Announcement about increase of sacrament meeting attendance of up to 100

30 November 2020

TO: Bishoprics and Branch Presidencies

Dear Brethren,

You may have noticed that Oregon's governor announced this week new guidelines that give us much more flexibility on the number who can attend in person religious services and gatherings.

As reported: "Faith institutions, funeral homes, mortuaries, and cemeteries will be limited to a maximum of 25% of capacity or 100 people indoors (whichever is smaller), or 150 people outdoors."

While we are still seeking the seating capacities of the chapels, overflows and cultural halls for all three buildings, as established by the fire department, we are confident the seating capacities of those three rooms combined in each building will easily allow more than 100 people to be socially distanced.

So the new attendance allowance for sacrament meetings in our stake, beginning Sunday, Dec. 6, will be up to 100 people—as long as everyone is properly distanced, wearing masks, etc.

A few notes:

• Beginning Dec. 6, you may no longer have to restrict who attends, assuming you have fewer than 100 members who want to attend services in person.
  
  
• You may want to ask members to notify you in advance, if they plan to attend, so you can adequately prepare for seating into the overflow and cultural hall, if needed, and plan for the increase in administering the sacrament.
  
  
• Continue to conduct Sunday services virtually as there will be many who will not want to attend in-person due to the most recent surge in Covid cases.
  
  
• Continue to administer the sacrament following sacrament meeting (not to be webcast) and authorize administration of the sacrament in homes.
  
  
• For youth second-hour classes and activity nights, you'll want to know the seating capacity of the rooms you plan to use to make sure the 25% allowance in each room can accommodate the number attending.

If you don't already know the seating capacity of a room (sometimes there is a fire department document or plaque on the wall that gives the number), Brother Eldredge, of the High Council, has been tasked with obtaining those numbers for each building and we'll get them to you as quickly as possible.

Coincidentally this week, you may have seen that the Supreme Court ruled against a state government applying Covid-19 restrictions on church attendance. While this is good news for churches and for freedom of religion, we still want to show "an abundance of caution," as the First Presidency has repeatedly stated, to make sure we do everything we can to keep our church meetings as safe as possible.

Thank you for continuing to read the attached statement reminding those attending sacrament meeting in person of the safety guidelines. Please draft and read a similar statement for all other in-person church meetings.

Gratefully,

Stake Presidency