It has, blessedly, been some time since I have had to use this note to talk about COVID policy, but we are reaching some decision points that require an update.
Philosophy
To start, let me state that my philosophy for COVID management at the parish at this point is that the parish should match the risk level of the overall community. What do I mean by that?
First, there are two types of risk: risk of infection and risk of serious illness or death. When this pandemic first began, risk of infection was really important to consider because we were aiming for zero spread. However, now that the virus has become endemic, risk of infection only really matters if it leads to serious illness or death.
So, who is at risk of serious illness or death? Currently in King County (easily accessible numbers), 64 people have died of COVID-19 in the last 7 days, which is 0.73 people per 100k residents. However, when broken out demographically, the 80+ age group is far more at risk, accounting for 31 of those deaths (13.2 per 100K in that demographic range), with the 65-79 age group following behind at 19 deaths (2.2 / 100k).[1]
Second, regardless of demographic category, every person has their own level of acceptable risk. Some people, from the very beginning, were willing to risk illness or death to see family, engage in hobbies, etc., while some people today are still unwilling to leave their homes except for urgent necessities. This personal acceptance of risk is tied up in each individual value system and personal health context.
The implication for the parish is that we can understand the overall risk, but we cannot cater to every single personal risk calculation. To that end, I decided that our goal at the parish would be to match the level of risk taken by the overall community. That is to say, I do not want us to be more cautious or less cautious than the majority of our parishioners. I do not want the parish to be more restrictive or more unsafe than the average Bellingham business.
Concrete Decisions
So, where do I think our people are at?
- We are keeping the distance / masked pews. Enough of our parishioners value them that they are important to maintain. For some people, their risk-management includes wearing a mask and keeping distanced, and we are still able to accommodate that with our Mass attendance numbers.
- We are closing the windows during Winter. It is absolutely true that the risk of infection is less with the windows open. But my sense of people is that their concern about infection, on average, is not enough to justify a very cold church in the winter months.
- We are going to keep singing. Respiratory activities are the highest risk activities for infection, so singing does increase our risk of infection. But my impression is that the great majority of our parishioners would rather accept that risk than go back to cantor-only liturgies.
- We are going to bring back the chalice (when we get our EMHC schedules straight). As part of my Archdiocesan work, I was on a call with a King County health official where we consulted him about the risk of receiving from the chalice. He said that the highest risk activities were respiratory – singing and remaining maskless indoors – so if we were already committed to that, the chalice would not significantly increase the risk of infection.
Anyway, I am doing my best to balance different interests here, and I figured I would keep you informed on that decision-making process.
[1] https://kingcounty.gov/depts/health/covid-19/data/current-metrics.aspx
Fr. Moore 