Chester United Methodist Church issued the following announcement on Nov. 14.
Chester FUMC,
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I do not normally start my correspondence in this way but I seriously pray God is right in the middle of this plan and I believe He is. My desire is to worship the triune God each week on Sunday and to create and take opportunities to worship otherwise.
Last night your administrative board met to discuss church business plus how to best present worship as a result of an email from our District Superintendent suggesting only virtual worship the Sunday after Thanksgiving, November 29th.
I checked my emails before we met and found one from our Bishop. In his one page email he stated, “For the good of our 800 congregations and communities where they reside, I am instructing our churches not to meet for indoor worship for the next four weeks (Nov. 22, 29, Dec. 6 and 13). On Dec. 9, a determination will be made for Christmas Eve and Christmas services in the weeks to follow.”
After a very productive discussion, we concluded that we will provide a virtual worship service on Facebook live like we have been using a small team who will socially distance through January 10, 2021 with January 17 being our first planned in person service. We felt the holidays including the New Year would likely cause meetings such that we would want to avoid services until we know if there is a rise in viral infections. .
We will not meet for indoor worship until January 17th, so please join us on Facebook. We have been and will continue to make CDs of the service for those who do not have access to Facebook per request. We will work out the distribution process with each individual who requests an audio CD of the service. Please contact me or the church office if you would like a CD of the service.
If you have not been following us on Facebook but have access to the internet, we are at Facebook.com/ChesterFUMC. We will continue to publish at 10:00 on Sunday mornings but there will be no in person worship. Meetings of less than 10 people for church business or committees will be authorized on a case by case basis.
Please contact me, Mary Wunderlich (admin counsel chair) or Vicky Beers (worship committee chair) if you have any questions
Please remember the financial needs of the church do not go away when we do not meet in person. You have been very supportive in meeting the church’s financial needs and we thank you for that. We will now need all tithes and offerings to go directly to the church office at 871 State Street, Chester, Illinois 62233.
May God bless this effort to keep us all safe during this pandemic without giving up our weekly opportunity to worship. Praise God.
Pastor Jim
Original source can be found here
Source: Chester United Methodist Church
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