Month: June 2020

With the announcement of the "greening of NW PA," our session gathered to finalize our immediate plans: 1) Due to the numbers of vulnerable "at-risk" groups in our congregation (those 60+, those in midst of treatments for serious disease--like cancer, diabetes, COPD, A-fib, congestive heart disease, etc.), and the fact that our COVID numbers still haven't plateaued and decreased, session voted to remain in a sheltered frame of mind with our worship and fellowship opportunities until Sept. 13 (Rally Day). The feeling is, as well, that our attendance numbers are down in the summer, and therefore, it wouldn't be as big a sacrifice as the regular part of the year! We're hoping to add to a societal security effort vs. this pandemic rather than add to its spread! Elmwood Church session has also decided to do the same. 2) We are going to experiment with outdoor services on July 19, and August 23, socially distancing themselves and wearing masks. No singing, hugging,...

Our summer season of worship as approved by your session begins this Sunday (June 14)...and will begin at 10am (and will run through Labor Day Weekend)! If you would rather, please know that Elmwood's summer worship time will be 8:45am. Virtual worship will continue until we get word from Governor Wolfe about our county (or NW PA) going "green". Your session has been putting together a plan for re-opening so as to do it as safely and as cautiously as possible. So once we hear of the status being changed, we will contact you asap with our specific plan so you know how to prepare for in-person worship. And for those who are most vulnerable, we will continue to offer live-streaming worship indefinitely--which can be accessed from the Belle Valley Presbyterian Facebook Page (and Elmwood's for the earlier time) or from Dave Edmunds' Facebook Page  at anytime that day or 2 after we go live.  For those who do not have Facebook...