Dear Spirit of Grace Community,
This Friday, December 24th we look forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ with you and the many layers of meaning that this celebration holds for each of us. You are welcome to join the Spirit of Grace community at 4:00 p.m. (in person only) and 7:00 p.m. (in person and on Zoom).
We are in a much better place than we were last Christmas Eve when we could not worship in person at all. Still, we must remain vigilant in our efforts to protect ourselves, our communities, and the public while we continue to seek opportunities to advocate for justice for those who are marginalized in ways exposed by the pandemic.
Although there is much we do not know about the latest variant to arrive in our country named Omicron, reports indicate that it is much more transmissible than the Delta variant (which was already much more transmissible than earlier variants). Therefore, out of an abundance of caution, our Spirit of Grace steering team, with input from our COVID safety team, is asking our community to redouble our efforts to follow our Covid safety protocol, and we have made a few changes to the way we will be worshiping on Christmas Eve.
We preface these reminders and updates by encouraging you to assess your own personal risk when deciding whether you will join us in person for worship. If you believe you have had exposure to COVID-19 or have any symptoms of illness (even if it just feels like a cold), please do not attend in person. Although our 4:00 p.m. worship service will be in person only, the 7:00 p.m. worship service will be hybrid and you are welcome to either worship in person or from the Zoom balcony.
If you decide to worship with us in person, we continue to require everybody to wear a tight fitting mask and use hand sanitizer upon entering the building to prevent the spread of many seasonal viruses. Given the arrival of the Omicron variant, we will also be making a few additional changes for Christmas Eve:
There will be a bit more space between chairs in the sanctuary and entry hall to make it easier for you to cluster with members of your household while allowing physical distance between yourselves and other households.
Due to somewhat reduced seating in the sanctuary, the overflow area in the entry hall will be available once seats in the sanctuary are filled, as well as for anybody who is simply more comfortable there.
Hymns will be sung by the music team with the rest of the community humming along (or singing very, very quietly), because studies show that singing aerosolizes significantly more particles than breathing or speaking. This Christmas we might envision the babe in the manger lying in our midst and honor that presence by speaking quietly and humming as if we were trying not to wake the sleeping baby.
We recognize the request not to sing out “Joy to the World” and other Christmas hymns at the top of our lungs will come as a significant loss for many in our community.
It is important that we not lose sight of how far we have come since last Christmas. And it is especially important that we remember that we are not alone. No matter what our personal or collective futures may hold, the real gift of Christmas is the reminder that God dwells with us in Jesus. That is a gift that will never be taken away.
Pastor Robyn Hartwig and Director Vinci Halbrook-Paterson