Dear Members and Friends of Abiding Presence,

We want to take a moment to offer an update on where we are and where we are going as we continue relaunching in-person worship and ministry.

Outdoor Worship on Sundays at 8:45 a.m. in the Parking Lot
This past Sunday we added an outdoor worship service for those who would like to worship in-person. The service features a variety of music and includes congregation singing as well as Holy Communion. This Sunday, we will even have baptisms during the service! Bring a chair, wear a mask and join us in the parking lot. If you don’t have a chair, don’t worry as we always bring out a stack of folding chairs for people who need them. Our 10:00 a.m. livestream service will continue as usual.

For those wondering, we have reviewed the latest CDC guidance on outdoor mask wearing. Throughout the pandemic, we’ve been preaching and teaching that following Jesus means put the needs of our neighbors above our own. The latest CDC recommendations says, “...CDC continues to recommend requiring masking in crowded settings and venues where there is a decreased ability to maintain physical distance until widespread vaccination coverage." Further, they suggest that one of the determining factors for outdoor mask wearing includes, “Settings with a higher percentage of unvaccinated people (including children) present or people at risk of severe COVID-19 disease.”

We believe outdoor intergenerational worship falls into the categories mentioned in these recommendations. Abiding Together – as we have throughout this pandemic – means ensuring that our policies and practices keep safe those who cannot yet be vaccinated (like children) and/or are at risk for severe COVID-19 disease. For now, we will be continuing to wear masks at outdoor worship. Consider your mask on Sundays to be a sign of your commitment to Abiding Together as an intergenerational church family.

NEW! Summer Worship Schedule Launches Sunday, June 6
We anticipate moving to a new summer worship schedule on Sunday, June 6. This schedule will include a dedicated livestream service, an outdoor worship service and an in-person sanctuary service. All services will include Holy Communion and follow COVID-19 safety protocols. More information will follow about these services in the coming weeks, but here’s a look as to what we’re planning.

Summer livestream services at 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. will include everything you have come to know this past year. We will begin introducing some “live” music in the livestream service with musicians in the sanctuary in addition to produced music we have had. This will be a dedicated livestream service without an in-person congregation present to allow worship leaders to be unmasked on camera (we still always wear masks when not on camera). It will take place in the sanctuary live at 8:00 a.m. and be rebroadcast on all platforms at 10:00 a.m.

We will be looking for ways to continue building a sense of community among our livestream worshipers. If you plan to keep worshiping on the livestream, please let Pastor Keseley know if you are willing to host a Zoom coffee hour, welcome people through Facebook comments or otherwise lend a hand from home.

A summer outdoor service at 9:00 a.m. will allow anyone and everyone to attend in-person worship who would like to do so. There will be no advanced sign ups or limits on attendance. As we design this service, we are keeping in mind families who are looking to practice returning their children to in-person worship. We will stick with the same liturgy throughout the summer to help children (and adults, too) commit prayers and liturgical responses to memory. Each week the service music will pull from both contemporary and traditional songs and hymns.

We will offer outdoor mini-Sunday School for children ages preschool through rising 1st grade during the readings and sermon portion of the service. We want to do our best to ensure that the return to in-person worship is a positive experience for families, especially for children who might be out of the corporate worship routine. Abiding Together, we will spend the summer outdoors offering lots of grace to one another as we relearn worship routines and coming together as a faith family to help our children remember (or learn for the first time) the prayers, songs and scripture of our faith.

A summer sanctuary service at 10:30 a.m. will require advance sign up and be limited to a specific number of households. If you are longing for quiet, holy space in which to worship, this service is for you. The service will be 45-minutes in length to limit the time spent indoors with multiple households. It will draw on our traditional and contemporary worship traditions.

Facility Enhancements and Use
We are hard at work at work getting the facility ready for the return to in-person worship and ministry. That looks like everything from cleaning carpets, to measuring out socially distanced “worship squares” in the sanctuary, to revamping the narthex to make it a trauma-informed space. If you have some spare time to lend a hand, we will have a job for you!

Additionally, we are in conversation with Inquisiminds, the homeschool program that rented space from us pre-COVID, to bring them back to Abiding Presence this fall. Lease negotiations are underway. While we don’t anticipate reopening the indoor facility to other outside groups at the moment, we believe bringing back Inquisiminds is important for the larger community we serve. They have proposed strict COVID-19 safety protocol, will be using a dedicated side entrance (not the narthex) and ensuring that their group stays separate at all times from Abiding Presence activities.

Thank you for the ways that you continue to be the church! We are grateful for your partnership in ministry.

