Home › View all posts by lac_wpadmin

Author: lac_wpadmin

9/2/2020: Safe Return to In-Person Worship

Posted on by
As we prepare for our return to in-person church worship, we will be following the safety guidelines adopted by Session last month. You can read them here [LINK].
The Safety Guidelines require making reservations to attend in-person church (livestreaming will always be offered), and practicing social distancing, mask wearing, and good hand hygiene. They also require safety monitors to assist with safe entry into the building. This safety monitor role requires five (5) congregant volunteers each Sunday to: maintain a socially distanced entry line to the church, conduct a temperature check, a wellness survey, and collect worshipper information for contact tracing, administer hand sanitizer to all who enter, and lead worshippers to designated spaces in the pews.
If you are willing to serve as a safety monitor/usher, please sign up here [LINK] and indicate which Sundays you can serve.
We do not recommend people over age 60, or anyone with health conditions that increase vulnerability to COVID-19, participate in-person as a safety monitor or worshipping congregant. We will livestream all worship services so you can participate online each Sunday at 10:00 a.m. at www.lacny.org.
Be safe, and stay well.
In God’s Love,
Ellen
Interim Pastor, Larchmont Avenue Church

LAC Wants to Stay Connected!

Posted on by
Dear LAC Family,
LAC is finding its way to becoming a new church for a new day . Your worship staff members are regularly improving the ways to connect with you throughout the week.
Many of you have asked how you can be supportive and help in all this:
  • While we can no longer receive individual donations of canned goods, clothing, or hygiene items direct from households, you can order these items and have them shipped directly to our mission partner, the HOPE food pantry: 50 Washington Avenue, New Rochelle, (914)636-4010. This month HOPE is seeking donations of rice and tuna.
  • Please continue to support our congregation financially. Your giving will allow LAC to continue to pay our most vulnerable hourly workers in childcare and nursery school for the time being. You can contribute to LAC online here.
Your pastors, LAC Staff, deacons, elders, and trustees, walk alongside you in these disrupted days. If you would like to talk with a pastor, please contact me at eclemot@lacny.org .
Let us join our hearts together as we pray for all health care providers in these difficult days, and for our LAC community – together in Christ, we will persevere.
Faithfully yours,

Ellen Clark Clemot

COVID-19 Response

Posted on by

Since March all Sunday worship, devotions,  sermons, sacred music and children’s worship resources, have been offered online. Here are some of the details that remain available through this time of concern about COVD-19.

  • On Wednesdays at 1pm Rev. Dr. Clemot offers a one hour Bible Study over FacebookLive.
  • On Sundays Worship continues to be broadcast on Facebook Live at 1oAM; however a small in-person worship service will be tested on September 20th. Participants must register in advance and comply with safety procedures.  Sermons are posted on Rev. Clemot’s website (www.ellenclarkclemot.com) and on the church’s YouTube channel accessible here.  Sermons are also uploaded onto the LAC website on Mondays.
  • Sunday School has begun, taught virtually until January 31, 2021 at the earliest.  LAC’s new Interim Director of Youth and Family Services Ekama Eni, will provide details in the coming days.  You can email her at eeni@lacny.org or call (914)834-1800 (ext. 306) for details.
  • Douglas Kostner, Director of the Music Ministry, is exploring the return of the LAC handbell choir!  This is a safe alternative to singing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Contact Douglas for more information. (914) 834-1800 x307  or  dkostner@lacny.org.
  • The Men’s Bible Study will next meet on Thursday, September 24, at 9:00 a.m. via Zoom. Any
    questions, please email Arthur Washington at ajwash@optonline.net.
  • Bible Study Fellowship: LAC is a host church for the Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) Westchester Women’s Day Group for the 2020-21 school year. The study this year is
    Beginnings: A Study of Genesis. BSF meets via zoom on Thursday mornings at 9:30 a.m. beginning September 17th. To register or for more information, go to bsfinternational.org or
    contact BSF/LAC liaison, Chrystal Chambers at chambers95@gmail.com.
  • Our pastoral care team is contacting congregants by phone and email.
  • If you are homebound, anxious, or seeking prayer, please contact Rev. Clemot at eclemot@lacny.org  or call (914) 714-2686.  We want to remain a pastoral presence in your lives and reassure you that your church continues to function together in Christ, even if we cannot meet together for a time. All of these plans were made from a place of precaution and not panic, and the intent of this communication is to share with you the decisions of our church leadership – we have made these decisions together, lay leaders and clergy, with the leading of the Holy Spirit in a time of uncertainty.  We want to be prudent and keep you safe, while not neglecting our neighbors in need.  We trust that we have found the right balance to accomplish these goals for the time being.

In times of uncertainty, it is important we stay connected, even if remotely.  I encourage those who have not been able to attend worship to listen to the Sunday sermon posted on our website.  The manuscript is available here.

I look forward to Bible study with you on Wednesday, and online worship this coming Sunday at 10am.  LAC’s Session and staff will be evaluating our small test of in-person worship next Sunday and will keep you informed of any developments in our meeting policy or our mission projects.  Until then, we continue to encourage members and friends to reach out to one another, paying special attention to those who might be most vulnerable to feelings of isolation and anxiety.

“…Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” – Joshua 1:9b   

Yours in Christ,

Rev. Clemot, and the LAC Staff and Session