In-Person Worship Returns

by Rev. Eric Folkerth

This week, I spoke with two church members who hadn’t seemed to have yet heard the news, so I thought I’d write about it again, via the newsletter:

Very soon, we anticipate returning to live, in-person, worship. And once we do that, we anticipate continuing it for the foreseeable future. 

As with everything else during the pandemic, sometimes the best planning we do changes...but this is what we think we know.

We’ll return to in-person worship at KPUMC on Palm Sunday, March 28th.

Initially, we will meet outside on the “Colorado side” of our sanctuary as we did last year. Obviously, at some point it will be too hot to meet outside. (Most likely, near the end of May). Once that happens, we will return inside the sanctuary. And, barring some dramatic downward turn in vaccinations and COVID cases (we don’t expect this, of course) we will continue with in-person worship going forward.

To be clear, we hope that anyone who chooses to come to worship will have been previously vaccinated. Further, we’ll ask everyone to continue wearing masks and to social distance. That will ensure that as we return to live worship we won’t inadvertently make anyone sick.

This pandemic has been an incredibly long and hard year for all of us. Just this week, I’ve talked with several more of you about the grief, social isolation, and personal loss you have experienced. 

As was our theme for this Lenten season, it’s time for us to move from “ME” back toward “WE.”

That was our stated theme during Lent. Now, as we’d hoped, it looks like that that spiritual concept will become a physical reality for us.

You can help us: Please spread the word!

Remind everyone you know of our plan, so that others might be inspired as well, and not miss the chance to gather again if they so wish. 

And, to be clear: For anyone still concerned about in-person worship, we will continue our live-streaming every Sunday as we have been this entire year.

I hope you find all this as good and hopeful news, as we get ready for the “new life” of Easter.

And...for the first time in a year... I get to say this to you all…

“See you soon.”

Eric Folkerth