Dear Congregation,

In the past month, I have given my full attention to meeting the target Council set for reopening our sanctuary for in-person worship: April 18th. Thanks to the help of many, I gladly report that we will meet this target, though not as we had expected or planned.

This article summarizes plans and decisions for reopening. This summary served as an outline for my Zoom presentation on Sunday, March 28th. Further details will come as we progress toward reopening and then adjust as we go.  

We all know the approach we are taking won’t please everyone in our congregation, but I believe that working together to create a safe worship environment is how we as people of faith serve God in these challenging times.  

With God’s help, your cooperation, and mutual sacrifices, our congregation will emerge from this pandemic stronger and more united.

Peace,

Pr Craig

NOTES ON REOPENING

Number of Worshippers: As more of our members are vaccinated, the number of members ready to join us for in-person worship has grown.  Thirty-five (pink) of the 84 members who planned to return to in-person worship after they had been vaccinated have been vaccinated, bringing the total number of members ready to attend in-person worship to 135.

Given our current capacity limit, two worship services are needed.

Capacity Limits: We are unsure how many worshippers can be seated in sanctuary with social distancing. One hundred chairs are set up.  The total number of worshippers in the sanctuary will depend on the size of family units, as three chairs between each family unit is required. Capacity also depends on ushers maximizing seating. 

Additional seating in the Narthex may be needed as capacity limits increase, as determined by our Medical Advisory Team.

Ten percent of capacity will be reserved for our guests.  

Worship Service Times: Worship service times will be 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.  Questions about these times tend to rise from expectations that by default we would worship at the pre-pandemic times of 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m.  There are several reasons for these worship times: 

1. Ushers and greeters will need extra time to prepare for worshippers to enter and be seated.  
2. Extra time is needed between services for ushers and greeters to sanitize frequent-touch, hard-surface areas. 
3. Extra time is needed for 9:00 a.m. worshippers to visit outside of the building and depart from the parking lot to open spaces for 11:00 a.m. worshippers.

Intermediate Technology and What to Expect:  The new sound and video system has been ordered. The expected installation date is the week of April 18th. We will devote our resources to setting up the new system rather than also setting up an intermediate system. As a result, as we begin in-person worship, we will continue to livestream worship using an iPad. This decision will affect the way we conduct worship in ways we will discover as we go. 

Also, as we launch our new system, there are sure to be glitches and problems to solve we cannot see in advance.  

Online Registration for In-person Worship: Worshippers will sign up for weekly in-person worship using an online system. 

• Phone and email support will be provided for those for whom technology is a barrier to participation.  
• The registration system will be open to the congregation for a trial run after Easter.
• Online registration is required to attend in-person worship. 
• A process is in place in case of cancellation.
• A process is in place in case capacity limits are reached, enabling those who are unable to attend because of limits to be first in line to attend in-person worship the next week.  
• Help and explanation documents will be available before registration begins.
• There are sure to be adjustments needed as we go.  

Serving in Worship: In-person worship depends upon support of safe worship through active participation of our members. The following roles for serving in worship are needed, totaling 17-20 per service, 25-27 per week: 

• Online Registration Support: 3 per week. (may not attend)
• Ushers: 4 per service, 8 per week.
• Greeters: 2 per service, 4 per week.
• Tech Team: 3 (estimate) per service,  6 per week.
• Musicians: 2-3 per service, 4-6 per week.

Last Sunday, January 24th, we hosted a zoom meeting to talk about our Annual Meeting this Sunday, January 31st. The two items on the agenda for our Annual Meeting–Committee nominations and our 2021 Budget–were of less interest than questions about when and how we will return to worship

The question of “when” will be answered by the congregation’s response to the survey we recently sent you (if you did not receive a survey, please contact the office: office@windsorucc.com; 608-846-5731).  This survey helps us answer two important questions.  First, under what conditions will our members return to worship; second, who is willing to help us reopen our building for worship.  Once we have answers to these questions, then our work really begins.

We will need to create a sustainable system to train and schedule our members to serve God by opening our building for worship.  We will also need to create a system for people to sign up to join us in worship in safe numbers, making sure that everyone has a chance to attend once before anyone attends twice, and also reserving spaces for guests to join us.  This process will also serve as contact tracing.

In addition, we will need to plan for how we will continue to reach members and friends online who will return on a longer timeline, and also continue to reach our shut-ins who have enjoyed the advent of online worship.  I am committed to these members and to reaching out to others online. I hope the congregation will resolve to ensure that our return to in person will not come at the expense of those who are unable, for whatever reason, to join us for worship in our building.

One of the most often asked questions is why we are not yet open while other churches are already open. One answer is that we respect science and follow the advice of experts who have warned against gathering and say that singing is dangerous. 

Another answer to the question is that we currently lack capacity and organization to open our building.  It is hard to see from the perspective of this pandemic, but the congregation went through a significant transition in the process of calling me to serve as Pastor.  We are getting our start in a hard time, and we do not yet have processes in place to make decisions, enlist help, and get moving.  In truth, the informal and personal nature of the congregation, one of its greatest strengths and assets, leaves the congregation ill-prepared for the time we are living through.  We now need to build a sustainable structure for today and tomorrow.