Blessings,

Rev. Meredith Keseley, Senior Pastor
Mike Dyson, Council President
Steve Lucky, Relaunch Committee Chair

Dear Members and Friends of Abiding Presence,

It has been over a year since we closed our facility, moved our worship to the livestream and started learning all over again what it means to be the church for the sake of the world. What a year it has been!

We want to start by saying, “Thank you!” Your continued generosity, faithfulness and willingness to be the hands and feet of Jesus means that Abiding Presence has thrived during these pandemic times. When we look back at this past year, we are filled with amazement at the ways the Holy Spirit kept showing up in and through you. Even though our facility was closed, our ministry continued to change lives in powerful and never-before-imagined ways. Now, it is time to take measured steps toward reopening our facility and relaunching our in-person ministry. We cannot be more excited about this next season of our life together as the church.

The Church Council formed a Relaunch Committee to guide our facility reopening and the relaunching of our in-person ministry and worship. The Relaunch Committee’s efforts are guided by four guiding principles:

· God is calling us forward to new opportunities

· Our core values remain unchanged

· A hybrid of in-person and online worship and ministry will be important in the future

· The health and safety of our community will be our top priority, guided by the public health experts in our community.

We hope that you will take a few minutes to read more about each of these guiding principles. You can do so here on our website.

Following the relaunch in March of in-person parking lot ministry, we are excited to announce our first steps back to in-person worship. Beginning Sunday, April 25 we will add an outdoor worship service to our weekly schedule. The new Sunday morning schedule will be:

8:45 a.m. – Outdoor Worship (in-person)

10:00 a.m. – Livestream Worship (virtual)

Both services will include music from a variety of forms and Holy Communion.

But wait, that’s not all! We are also adding an Outdoor Easter Sunrise Service on April 4 at 6:45 a.m. For those of you who have always wanted a sunrise service, now’s your moment! This will be in addition to our planned livestream Easter Service at 10:00 a.m.

Additionally, we have several outdoor worship opportunities planned throughout Holy Week including an Interactive Palm Sunday Worship Experience with Holy Communion, a Maundy Thursday “Keep Watch & Pray” Fire Pit Serviceand Stations of the Cross on Good Friday and Holy Saturday.

Outdoor services will require masks to be worn by anyone age two or older. Masks must cover the nose and mouth at all times, regardless of vaccination status. Additionally, we will be observing social distancing guidelines and asking people to stay home if you have COVID-19 symptoms or possible exposure. With these safe practices in places, we do anticipate congregational singing to be able to happen safely. While we may ask for sign-ups initially to help us with planning, we will not be limiting the number of seats available at our outdoor services. These will be bring your own chair events. These outdoor services will not be livestreamed since we will continue to have a dedicated livestream service.

If you are excited for an in-person worship experience, we need your help! These outdoor services will require a lot of volunteers in order to make them happen, especially when it comes to set up and clean up. If you are willing to lend a hand, especially if you are willing to coordinate the weekly set up and clean up teams, please reach out to Pastor Keseley.

More steps will follow after these first steps back into in-person worship. The Relaunch Committee and staff are actively planning for the day when we can safely gather in-person in the sanctuary. Additionally, the staff is working on some exciting plans for the fall, including an exciting new approach to Sunday School. (Yes! In-person Sunday School will be back this fall!)

Of course, all of our plans are dependent on our community’s ability to work together to curb the spread of COVID-19. Make no mistake, COVID-19 is still active and impacting those in our faith family and larger community. Wear your mask, keep your distance, stay home when you are sick/possibly exposed and get your vaccine as soon as you are eligible. These are acts of faith in the midst of the “pandemic times” in which we are living.

We are excited to see where God leads us next! This past year, we accomplished big never-before thought of thingstogether. When we look ahead to what is coming, we see more big never-before thought of things in our future. We are grateful for your partnership, commitment and willingness to be the church during these times.

As our Relaunch Committee engages in their work, we will be offering regular updates to the congregation about their work and a timeline for how we will move forward. We look forward to sharing our next update with you in mid-April. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to reach out to us with any questions.

Blessings,

Rev. Meredith Lovell Keseley, Senior Pastor
Mike Dyson, Council President
Steve Lucky, Relaunch Committee Chair

P.S. – One more date for your calendar! On April 25 at 11:00 a.m. we will have a brief special congregational meeting by Zoom. The only agenda item for the meeting is to elect voting members to the synod assembly. In prior years, the Church Council elected voting members. Recent changes to the ELCA model constitution, however, now require the congregation to elect synod assembly voting members.