by Ariel BenYishay
The first two months of our new board year have been busy, with a number of key issues at hand. In addition to approving and supporting our new Journey to Asylum program, we have tackled a variety of safety and budget issues and renewed our focus on our congregation’s anti-racist strategies.
At our last board meeting, we approved a plan to allow small groups of no more than 10 people to gather outdoors at WUU with appropriate safety measures in place. Look for more details to come shortly.
One additional major issue on our plate is the potential resumption of in-person indoor services by our renters, the Church of God. We are now seeking your feedback regarding this difficult issue, as outlined below.
Church of God resumption of in-person indoor services
As many of you know, the Church of God is a local congregation that has been renting space from us for their Saturday worship services for many years. After suspending in-person services due to COVID, they would like to restart in-person worship services. The WUU Board has wrestled with the decision to allow the Church of God to resume in-person services, and is now seeking input from our congregation. Our covenantal theology as UUs and our lived experience leads us to believe that we make our best decisions in community, in the context of ongoing, trusting relationships. If you would like to provide your insights or views, please plan to attend a Café Conversation after this Sunday’s worship service (July 5, at approx. 11:00). You can also provide written feedback via an online feedback form at https://tinyurl.com/wuufeedback. As background, below are details on the process thus far and on the latest proposed arrangements.
Background information
The WUU Safety Committee met in May and recommended allowing the Church of God to resume in-person services with adequate cleaning and no more than 50% of capacity, per the Commonwealth of Virginia’s requirements for Phase 1, where we were at that time. Following an initial discussion with the Church of God Pastor, the WUU Board at its May meeting voted to allow the Church of God to resume services with a specific set of additional safety protocols in place, including (a) a limit on the number of congregants based on adequate distancing (b) limiting use to only the Sanctuary, gathering hall, and restrooms, (c) additional cleanings before and after the service, (d) wearing face masks at all times, and (e) no singing. Ongoing discussions with the Church of God indicate that they are willing to comply with all Virginia requirements and most of our additional protocols, but would like to resume singing and to remove their face masks during the worship itself. They have worshipped at another nearby hall over the past several Saturdays (with distancing but with congregational singing and face masks removed). They plan to continue to do so through August, at which point they hope to resume using our WUU space (although the safety protocols under which they will do so have yet to be determined).
At our June 23 meeting, the WUU Board voted to allow the Church of God to return as long as they complied with all VA requirements. Among the factors that guided the decision were respect for the Church’s religious freedom, our desire to preserve a long relationship with a stable tenant, and the recommendations of the WUU Safety Committee in consultation with the Medical Response team. But lingering discomfort over allowing congregational singing and refraining from wearing masks, which scientific evidence indicates pose serious threat of contagion and thus spread to the broader community even though Virginia’s Covid-19 requirements do not forbid them, led to the Board’s reconsidering the decision and seeking congregational input. We plan to collect input from the congregation over the coming weeks via the Café Conversation (July 5 after the worship service, ~11:00am) and the online feedback form here. The Board will then revisit the issue at the end of July.
Several other pieces of context: The Church of God typically has 50-70 congregants in attendance in Williamsburg. They are a multisite community that typically broadcasts their services from our sanctuary to other locations, as well as for congregants who cannot attend in person. You can read more about the congregation here.
Our rental arrangement with the Church of God has them paying per use (rather than a fixed monthly sum). The rental income WUU receives is approximately $400 per use. While this represents substantial income, we are also fortunate to be projecting a surplus (net income) for both the present and coming fiscal years that would allow to offset this potential loss. However, we would forego putting this income into our capital reserves, which have been underfunded and are a long-term goal for us.