Dear Mandarin Disciples,
Your church council met on May 16 and discussed the implications of the new CDC COVID guidelines on our church life. You may view the updated CDC guidelines here.
We made the following decisions:
- We will continue to have two services every Sunday. Those not vaccinated should continue to wear masks and socially distance. Two services will allow people to continue social distancing. We are going to stop the sign up for Sunday services, as this proved to be unnecessary over the last several weeks. We will remove the crepe paper blocking off pews, but ask that everyone continue to respect social distancing.
- We will no longer require masks inside the church for those that have been vaccinated. We do not intend to check vaccination status, but trust that people will respect the safety of others that have not been vaccinated by continuing to wear a mask indoors if not vaccinated.
- We are making plans to resume fellowship opportunities. This will begin with an outdoor barbeque following a sweet corn gleaning event on Friday, June 4th. You don’t have to glean to enjoy fresh sweet corn, hot dogs and hamburgers with your friends. We also look forward to a 4th of July celebration at the Whitford Ranch! Many more activities to follow.
- As always, everyone should avoid coming to church if they are ill (fever, sore throat cough, body aches, headache, etc). Those with a known exposure to COVID in the last 14 days should not attend church if you have not been vaccinated.
- I strongly encourage everyone to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Vaccinations are available at Publix, local pharmacies, county sites and the federal FEMA site at 5200 Norwood Ave. Jacksonville, FL 32208. The federal site is open 7 a.m. – 7 p.m., 7 days a week and has no waiting. A friend of mine is helping staff the sight and told me they are capable of caring for 3,000 people a day but are only getting a few hundred.