I hope we will all put our energy and passion into creating formal structures and organizations that will sustain us as we move forward together.  When we open our doors, we will all be glad to be back in our church home, and I pray we will be ready to welcome the new people who will join us after this hard time.  

God has given us so much, and we are coming through this pandemic with few losses compared to other congregations. I hope you will join me in asking how God is calling us to serve through the ministry of our congregation.
Peace,
Pr. Craig

Pastor’s Annual Report to the Congregation
Windsor United Church of Christ, 2020

When I first saw this lovely building and talked with the Search Committee about what God might have in store for us, I was convinced that 2020 was going to be a very good year indeed.   

We made plans for the weekend of March 22nd–time for our families to meet, time to sit together and to share a meal, time for questions and answers, time to get to know one another–but then the pandemic disrupted our plans and not for the last time. 

We rescheduled for the weekend after Easter, April 19th, planning to meet outdoors so at least we could be together in the same place at the same time. Alas, COVID-19 disrupted these plans as well. Undeterred, the Search Committee arranged for us to meet online and the congregation worked together to conduct a vote on-line.  

It’s startling how faith works, isn’t it?  How God’s timing defies our plans and how the Holy Spirit calls us into unexpected and uncharted territory. It was an amazing thing for God to call us together in 2020. We are all wondering what God has in store for us in 2021.  

We hope and pray the vaccine will reach us so we can safely congregate again (and for the first time :-).  When this time finally comes, it will be time to celebrate. There will be babies to baptize, loved ones to mourn, a Sunday School to reopen, new people to welcome, and new opportunities to serve God by taking care of our neighbors. 

I continue to be amazed by the strength and resilience of the congregation.  These hard times have not shaken our belief that our congregation is a light in dark times, nor diminished our commitment to minister in Christ’s name. 

I would like to especially thank Roger Stoltenberg, Chair of  the Search Committee, and Terry Anderson, our Moderator, for their tireless and faithful work; Aaron Lissowe for his technological skills and generous support of the worship life of the congregation; and our staff, Barb Varner for her brightness and know-how, and David Schipper for his nurture of the music ministries of the congregation.  Thank you also to the members of the Search Committee and their families for the extraordinary effort that went into bringing us together during these unprecedented times: KJ Busse, Denny Dobson, McKenna Kelsey, Karen Meylor-Miller, Jon Rouse, Matt Sutherland, and Kit Thomsen.  

Yours in Christ,
Pr. Craig Jan-McMahon

I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; 
moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil –Ecclesiastes 3:12-13

This week I learned from Facebook that two of our members have received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.  As health care workers both are in the 1a category, first in line to be vaccinated.  

This is glad news.  We are all grateful for our healthcare workers, and we understand that we wear masks, practice social distancing, and wash hands not only to keep ourselves, families, and friends safe, but to protect healthcare workers and the capacity of our hospitals. 

This glad news also suggests that this time of isolation will end in 2021.  Most people I talk with hope the vaccine will reach us by middle to late spring, in time for children to return to school in fall.  

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven, says Ecclesiastes.  We are learning through this season of pandemic how very hard it is to trust ourselves to God’s time–we desperately want to this season to end, our desperation making us vulnerable to the illusion that we are in control of time, or that we need not live in time with others, or share with them our mutual, human vulnerability to time.  

And yet we are also likely to miss the resolution of the problem of time; God wants us to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we live and take pleasure in food and wine and companionship, for our lives are not merely about toil and sacrifice and waiting for a better time.  

Surely, 2021 will be a better year; we all pray that it will be.  But no matter how time is shaped by vaccine distribution, one thing I know for sure: when this time comes at last, we will experience what God intends for us; it will be time to celebrate, and we will experience pleasure unlike any other time in our lives.  

God bless you in 2021 and keep you safe until we can at last be together again for the first time :-).
Peace,
Pr. Craig

Dear Windsor-UCC-Person-Whose-Name-I-Forgot,

You called and we talked soon after I came to the church in July.  

You are a retired teacher, a lover of books and words.  We talked about teaching and writing and you said you were keeping safe during this pandemic. We wondered when we would have the chance to meet, and agreed we just didn’t know. Meantime, you said that if there was anything you could do, any help I needed, to just let you know.  

I promised I would get back in touch with you because I would surely need your help, once I got settled into a routine and got organized a bit.  I explained that I write a lot,  often on short deadlines, and their are tines eye kneed riding help because I tend not to have time to edit out embarrassing mistakes :-).

You said you would be glad to help. When our conversation ended I was relieved to have found a person I could call on at the last minute to help with this work.

But then forgot your name. 

I know; I know:  I should have written it down!  Maybe I did write it down? 

Anyway, I am sorry to confess that though I remember you, I can’t recall your name.

If you would kindly call again, or send me an email, I promise I will remember your name this time, because I am ready for some riding help.

Yours in Christ,
Pr. Craig