Bishops and Branch Presidents,
Thank you to those who have already submitted answers to the attached Resuming Sacrament Meeting Worksheet that was sent to you last week.
In preparation for the Video Conference with our Area 70 this evening, I have received a copy of the Area Presidency’s Supplement to the First Presidency’s Guidelines to Returning to Church. I will be sharing details with you tomorrow (Thursday) in our conference call at 8:30 pm after I receive more details my conference call with Elder Blunck tonight.
As anticipated, final decision as to when we resume meeting will rest with the stake presidency, in counsel with you. So your responses to that worksheet (attached) are extremely helpful and timely. Please submit your answers by tomorrow, as requested.
A few highlights from the Area Presidency’s document:
• We will not be able to resume meetings until allowable gathering limits reach 99 (you can ignore question 1.1 on the worksheet, it’s now answered);
• Only sacrament meeting is to be held; youth meetings and activities are to continue virtually;
• How to handle multiple wards in the same building will be left to us to decide;
• We are asked to draft and present a “Meeting Plan” for approval before we resume meeting.
So again your feedback is needed for the stake presidency to begin drafting a proposal for your approval and then the approval of our Area 70. There is no rush, we’re still a ways off yet, but at least we can begin planning so we’re ready when Clackamas County moves into the next phase of reopening. We want to give ourselves plenty of time to discuss and draft our return-to-meeting proposal, so everyone has ample time to review and prepare.
My guess is that we could resume sacrament meetings in some form, if we (stake and ward leaders) choose to, as soon as mid- or late-July. But I confess I’m probably naive and overly optimistic.
We look forward to counseling together as we move closer to sacrament meetings being held again in our stake.
President Lewis
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