Crete United Methodist Church

 

WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW BEFORE COMING TO CHURCH?

To protect yourself and others, please do not attend church services if you have a fever or other symptoms.

 

WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW WHEN I GET THERE?

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You will park in the Exchange Street parking lot and enter those doors. No other doors will be accessible. All other areas of the church will be closed.

Please arrive no earlier than 15 minutes prior to service. The new service format will be approximately 30 minutes in length.

 

Greeters will meet you prior to entering the doors to greet you warmly.

*  A Greeter will record your attendance prior to entering the church. This will also serve for contact tracing, if necessary.

 

*  Wearing a mask is required. Greeters will provide a mask for you if you do not have one. Please make sure your mouth and nose stay covered.

 

6 Foot social distancing is required. The narthex floor will be marked in order for you (and your party) to maintain the appropriate distance while waiting to be seated by an usher. Please stand on the mark.

 

Please use the hand sanitizer provided, prior to entering the sanctuary.

 

A person will be available to take your joys or concerns PRIOR to service in order to have your joys/concerns shared and offered in prayer during worship.

 

If you wish, bring your own Bible. The pews will not have hymnals, Bibles, pencils, or paper available. The worship service is paperless (bring your own paper and pencil if desired).

Screens are located at the front of the sanctuary with words for the service.

The ushers will seat you to ensure social distancing requirements. Families will sit together. Please comply with the ushers’ direction.

 

Restrooms will be single occupancy only (except for parents with small children).

No church school or nursery care will be provided.

 

HOW WILL WE EXIT THE SANCTUARY?

 

Please wait to leave your pew until you are directed to do so. Social Distancing must continue to be observed.

 

There will be a designated basket/plate to receive an offering on your exit from sanctuary.

There will be no Coffee Fellowship after services.

 

LAST BITS

The church will be cleaned and sanitized after each service.

 

If you are diagnosed as positive for Covid-19, please notify the church ASAP.

 

Our worship services will be videotaped and available on our church website and Facebook page for those who will not be attending.

 

Our first priority remains keeping one another safe. We care deeply for you, and remain committed to doing all we can for each other’s safety and health.

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Sundays at 10:00 a.m.

or

Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m.

The following poem was given to me by a member of the church. It is entitled “Pandemic” and written by Lynn Unger. I offer it to you for your devotion and reflection this morning:

Pandemic
What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.

Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.

And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and
beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.

Promise this world your love—
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.

For Reflection:
1.  Reflect on your ongoing struggle with acceptance of where we are today. How are you working on giving up “trying to make the world different than it is.”  Why is acceptance so hard? How is  God helping you in this?

2.  Reflect on the ways you have “centered down” these last months. Has this given you a new perspective?

3.  How have you gained a new awareness of how “we are connected in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.”

4.  How are you being changed by this pandemic? Are you more compassionate than before?

5.  Lynn Unger ends her poem with a charge to love this world with vows as solemn as our wedding vows. John 3:16 begins: “For God so loved the world…” How might you commit your love to this world? In practical ways, what would this love in action look like?

Prayer: Loving and Faithful God, I thank you for your presence and strength in my life. Help me to love this world you love so much, in spite of us. Open my heart to be more compassionate and less critical. Help me to love my neighbor as myself for we are all your children, whom you love with a never-ending love. I pray this in Jesus name, Amen.

Announcements
We regret to inform you that Sandra Moutrey, long time member of Crete United Methodist Church, died on September 20th. A visitation will be held on Friday, September 25 from 11AM until the time of service at 1PM at the Crete Funeral Home.

Annual Church Conference will be held on Monday, December 14th at 7pm (with a brief SPRC meeting with the District Superintendent at 6:45). This is a good ways off, but this gives us good time to prepare.

The Cabinet has decided that all church conferences this year will be held online using Zoom video conferencing. This is due to the pandemic and its unknown influence in the future and does not set a precedent for future church conferences; this decision is based on the current extreme circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic.

What this means is that you can attend our CUMC annual conference either at home, on your computer. (We are happy to explain to you what it will be like and help you with set up and instructions so that you are familiar and comfortable to be a part of the conference from your home –

OR

You can attend the conference in the church sanctuary, masked and socially distanced. You will be able to hear those attending remotely via internet and see them on the screens.

Please contact Pastor Kristen at (224) 628-9128 with any questions or if you desire help in order to attend the conference remotely.

 

Click HERE to download (PDF)

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