Face-Coverings No Longer Expected

On Sunday, April 18, since we were so close to getting to the other side of this pandemic, on behalf of the pastoral team I encouraged our church to keep vigilant and continue with face-coverings during corporate worship. In view of the vaccination success and warmer weather, the reports stated that a “normal summer” was on the horizon — we just needed to hold on a little bit longer. 

And we did. Thank you, church.

Now, with the Minnesota government lifting the mask mandate, and the especially high vaccination numbers in the Twin Cities, not to mention the great weather, face-coverings are no longer needed in corporate worship. Individuals may still wear face-coverings if they choose, but they are not expected.

We will be adding more seats in the sanctuary to allow more space in the fellowship hall, and we will provide an audio feed in the courtyard off of Saratoga Street for those who prefer outdoors. Between the fellowship hall and courtyard, we hope to accommodate you if you still need to operate under covid precautions (the live-stream will continue for the time-being, but the final Sunday night service will be May 23).

Going forward, the issue of face-coverings will be entirely a matter of personal choice, and there are good reasons for individuals not to wear them or to wear them. Our duty here is love one another by respecting individual decisions.

Since we made the first pandemic-related decision on March 13, 2020, and the seven (I counted) milestone decisions made over the last year, this step feels like the most significant. It will be good to see so many faces on Sunday, recovering a loss I doubt we’ve really understood. I’ve read that there won’t be an exact moment when this whole pandemic is officially “over,” but we are close — no, we are there — wait, are we?

Yes, at Cities Church. Thanks be to God!