COVID-19 in-Person Church Procedures
On March 9, 2021, St. Luke’s Vestry carefully considered and supported a motion to offer you your personal choice on your worship venue: in-person worship in the church or virtual services, beginning Easter Sunday, April 4th.
We will give you more information as details are worked out and implemented in the days to come. For now, here are some important items to be aware of.
We will continue to broadcast our services on live stream for those who choose to worship virtually.
We will prepare the church building for in-person services, in accordance with the most current, science-based guidelines and information from the CDC, The Diocese of Southern Ohio, experts at The Ohio State University, and more.
We will support your decision-making processes with detailed, up-to-date information with regards to COVID-19 in our region that will be shared on the website, via email and snail mail.
We will limit the number of persons in the church to 30, in compliance with current social distancing protocols.
Reservation requirements to attend in-person will be posted on the website. Parishioners also may call the church at 740-587-0167 or email office@stlukesgranville.org to reserve a place.
Mask-wearing and all appropriate measures to prevent community spread of COVID-19 will be in place.
If there is sufficient demand, we will add services as needed to accommodate our reservations.
We are dedicated to offering you a choice about your worship preferences. We also are deeply concerned with the health and well-being of our parishioners. And although we are heartened by a dramatic decrease in the number of COVID cases in Licking County along with the number of people being vaccinated, we recognize that the pandemic is not over and that there are still high rates of transmission. For this reason, we have convened a COVID Task Force to be responsible for compiling information for your use in deciding whether you, your family, and others will participate in St. Luke’s in-person worship. That information will be prominently shared on our website and communicated weekly.
Our worship will take many forms this Easter: We will offer you the choice to celebrate the risen Lord together at our Feast of the Resurrection, as well as the choice of live streamed worship on our usual YouTube channel. For those at Kendal, our service will be broadcast on the Kendal channel on Easter Sunday.
COVID-19 Vaccine Resources/Information
YOU ASKED…WE LISTENED!
The Health & Wellness Ministry is providing you with the below resources.
INFO LAST UPDATED: March 4, 2021
During the ever-changing roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccine in Ohio, we are sharing this information with our St. Luke’s folks in an effort to give you as many timely resources as possible. Please remember that information changes frequently, but the following websites and phone numbers are a good place to start to schedule your Covid-19 vaccination appointment.
The website coronavirus.ohio.org is an excellent place to start for everything Covid-19 related. Specifically, there are sites administering the vaccine listed by county and zip code and when you are eligible to receive it by age and/or medical status. Additionally, if you are not an internet-savvy person, the phone number for the Ohio Coronavirus call center is 1-833-427-5634. This number is staffed 9am-8pm daily, 7 days a week.
To locate a vaccine site, https://www.vaccine.coronavirus.ohio.gov, then insert your county and ZIP code to find your choices for vaccine distribution.
Every Tuesday and Thursday, Governor Mike DeWine holds a press conference at 2 pm that can be viewed on Spectrum channel 1 to give Covid-19 updates.
Franklin county site to schedule an appointment to receive a vaccine: https://covid-19.myfcph.org/vaccine or call (614)525-5225.
Licking county site for Covid-19 information, registration form to complete prior to arriving at vaccine site is lickingcohealth.org or call (740)670-0949. This number is the vaccine hotline for Licking county and is open 9am-3pm Monday through Friday. Additionally, the Licking county health department, in conjunction with the Newark Advocate, provided a virtual Town Hall on January 13 that can still be found on YouTube under the heading “Midland Community Theatre”.
Additionally, if you live in a smaller county that may not have as comprehensive a site for Covid-19, you may want to contact a pharmacy or grocery that has a pharmacy to inquire about their distribution of vaccine.
Effective March 4, 2021, Phase 1C Vaccine Distribution begins in Ohio. This group of approximately 246,000 eligible Ohioans includes certain occupations, such as first responders and day care providers, and certain medical conditions not addressed in previous phases. For a complete listing of eligible individuals, please refer to the Ohio Department of Health’s website at coronavirus.ohio.gov.
Additionally, in the last few weeks, the amount of vaccine distribution has ramped up. For example, the Licking county vaccine appointment portal, at lickingcohealth.org, has opened twice in the past several days to schedule appointments as the health department receives additional vaccine. Our advice is to check this site daily if you are searching for an appointment, and to sign up for email notices, as the appointments fill quickly. This online portal is a great improvement over what some of us were doing previously by calling many multiple times daily attempting to reach a health department person to schedule an appointment.
Two more websites that continue to provide science-based information regarding Covid-19 are cdc.gov, which has recently been updated and vastly improved, and coronavirus.jhu.edu, which provides daily updated data on a state-by-state basis, as well as national and international information. For example, on this Johns Hopkins website, you can find the latest percentage of each state’s population that has been fully vaccinated-Ohio stands at 8.37% as of March 4, 2021.
Finally, please follow the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s continued recommendations to wear a mask, maintain 6’ between each other, and continue to wash your hands.
COVID-19 Church Reopening Procedures