Dear South Dakota Synod,
Grace and peace to you! – As the Center for Disease Control has released new recommendations, I have been asked about recommendations concerning worship and fellowship in ministry sites. As always, I recommend that you follow CDC guidelines for what activities you can and cannot do if you are fully vaccinated.
The guidelines now allow fully vaccinated individuals to resume life without wearing a mask, while unvaccinated and partially vaccinated individuals are advised to continue wearing masks. Again, please use the CDC chart as a reference.
What does this mean? It means that now, more than before, we rely on everyone’s collaboration and love for their neighbor. If your congregation that follows CDC guidelines decides to lift all restrictions, you rely on each individual to use personal discretion whether or not they adhere to CDC guidelines. For example, if an unvaccinated, or partially vaccinated individual, returns to worship and decides not to wear a mask, it is their personal choice, while a vaccinated individual may choose to wear a mask, even though CDC guidelines outline that it would be safe for them to not wear one. At this point in living with COVID-19, we are truly counting on everyone’s personal integrity and care for their neighbor.
With that being said, I would like to remind all of us that the youngest participants in our faith communities are yet not eligible to be vaccinated. We also know that they can contract COVID-19 and be carriers. Therefore, I recommend that as you plan summer children and youth ministry activities, you plan to hold those events outside if possible and still ask for mask-wearing, outstanding personal hygiene, and physical distancing.
In closing, I would like to encourage those among us who are yet not vaccinated to consider being vaccinated. Please know that I personally was a reluctant recipient and had my reservations. What was most helpful to me as I moved from my fear to the decision to be vaccinated, were ongoing informative and confidential conversations with those who know the science behind the vaccine which included my primary health care provider, researchers, and scientists.
Thank you for your diligence and partnership in this journey through an unprecedented wilderness. Please reach out to me if you have further questions or concerns.
Journeying together in Christ,
Bishop Constanze Hagmaier
