My church does not have a vaccine requirement, but we do require that everyone wear a mask and distance.
We are located in a major metro area where there is a high rate of transmission now with Omicron.
Everyone cooperates *except one parishioner* who from the beginning has refused to keep her mask on. The pastor has written to her and spoken to her personally repeatedly. The ushers have spoken to her repeatedly. She just plain refuses.
I have communicated my extreme distress about this to the pastor and he's been sympathetic but he says he can't do any more than what he is already doing -- frequent reminders which she ignores. He is not going to tell her to stop attending church.
For a while I tried to just ignore and not look at her, but with the surging numbers now I find it terribly upsetting that this person, who is a longtime member is behaving this way. To me, this is not only risky, it is a sign of blatant disrespect towards the rest of the parish.
Complaining accomplishes exactly nothing. I'm actually thinking I would be better off just not attending for a few months or possibly as a permanent decision. I've been a member for 25 years, so this really hurts. I feel that effectively I am being pushed out of this parish.
I'm going to respectfully ask that people on these Boards who don't think masking is effective or important refrain from responding.
If members who do support the importance of masking have advice or insight I would welcome it.
This pandemic has really hurt communities.