There’s been some discussion about when our church will reopen. Our members are wondering how the decision to reopen, or not, is made. As many of you know the Governor has allowed Orange county to reopen churches with some restrictions. As of September 22nd, Orange County is considered to be a Tier 2 area, the second most strict tier. Tier 2 allows churches to open at 25% capacity. We may soon move to Tier 3 which would allow operation at 50% capacity. There are many guidelines and restrictions. For instance singing would not be allowed. Very few churches have reopened for indoor services. Some are hosting outdoor services. Bishop Hagiya’s guidelines for reopening allows Cal-Pac churches to reopen but with the stipulation that they are deemed safe and that there are no other factors that could increase risk of Covid19 infection. Ultimately, the final decision to reopen lies with each individual church. Our church is difficult to reopen because we lack sufficient cross ventilation of air through the Sanctuary. But even more importantly, our congregation consists of older folks and we just can’t take the risk of someone getting infected. We are not alone in experiencing a delayed reopening because the health risks are very real. Because we cannot confidently guarantee the safety of our congregation we cannot reopen at this time. We are still following the Bishop’s guidelines to remain closed because we have special factors that are difficult to overcome. Rev. Bau has prepared a statement about reopening and it will be emailed to our members very soon. I apologize in advance if anything I’ve written here conflicts with Rev. Bau’s email. I’ve done my best to present accurate information. More information is available at http://www.calpacumc.org although some of the information is quite old.
I appreciate the encouraging words for our Sunday, “Worship a Home”, videos.
This Sunday will be “World Communion Sunday”. I hope to create a special video for this week.
Blessing to all, Charles M Goh
Media and Technology Department Garden Grove United Methodist Church