Our response is guided by our love for our neighbors, not by fear.
We will continue to follow the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control, the Tennessee Department of Health and Metro Health Department, particularly with respect to limiting or ending public gatherings.
This is what we are currently doing and ask all who gather at Vine Street to do:
Stay at home when you are sick. Our services are livestreamed on Facebook, and we encourage you to let us know about your pastoral and other care needs.
Wash your hands with soap before you leave home. Washing hands with soap for 20 seconds, occasionally using a brush to clean under your nails, is incredibly effective against viruses such as the common cold, the flu, and COVID-19.
Wash your hands with soap after you arrive at church. We also have alcohol-based hand sanitizer and boxes of tissues available in various places around the church.
Greet others with a friendly wave or an elbow bump. Please avoid hugs and hand shakes, hard as it may be.
Our staff and cleaning crew regularly wipe with antiviral disinfectants all door knobs and handles, sinks, and other frequently touched surfaces, including hymnals, offering trays, and toys at church.
We have made changes to how we share communion. Instead of the one loaf, we will use precut pieces of bread, so each of us will only touch the piece we consume. We continue to have grape juice available in the shared chalice for intinction, but there’s nothing wrong with only consuming the bread. Some of us will observe this “juice fast” out of concern for their own health, others in solidarity with the many who are in social isolation, be it at home or in other forms of quarantine.
At the end of the service, we typically hold hands. Until further notice, we will stand and face each other, but not hold hands for the benediction. We invite all worshipers to cup their hands in a bowl shape, a posture of grateful receptiveness.
Wash your hands with soap before you eat lunch.
If you wish to wipe the steering wheel of your vehicle and other surfaces you frequently touch, e.g. your phone, a simple bleach solution of 4 teaspoons bleach per quart of water (1/3 cup bleach per gallon) is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control.
We will continue the practices outlined above until further notice, praying for those infected and their care givers, and seeking other ways to stay in touch when stricter social distancing measures become necessary.