Updated 9/20/22
COVID-19 Protocol Update
On September 20 the Church Council updated the FUMC COVID-19 policy.
(This is our policy at the current community transmission level. As situations change, policy may also change.)
• Masks are welcome, but optional, at worship and church events.
• Masks are welcome, but optional, when singing in large spaces (outdoors, Sanctuary, Social Hall, Hillside Room, Chapel—the larger the space, the shorter the exposure, the more distance between people, the safer)
• Team/Group leaders can make masking decisions for their groups (e.g. can require masks for their activities if that is needed for group members). • Indoor eating is allowed.
• Please stay home if you are feeling sick/have symptoms (worship, team meetings, and other activities can often be accessed through Zoom or YouTube).
• Wear a mask if you believe you have been exposed to COVID or other illness.
• For help determining what to do in individual circumstances, use the CDC isolation calculator.
• We continue to urge vaccinations for the greater good.
Updated 3/15/22
Covid-19 Protocol Update
Dear Friends,
Thank you for making decisions, during this season of covid, to ensure that everyone who participates in activities through our church are physically and emotionally safe. Your cooperation and love is a wonderful way of expressing your faith commitment.
Given the significant decline in positive COVID-19 rates in our area, your Church Council has decided to adopt the following approach as we transition to an endemic way of being together. We are doing this with real time monitoring, so protocols are subject to change if data changes. Here is the current plan:
Starting Sunday, March 20:
• Masks will be encouraged and available but not required on Sunday mornings except when singing (so please bring a mask). We will still sit every other row.
• Coffee and donuts will be available following worship in the fellowship hall if we can find people to do the set up and clean up.
• Masks will be optional in the church building unless the group, or group leader, decide to make a different choice. Please honor your group/group leader if it is deemed best for masks to be worn. (Note: Bell Choirs, RingJam, Nursery Attendants and Livestream Team will continue to wear masks while in those activities).
• Please wear masks while visiting the church office as it is a small space.
• Anytime there is singing masks must be worn
• For April communion we will still use the individually packaged elements.
• When appropriate for the children’s message, children can come up front. The giver of the message will ensure the message is also inclusive of children participating online.
• Wednesday dinner can take place for families in the fellowship hall. Only one family per table and the tables must be spaced.
• We will allow light catered receptions (not full meals) in the fellowship hall for funerals and other events with capacity not exceeding 75 people.
EASTER SUNDAY we want to see many people in person at 10am worship so we are requiring masks that Sunday, but will eliminate the every other row spacing (we will have one section that maintains every other row).
In order to make this work, and to continue keeping everyone safe, everyone is going to need to do good self-monitoring.
• If you are ill, please stay home and use online opportunities.
• Please feel comfortable worshipping on YouTube from your home and attending church meetings via zoom if that is safest and best for you.
• Please get vaccinations if you haven’t already done so.
The overall health and well-being of the congregation has been, and will continue to be, our utmost priority. Remember, we are doing this with real time monitoring, so protocols are subject to change if data changes. We greatly appreciate your ongoing patience and adherence to our pandemic protocol in this most unusual time.
Pastor Jeanine Alexander
Scott Hedlund & Ron Berkeland (church council chairs)
on behalf of your Church Council
Updated 1/20/22
Current COVID Surge Plan
We will continue to offer in-person and quality livestream worship on YouTube, encouraging people to participate online, and for those in-person, intentional social distancing and constant masking (we have a very large Sanctuary so are able to be safely spaced).
We will encourage adult team meetings and groups to meet online. When groups meet in person, intentional social distancing and constant masking should be maintained.
Our Confirmation Retreat was half outdoors, tubing, and half on Zoom, and planned with great creativity.
On Wednesday, January 26 and Wednesday, February 2, in-person children and youth programs will take a break. Individual leaders of groups will contact participants to let them know how continued engagement will occur. We will notify you when in-person groups will resume.
There was no Sunday School through the end of January. We will notify you when in-person groups will resume. Special activity bags will be provided to the kids in worship as well as the usual children’s message in worship.
There will be no Wednesday or Sunday nursery care through the first week of February. We will notify you when nursery care will resume.
We are continuing our “no eating in the building” policy (because masks need to be on at all times).
We are doing our best! Are we doing it perfectly? We surely are not. Are we trying to help contain the spread, care for the vulnerable, and care for those working in hospitals? Absolutely! Your continued patience is requested. Thank you for doing all you can to create a physically and emotionally safe church environment.
If you have questions or concerns, please contact our church council chairs Scott Hedlund and Ron Berkeland, or Pastor Jeanine.
Internationally-renowned concert organist Dr. Isabelle Demers will perform a Rededication Concert on Sunday, November 3 at 3:00pm. at First United Methodist Church in Duluth, MN. This concert celebrates the completion of the church’s recent renovation and expansion of its Austin pipe organ.
.