St. Peter's UCC Skokie Reopen Plan

The purpose in sharing this letter publicly is to show our community what we are doing in the coming months.

Dear members and friends of St. Peter’s UCC in Skokie:

I hope this letter finds you healthy and well, sheltered in place, and caring for yourself and your family as best you can in these difficult times. While our church building has been “closed” since March 18, St. Peter’s continues to worship together via YouTube, fellowship together through Zoom, social media, and phone calls, and support ministry together with online giving and pledges of support.

Our Church Council met on Sunday, May 17. During that meeting, we discussed the Phases of Governor Pritzker’s plan to reopen Illinois for business, as well as the IL Conference of the UCC’s recommendations for reopening our physical building to people for worship, fellowship, and ministry.

After discussion and review of both plans (they are very similar in nature), Council voted to wait until the Village of Skokie has announced itself in Phase 4 of the reopen process. We discussed opening for Phase 3, but Council Members didn’t see any direct benefit to doing so, and felt it safer to wait until Phase 4. Here is what that means (this has been edited to be specific to St Peter’s):

Phase Four: 8 Weeks of Declining COVID-19 Case Counts in [Skokie & Morton Grove, IL]

• Widespread availability of testing, No PPE Shortage

For the church, this means:

In-Person Worship = no more than 50 people worshiping in-person

• Develop a plan if more than 50 people come for in-person worship
• Continue holding online worship along with in-person worship of no more than 50 people.
• Encourage those at high-risk to worship online. (High Risk includes those age 60 or older, those with auto-immune challenges, those identified as high-risk by Cook county’s Department of Health.)
• In-person worship should have space large enough to allow for physical distancing of 6 feet between family units with the following suggestions:
  • One family per pew/row with an empty pew/row separating every family unit.
  • Every other pew/row is blocked off in order to create 6-foot physical distancing requirement.
• Face masks are required of all in-person worship attendees!
• Limited singing at in-person worship (all singing to be done while everyone wears their masks).
• No personal touch rituals of in-person worship (including the following)
  • No Passing of the Peace of Christ
  • No attendance pad, hymnals, and pew Bibles should be used
  • No Offering plate usage
  • No Communion plate or intinction
  • Usher distancing - all ushers must maintain physical distance of 6 feet
  • Limited fellowship food (coffee hour) after worship
  • Limited in-person small group meetings
  • No Sunday School or Bible studies

Council’s voted-upon agreement, and the plan going forward, states that we will NOT try to open up for Phase 2 or 3, and we will wait until is Skokie declared in Phase 4. Once that happens, THEN Church Council will meet again to determine:

• In-person worship date and plan to clean and prepare prior to that first Sunday back
• Office open date and times, and what restrictions may be in place
• How to deal with the Rummage Sale and any other regular events that need to be rescheduled
• How to support the groups that normally use our space

Our primary focus is the health and safety of our staff, our congregation, and our community. At this time, we do not anticipate gathering together prior to July 1st. It will very likely be much later than that, given that Skokie is a “hot spot” for COVID cases, and might not follow the Chicago Region standards exactly. We will monitor this situation closely.

When we DO decide to open, we will take the following precautions:

• We will schedule a “cleaning” day to sanitize the church building high-use areas
• We will mark out the pews for social distancing with tape or postit notes
• We will procure masks and hand sanitizer and provide to attendees for worship
• We will print music in the bulletins so people don’t have to share/touch the hymnals
• We will determine and provide alternative options for giving offering and sharing Communion
• We will suspend coffee hour voluntarily for the early weeks back, and decide on the right time to re-institute this valued fellowship time
• We will CONTINUE to offer live-streamed services on YouTube for those in our congregation for whom coming to worship may be considered a high-risk activity
• We will monitor the situation in Skokie – if a resurgence in cases happens, we will return to virtual worship

For the time being, Pastor and Laura continue to access email and phone messages, and along with Ben (and Beth), produce our worship services. Our Board of Elders has been steadfastly reaching out to members regularly to check on their well-being. Church Council uses email and Zoom to “get business done” and our Board of Finance is keeping the bills and staff paid, and the offerings collected. As much as we miss seeing each other personally, this experience has shown that while we love our building very much, we do not necessarily need it to “do church.” God’s message is the same, whether we are together or apart – He loves us, He sees us, and we are upheld by his Almighty Hand.

If you have any questions about any of this, please feel free to reach out to whomever you feel most comfortable discussing these matters with – Pastor, myself, or any Council member you prefer.

In Christ,

Jennifer Schneider

St. Peter’s UCC Council President