Guidelines for In-Person Gathering during the COVID-19 Pandemic

First Published October, 2022

Revised April, 2023

Revised August, 2023

Revised May, 2024

The St. Lydia’s Rule of Life refers to our congregation as a body, and our calling as a community is to make decisions that take into account the “health and fruitfulness of the body.” The Leadership Table, in crafting these guidelines, holds this calling as primary. We know that it will be impossible to land on a protocol that feels exactly right to everybody in the congregation. At the center of our life as a Christian community is an open table, and the practice of welcome to all who come. Following the model of Christ, who continuously tended those who were at risk, suffering, or marginalized in any way, it’s important that we make a space that tries to be as welcoming as possible to all, and especially those who, because of underlying health or family concerns, are particularly cautious in this pandemic era we are living through.

General notes about these guidelines:

> Out of consideration to the community, we ask that everyone who attends a service in which the meal is eaten indoors is vaccinated against Covid-19 (“Vaccinated” here means that someone has received all initial doses as well as boosters recommended by the CDC.) However, regardless of vaccination status, all congregants who assemble to an indoor-dining service will be provided a COVID rapid test (or asked to provide one taken from home) upon arrival.

> Citywide case numbers are no longer available and accessible in the same way they were earlier in the pandemic. St. Lydia’s staff and Leadership Table will continue to do everything possible to follow local trends and hospitalization, and adjust service patterns as needed.

> The pastor and community coordinator are always able to choose a more conservative approach than the below guidelines recommend. If, for instance, the numbers indicate that we are able to meet indoors, but it’s beautiful weather, staff can choose to announce that church will be held outdoors.

> A note on masks: medical grade masks, either surgical or KN95/N95 masks, have been shown to offer the best protection against highly contagious variants of Covid-19. We recommend that you wear a medical-grade mask to church as opposed to a less-effective cloth mask only, and will have some available at the door for those who need them.

Guidelines:

A. As a general rule, during all church services and activities at Lydia’s, mask-wearing is encouraged and celebrated. At certain times, masks are to be worn as part of participation.

B. Masks are optional for anyone who has tested negative on a same-day COVID-19 rapid antigen test.

C. On days with pleasant weather, the meal will be set-up outdoors in the fresh air. On these days, when dinner and communion are taken outside in the fresh air, mask-wearing inside is not required.

D. On days with unpleasant weather (such as rain, snow, an AQI or 100 or higher, or temperatures below 45 or above 85 degrees F), the meal will be set-up indoors and everyone will either be rapid-tested on arrival or may confirm if they have already tested negative earlier that day.

E. In a service where the meal is set up inside, if a congregant does not wish to take a rapid-test, they must remain masked for the duration of the service.

F. On service days when rapid testing is required, all congregants must wait until their results are available and visibly negative before removing their masks.

G. No matter the pattern, congregants are asked to please stay home if you are feeling sick!

H. If available case data suggests very high community spread (500 cases per 100,000 people per week or higher) service will take place on Zoom.

I. Staff will endeavor to announce the anticipated pattern for the week in the weekly update and by social media in advance of service, but sometimes a call may be made closer to the last minute.

FAQ

> Why do these guidelines exist?

For a while now, members of the Leadership Table and St Lydia’s pastor and community coordinator have felt that it’s important to have a structured way of making decisions about how to safely gather in the midst of the ongoing pandemic. Our hope is that a firm protocol will give congregants clarity around why we’re doing what we’re doing, and will ensure that the pastor and community coordinator don’t have to make individual risk calculations and decisions for each service.

> How were these guidelines devised?

We relied on information and analysis from leading epidemiologists especially Gregg Gonsalves (Yale School of Public Health), Peter Jay Hotez (Baylor College of Medicine), Katelyn Jetelina (University of Texas), and Eric Topol (Scripps Research), and on commentary from Ed Yong of the Atlantic, who has been a consistently humane and grounded voice on Covid-19 and public health.

All these observers have been sharply critical of the CDC’s shifting approach to Covid risk calculation, which has turned away from the concept of public health—in which a group of people collectively attempts to mitigate risk for all—instead encouraging individuals to make the choices that they deem reasonable for themselves.

Our initial decision to return to indoor worship if cases fall to 50 per 100,000 per week or lower was based on an article by Jeremy Faust, MD (“When will one way masking be safe enough for everyone?”) theorizing that this is the threshold below which one-way masking should be considered safe for everyone, even the immunocompromised. The rest of the protocol was built from there.

> What about CovidActNow? Are we moving away from using it as a guide?

CovidActNow was a valuable source of data, and it was the place we looked at each week to determine current case numbers. As of spring 2023, Current case numbers are no longer available on this dashboard.

> How will we administer a testing requirement?

Congregants will be encouraged to take an at-home rapid test the day they want to attend church. They should show a photo of their negative test, with the appropriate date, to the greeter or coordinator when entering the space. Visitors who aren’t aware of the policy have the option to take a test on arrival.

> I don’t see a threshold for completely unmasked indoor services with no testing. Why not? Are we ever going back?

The Covid outlook continues to be sober: an absence of federal, state, and local mitigation means that variants are expected to continue to unfold. It’s hard to imagine a short-term future in which numbers are low enough to safely gather indoors without some protection from masks. This is unfortunate, but has become a “new normal” for many folks. Rest assured that we are continuing to assess the situation every few months.

> When might these protocols be revised? And how?

These protocols have been updated now numerous times, and will continue to be revised by the Leadership Table and staff, as we follow the unfolding advice of epidemiologists we trust. When there’s a strong argument for revising how to assess risk as a community, based on a big shift in what we understand about Covid-19 or the variants circulating at a given time, the Leadership Table will discuss it, draft a proposed change, and invite the congregation to give feedback. Resources available to the community may also determine changes in protocol (especially now that rapid tests are no longer available for free throughout city libraries).