Dear Congregation,
Greetings in the name of Lord Jesus Christ.
With the ongoing response to COVID-19, our city and region has seen many changes in protocols and directives regarding re-openings. In August, the state of California released its color tier system, with each county making its own decisions as to its pace and timing of reopening. As of September 30, San Francisco entered into the orange tier, and as of October 21, it entered into the less restrictive yellow tier, but just paused into allowing the 50% capacity of indoor worship. It still open for 25% capacity at the present moment.
As promised, our Elders and Directors followed the developments and have been meeting to examine where CTBC stands in the allowances and directives. Further, our staff has also attended calls with the San Francisco Department of Public Health to understand its response to COVID-19 and its interpretation of the data. We have also surveyed the congregation to gain feedback.
In light of these developments our leaders have decided to open four dates for in-person worship services. The dates are: November 8th, November 22nd, December 13th, and December 27th.
We will be holding a town hall meeting over Zoom on Friday, November 6th at 7:30 pm to discuss our protocols and to answer any questions. For zoom link, email us at info@cornerstonetrinity.org.
Since we all manage the risks differently, we will be continuing the livestream of all of our worship services. In person worship attendance will not affect membership requirements, and our intent is not for the full restoration of a full schedule. We want to relieve a need for those desiring in-person worship, especially those feeling the effects of isolation and are not in high risk categories for COVID-19 (those with high risk medical conditions, age 50 or over with chronic medical conditions, those with respiratory conditions, etc.).
We will create a Google Form to gauge the number of attendees in advance. We have chosen to limit the capacity between 58- 75 people for proper social distancing. Numbers will fluctuate due to how many households will attend the worship service on a given day.
We have adjusted our protocols and practices to comply with San Francisco’s directives for indoor worship services. These include social distancing, requiring masks for all, maximizing ventilation, prohibiting in person singing, administering a health screening, and proper entrance and exiting procedures.
As for other ministry meetings and fellowships, we will still prohibit in person meetings, except for the optional outdoor gatherings for fellowship groups that follow county guidelines for outdoor gatherings.
Thank you for all of your prayers and support, and if you have any questions, please contact us at info@cornerstonetrinity.org.
Rev. Kevin Wong
Senior Pastor