not be handed a hymnal.
Collection: For the collection, rather than passing collection bags from person to person, the ushers will bring the bag to each attendee.
Masks and Gloves: Being a matter of personal choice, masks and gloves are neither required nor prohibited.
Cleaning: With our building being used for less than 4 hours a week, weekly cleaning (on Thursday) is sufficient. High touch surfaces like door handles, arm rests, restroom fixtures, etc will be disinfected
.
The Sunday School has returned to normal operation as of Fall 2020.
The Children's room is open during church services.
Addition thoughts to stimulate more prayer:
Science and Health 4:3-5; 12
“What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness, love, and good deeds.”
“The habitual struggle to be always good is unceasing prayer. Its motives are made manifest in the blessings they bring, — blessings which, even if not acknowledged in audible words, attest our worthiness to be partakers of Love.”
Science and Health 366:24; 367:3-9
“The sick are terrified by their sick beliefs, and sinners should be affrighted by their sinful beliefs; but the Christian Scientist will be calm in the presence of both sin and disease, knowing, as he does, that Life is God and God is All.”
“The tender word and Christian encouragement of an invalid, pitiful patience with his fears and the removal of them, are better than hecatombs of gushing theories, stereotyped borrowed speeches, and the doling of arguments, which are but so many parodies on legitimate Christian Science, aflame with divine Love.”
And in the Lesson on Mortals and Immortals (May 17, 2020), in Section 2, the Psalmist prays:
(PS 25)
“4 Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths.
5 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day. “
And just as Jesus healed the woman accused of breaking the commandments as well as the angry crowd of accusers, and as Jesus comforted the grieving mother, raised the son believed to be dead, and calmed the crowd of bier-bearers and mourners, we can handle and heal the general belief in virus and contagion so prevalent today (Corona Virus can be defined as Crown of Poison – see Christian Science Sentinel May 11, 2020 “The Crowning Idea that Conquers Fear and Heals”).
Mary Baker Eddy also tells us in The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany, p165:
“…may each member of this church rise above the oft-repeated inquiry, What am I? to the scientific response: I am able to impart truth, health, and happiness, and this is my rock of salvation and my reason for existing.” (see Christian Science Sentinel April 27, 2020 “Loving Our Neighbor During a Nationwide Lockdown”)
And from the last verse of Mary Baker Eddy’s poem “Love” (Hymn 30)
Thou to whose power our hope we give,
Free us from human strife.
Fed by Thy love divine we live,
For Love alone is Life;
And life most sweet, as heart to heart
Speaks kindly when we meet and part.
In continued support of our church, we have included a few citations that we have found helpful and that we offer for your consideration:
The Definition of Church from Science and Health (p 583):
“Church. The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle.”
“The Church is that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick.”
Meeting together for church services and testimony meetings is a way of supporting each other’s progress and bearing witness to Divine Love’s embrace of all of us.
At the same time, each of us is at a different place in our dealings with the current situation. Some may feel comfortable going out and others not so much. When going out, some may take more stringent precautions than others. Some precautions are taken out of respect for others who may have different points of view about virus and contagion.
For the foreseeable future, we plan to connect each live Sunday Service and Wednesday Testimony Meeting to Zoom audio with the ability for both remote and in-person attendees to share testimonies on Wednesdays.
Elaborate recommendations and guidelines have been developed and published for reopening and operating businesses. We have reviewed some of those and feel the following guidelines are sufficient for our situation. Keep in mind that our true protection is not in these human rules, but the guidelines allow someone who is perhaps unsure about their safety to feel comfortable entering church and hearing a message of inspiration and healing.
Guidelines for Church (January 2021)
Distancing and Seating: Rows and seats will not be roped off. Based on our typical attendance prior to the shutdown, there is sufficient room for attendees to choose the amount of separation from others comfortable for them. Be considerate of others when choosing a seat. Attendees are asked to not congregate in the lobby before and after the service. The auditorium or outside areas are large enough to absorb several small groups, however.
Sanitizer: Hand sanitizer and wipes will be placed in each public restroom and on a lobby table or sideboard.
Quarterlies, hymnals: Attendees can bring their own quarterlies, hymnal, hymn print outs if they are not comfortable using church provided Hymnals and Quarterlies. Cleaning guidelines indicate that object not handled for 3-7 days can be considered safe. Attendees desiring to use a church quarterly can pick one up from the sideboard or table themselves, rather than have usher hand them out. Late attendees will not be handed a hymnal.
Collection: For the collection, rather than passing collection bags from person to person, the ushers will bring the bag to each attendee.
Masks and Gloves: Being a matter of personal choice, masks and gloves are neither required nor prohibited.
Cleaning: With our building being used for less than 4 hours a week, weekly cleaning (on Thursday) is sufficient. High touch surfaces like door handles, arm rests, restroom fixtures, etc will be disinfected
.
The Sunday School has returned to normal operation as of Fall 2020.
The Children's room is open during church services.
Addition thoughts to stimulate more prayer:
Science and Health 4:3-5; 12
“What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness, love, and good deeds.”
“The habitual struggle to be always good is unceasing prayer. Its motives are made manifest in the blessings they bring, — blessings which, even if not acknowledged in audible words, attest our worthiness to be partakers of Love.”
Science and Health 366:24; 367:3-9
“The sick are terrified by their sick beliefs, and sinners should be affrighted by their sinful beliefs; but the Christian Scientist will be calm in the presence of both sin and disease, knowing, as he does, that Life is God and God is All.”
“The tender word and Christian encouragement of an invalid, pitiful patience with his fears and the removal of them, are better than hecatombs of gushing theories, stereotyped borrowed speeches, and the doling of arguments, which are but so many parodies on legitimate Christian Science, aflame with divine Love.”
And in the Lesson on Mortals and Immortals (May 17, 2020), in Section 2, the Psalmist prays:
(PS 25)
“4 Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths.
5 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day. “
And just as Jesus healed the woman accused of breaking the commandments as well as the angry crowd of accusers, and as Jesus comforted the grieving mother, raised the son believed to be dead, and calmed the crowd of bier-bearers and mourners, we can handle and heal the general belief in virus and contagion so prevalent today (Corona Virus can be defined as Crown of Poison – see Christian Science Sentinel May 11, 2020 “The Crowning Idea that Conquers Fear and Heals”).
Mary Baker Eddy also tells us in The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany, p165:
“…may each member of this church rise above the oft-repeated inquiry, What am I? to the scientific response: I am able to impart truth, health, and happiness, and this is my rock of salvation and my reason for existing.” (see Christian Science Sentinel April 27, 2020 “Loving Our Neighbor During a Nationwide Lockdown”)
And from the last verse of Mary Baker Eddy’s poem “Love” (Hymn 30)
Thou to whose power our hope we give,
Free us from human strife.
Fed by Thy love divine we live,
For Love alone is Life;
And life most sweet, as heart to heart
Speaks kindly when we meet and part.