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COVID-19 Protocols

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Northbrook United Methodist Church continues to ground our work in our Methodist values of doing no harm, doing all the good we can, and staying in love with God. As followers of Jesus, we should act in ways that promote public health, foster the common good, and care for the well-being of others. We do this in the spirit of following Jesus, who called us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Mark 12:31) and commanded us to care for all in need (Matthew 25:40). 

Guidelines for Worship

Friends, It’s been 2+ years since “two weeks to flatten the curve.” That’s a long time, and we’ve done a lot of work to love our neighbors in those two years.

 

As of now, the national and state trend is to consider hospitalizations rather than case rates, and expect spikes to mimic omicron with high infection rates and relatively low percentages of deaths.

 

We track our hyperlocal information with the Illinois Covid dashboard, found at https://ccdphcd.shinyapps.io/covid19/. 

 

As of 3/16/22, Suburban Cook County has 2/100,000 hospitalizations due to covid over the last 7 days, and 2.5% of hospital beds occupied by Covid patients, which puts us squarely in the green category. That’s good news. 

 

Based on these things, and the feedback received at listening sessions, our Covid policies starting 3/16/22 are:

 

  • NUMC will strive to be a model of how to have different perspectives and preferences live together well

  • So long as we remain in the Green Zone, masks are welcome, and not required

    • The exception to this is singing

      • People on the main floor will put on masks for singing 

      • The choir will sing unmasked, from the loft, because of airflow. If choir members are more comfortable masked or having everyone masked, the group will adjust accordingly

  • Vaccines are no longer required for worship in the sanctuary

  • Communion can be picked up before worship begins, or received from a server at the front of the church, depending on personal comfort. We will continue with pre-packaged grains and fruit juice. 

  • Fellowship after worship will resume! 

 

We will follow the Covid dashboard closely. 

  • When we are in the Green Zone: masks are welcome but not required, and are required for singing on the main floor.

  • When we are in the Yellow Zone: the choir will go back to wearing masks even in the choir loft.

  • When we are in the Orange Zone: everyone is required to wear a mask.

  • When we are in the Red Zone: we will be online only.

 

We look forward to seeing you soon!

 

Pastor Krista and the Return Team

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