Indoor In person worship Suspended
At this time Michigan is seeing some of the highest daily COVID-19 positive rates in the entire pandemic. Rates of daily new cases are high throughout the state as well as in Oakland County.
As Christians we are called to love God and love our neighbor. Part of this calling helps us think about how we respond as individuals and as a congregation to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In response to these realities and following guidance from our local health department, infectious disease control doctors and Bishop Don Kreiss I regretfully announce we will be once again suspending in person worship at Lutheran Church of the Master beginning this Sunday November 8.
One of the great challenges with COVID-19 is the possibility of spreading through asymptomatic people. Given the high prevalence of COVID-19 in our general community once you have a group as small as 50 people it is highly likely someone present is positive for COVID-19.
We love one another and we love our neighbors by taking steps to prevent the spread of the disease. Suspending in person worship is one step we can take in that direction.
We will continue carefully monitoring information from the health department and credible websites such as Global Pandemics from Harvard University and this COVID Risk Assessment Site which offers a helpful risk assessment tool produced by Georgia Tech University.
We will continue offering virtual worship through YouTube and as before we will send out a helpful link each week. Since we are now using a different YouTube account it would be wonderful if you would subscribe to this new account as well.
We are all in this together. This will take longer than any of us want. Still we trust God is placing opportunities before us for us to respond faithfully.
Be of good courage trusting in God’s grace to sustain us all in these challenging times.
Peace,
Pr. Paul Walters
