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Update on CUC Masking Policy
Aloha Church,
When we reopened for in-person worship service in October 2020, we did so with physical distancing and masking as our primary mitigation measures against the spread of COVID-19. In the nearly two and a half years since, we have been gratified by having not triggered a single spreader event at CUC. Many thanks to you, our congregation, for that.
As the severity of the public health threat from COVID gradually diminished, likely due to increasing population immunity from past infection and vaccines, we eased our mitigation measures until just masking remained. Understandably, mask fatigue and folks seeing more and more venues relaxing masking requirements generated increasing requests for making masks optional. Now that the winter months with their holiday gatherings and the additional seasonal respiratory threat of influenza and RSV have passed, we feel the time has come to make masking optional. We feel that April, with its Holy Week and Easter events, will be a good time to begin optional masking.
Therefore, with the concurrence of Council leadership, we will continue our current masking policy and practice for our Sunday services for the next two weeks, the final day being Sunday, March 26, 2023. Thereafter, CUC services and events will be mask-optional. It was agreed that any non-church service event occurring in late March would be mask-optional.
A final note of caution for us is that COVID is still present in the community and will likely be for some time, still resulting in hospitalization and even death for some. We urge you to take into account your own health status and susceptibility, as well as those close to you, as you make your health choices, such as opting for a vaccine or medication. Masking does remain a reasonable individual measure to minimize the spread of any respiratory illness.
Respectfully,
Dr. Nathan Wong, on behalf of the Reopening Liaison Team and the Church Council
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