Our Church Response to COVID-19

Dear Members of First Presbyterian Church,

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

With the continued spread of the coronavirus (or COVID-19), we wanted you to know the health of our community is of utmost concern to our leadership.

The Centers for Disease Control now encourage older adults, people with severe chronic medical conditions, and those feeling unwell to “stay at home as much as possible.” If you have not seen them, the CDC guidelines are HERE.

We are closely following their recommendations and will lean on them – and the local schools – to decide if we need to discontinue group events. Currently, we plan to conduct our ministry as usual while taking some prudent precautions. A few of those are listed below.

• During the Passing of the Peace, instead of shaking hands or embracing, we encourage you to greet one another using alternate means such as placing your hand over your heart.
• We will not have Communion the First Sunday in April and then we will assess on a month-to-month basis. Any pastor would be pleased to offer you communion on an individual basis.
• Instead of passing the offering plate, Ushers or Deacons will be placed outside the worship spaces to collect the offering at the conclusion of worship.
• We invite anyone who needs to miss worship to tune into our Livestream: www.fpcspartanburg.org/live.
• If you need to miss worship you can give online by clicking this link: www.fpcspartanburg.org/give.

The Deacons, the Wednesdays at First Committee, and the Health Committee – along with other groups – are continually assessing their programs to ensure we follow good practices for your health and safety.

We thank you for your patience as we adopt these temporary adjustments to our life together.

We invite everyone to be in prayer for those most deeply affected by this virus and ask God’s blessing and wisdom upon those responding to this emerging situation.

Please let us know how we might support you at this time.

Blessings,

Tom

Dr. Thomas E. Evans
Senior Pastor
First Presbyterian Church
864/583-4531
www.fpcspartanburg.org