Dear Mask-Optional, Fresh-Faced Friends:

In my Minister’s Monday Musings I have seldom shared the deliberations of our Session, the governing body of a Presbyterian congregation. Part of being Presbyterian is a dedication to an intentional process of discernment. In our polity, every level of governance is a collaborative group; no one individual is empowered to make binding decisions for the group. The theology behind this structure is an understanding that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the collective gathering of the disciples; therefore, private charisma is to be distrusted until it is weighed by the deliberations of a group. In the end, our form of governance presumes God’s Spirit is discerned by a fifty percent + 1 vote.

Participating in the process of discernment as envisioned by our reformed founders presumes that each delegate (in our case, elders elected from and by the congregation) arrives at our meetings with two equally important dispositions. First, regarding the business at hand, each elder is invited to personally discern what they believe God may be calling the congregation to do or to be. This pre-meeting discernment may involve conversations with members of the congregation, research on a particular issue, personal reflection on experience or expertise and, of course, prayer.

The second expectation of participation is an openness to changing one’s mind based on the offered discernment of others. This is why the vote is taken AFTER presentation, discussion and debate, not at the beginning of the meeting. At the root of this priority is a fundamental assumption that God’s Spirit may be speaking through someone else, even if that individual disagrees with you. We must listen to one another from the perspective of our own fallibility. “I thought this way, but after hearing others I believe God may be moving us another way,” may be the most Presbyterian of statements.

(On this point I could spend several pages expressing how the loss of this second priority is trashing American democracy; we have turned the value of open discernment and deliberation into a weakness, and changing one’s mind has become political suicide. But that is not my purpose today.)

This musing regarding the fundamentals of Presbyterian polity arises from our Session’s deliberation regarding mask policy for First Presbyterian Church of La Grange. It was hard work, and I want you to be proud of the elders you have chosen to lead us. The hard work of deliberation was not because of contentious disagreement—there were no raised voices or rabid opposing views; that kind of divisive nonsense is unpleasant but not difficult. What made our discernment hard was the deep intention of each and every elder to listen deeply, deliberate openly and decide compassionately.

In the end, Session voted to permit optional mask-wearing for those who are fully vaccinated in all gatherings and church venues. While this is not a particularly controversial conclusion, it mirrors CDC guidelines. Our Session also requested that I communicate a deep sense of compassion and solidarity with those who must or choose to wear masks. You may be fully vaccinated, but you may choose to continue to wear a mask for many reasons. You may have in your life individuals who are not vaccinated, including children or immune-compromised individuals whose vaccination was ineffective. You may choose to wear a mask because they protect us from transmission of many other non-COVID diseases.

What Session also wanted to convey was a deep gratitude and humble reverence for where we are, because most of the world does not have this luxury. We, for whom mask-optional policies are reasonable, are living in a very tiny slice of a global reality. Some may choose to wear a mask as a simple reminder to pray for those for whom mask-wearing is not optional, to pray for a more equitable global distribution of vaccines in particular and health services in general. Pray for all who are still gasping to breathe free.

Unmasking the value of discernment, I remain,

With love,
Jonathan Krogh
Your Pastor