Dear LAC Family,

I hope you are doing well and staying healthy in these early days of back-to-school. We continue to be vigilant about the incursion of COVID-19 in our community. With great care we managed a socially distanced meet and greet for Ekama Eni last Sunday. The small number of participants helped make the event participants feel safer despite the risk of gathering indoors. Our safety monitor volunteers were able to limit the number of people in Russell Hall to 20 people at all times.

Livestream of Worship. This Sunday we will try worshipping in the Sanctuary in-person under our Session-approved safety guidelines, and will permit only up to 50 people to be present in the Sanctuary. We will also livestream the service with a new broadcast platform found on our website: www.lacny.org. You can watch worship from home here [LINK].

In-Person Worship. In order to attend worship on Sunday, you must reserve a place here [LINK] by 12:00 p.m. on Friday, be in good health, and free from quarantine restrictions. Please wear your mask at all times inside the church and while in line outside. We encourage everyone to come by 9:40 a.m. in order to be greeted by our safety monitors who will conduct a wellness survey, temperature check, and contact tracing register. We ask that you not use the LAC bathrooms, unless for emergencies, so please plan ahead. After worship, ushers will direct people to exit by rows, closest to the Larchmont Avenue doors exiting first. I will host a virtual zoom coffee hour at 11 a.m. for everyone who attended, virtually or in-person.

At the end of the month, Session will assess the worship experience and interest level of the congregation of in-person worship to determine if we continue in-person or go back to on-line worship for October.

Yours in Christ,

Ellen

Dear LAC Family:

Welcome back! I hope you all have had relaxing summer breaks, peaceful time for reflection, and good health over these last three months.

This Sunday, September 13th, we will test out a limited gathering in Russell Hall of people who sign-up to participate in our in-person fellowship walk following an online worship service. Participants should all be in good health, follow safety protocols, and be prepared for a wellness survey, contact tracing, temperature check, social distancing, and mask-wearing at all times.

Once inside, we proceed along a straight diagonal line – entering Russell hall and exiting at Wendt Avenue. There will not be time to linger for long. The doors and windows will be open and we encourage people to keep moving. No seating or refreshment will be provided.

Small groups of individuals who have reserved a time slot at the event will have a few minutes at each of three tables. These tables are places to 1) meet our new Interim Director of Youth and Family Ministries, Ekama Eni, 2) sign up for hand bell choir with Douglas Kostner, and 3) learn about and join a petition to provide counsel for indigent tenants facing eviction through a High School study initiative led by Caitlyn Carpenter and some of her classmates.

To attend, you must reserve a space, and a time slot, through our online sign-up system. Only three households will be permitted inside the building within any of our 15-minute time slots. Registration will close this Friday, September 11th, at 3:00 p.m., and then confirm your time slot via email. Spaces are limited, so please reserve a spot now at the following link: [LINK].

We will Livestream the event on Facebook for those who cannot attend. Many thanks to Leigh Anne Smith for organizing this event, to Ernest Wong and Angie Liessl for providing the safety monitor guidelines and crew for their implementation, and to all of our staff who have worked hard to make our space clean and safe for this trial run.

Wishing you God’s Peace as the new program year unfolds!

In God’s Love,

Ellen

Be safe, and stay well.

In God’s Love,

Ellen