Pastor’s Pen, Nov 14

When and how shall we gather in person as church?  :  Once 90% of Aucklanders are fully vaccinated, Auckland will move to the “Traffic Light System,” and will first be in the “red zone.” This could be as soon as 2 to 3 weeks away. Here are our options for church gatherings at this point:

• If we require everyone to have vaccination certificates we will be able to meet in our building (max of 100) with 1 metre distancing, facemasks, and using QR codes and records of attendance.
• If we choose not to enforce vaccination certificates, and let the vaccinated mix with the unvaccinated, only 10 people can meet indoors. We could probably meet once we got to “orange”, but we would have to ensure that no more than 50 people gathered, with mandatory face masks and 1 metre distancing. Only at “green” could you have 100 people indoors, sitting, masked, and with 1 metre distance.

The pros of requiring vaccination certificates

• The majority of our people would be able to meet for gathered worship in our building, probably before Christmas.
• The risk of getting seriously ill from COVID 19 or making someone else seriously ill is markedly reduced.
• We must obey the Laws of the Land (Ro 13:1-6)
• Those who cannot get vaccinated for medical reasons can apply for an exemption.

The pros of not requiring vaccination certificates

• Nobody would be excluded from our gathered worship. Jesus touched people with contagious diseases such as lepers. He didn’t exclude anyone.
• The State should not be ruling on matters of moral decision

My feeling as your pastor is that we should talk about this often as a congregation and not make any decision to change out of meeting via ZOOM until the situation is clearer for all. Christian   anti-vaxers and pro-vaxers can both quote the Bible to defend their argument. Both points of view are valid. Whatever way we decide to go as a church, some people are going to be offended, claiming it’s not from God.