2/24/2022
2/24/2022
Dear Friends in Christ,
On February 15, California lifted its indoor masking requirement for fully vaccinated people. With all counties within the jurisdiction of the Diocese also lifting their masking mandate, Bishop Marc and the Diocese of California COVID-19 Response Team have invited clergy and lay leaders to prayerfully and thoughtfully assess our specific situations and establish our own protocols and procedures.
At the height of the omicron surge the Saint Anna’s COVID task force decided to impose a vaccination requirement for those attending in-person worship. We had previously resisted such a requirement despite it being a strong recommendation from our bishop, on the grounds that worship should be open to anyone irrespective of vaccination status. However, as the number of infections climbed and hospitals began to experience the strain of caring for hospitalized patients, we debated whether Saint Anna’s should close to in person worship, as some churches in our diocese chose to do. In the end we compromised by requiring vaccination as an alternative to closing our doors temporarily. While we hated to deny anyone the opportunity to worship, we rationalized that unvaccinated people could still join us on zoom and made it simple to do so even if they showed up at the doors of the church on Sunday morning.
We are now once more faced with some decisions about Saint Anna’s COVID protocol. While some things remain absolute, like no common cup, the diocese is leaving it to individual congregations to determine their comfort level around masking and vaccination while following their specific county’s guidelines.
Here at Saint Anna’s our first priority is to keep our members safe while remaining an open and welcoming congregation. The decision we are now considering is, do we keep the vaccination mandate and allow those who are fully vaccinated and boosted to worship without masks? Or do we relax the vaccine mandate, thus allowing anyone who wishes to join us for in person worship, but keep the mask mandate in place? Or do we do nothing and keep both vaccination mandate and masking mandate?
The official slogan of the Episcopal Church states, The Episcopal Church Welcomes You. What do we need to do to live fully into this statement? What policies do you consider to be just and inclusive? How do we live into the promises of our baptismal covenant to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves, while keeping the most vulnerable among us safe? Which course of action do we have the resources for? If we decide to drop the mask mandate everyone who attend worship in person must be triple vaccinated (vaccinated and boosted). This will require us to continue checking vaccination status and means that anyone who is not fully vaccinated must be redirected to join us on zoom
As I reflect on the best course of action at this time, I would like to hear from you. I am inviting you to please email me at jane@saintannas.org and let me know your thoughts in this issue. At the end of the day the final decision is mine, although as previously I will make it in consultation with the COVID task force, but I think it is time I heard what you think.
Yours in Christ,
Rev. Jane+