Gathering When We Cannot Gather

A message from Rev. Kendra and the Board of Trustees

After considering our own sense of risk, the UUA’s unequivocal guidance, and what other organizations are doing we have concluded that the Covid-19 pandemic requires us to stop meeting for worship in person for the time being. Instead we will start worshipping using the Zoom online meeting service.

We do this to slow transmission of the disease. We do this to take care of our elders, of those with lung ailments and heart ailments. We do this for grandparents, and we do this for the doctors who work in the emergency room and the intensive care unit. We do this because we are thinking about community, about the collective, about how to take care of each other and how we are respectful and loving about our connections. Sometimes loving decisions are hard decisions. There is loss in this decision, even though it is made with love and hope. We know that, yet we also know this is necessary.

We are also in the process of creating hUUbs – circles of folks from our community who check in on each other electronically. It could be easy to get isolated when we are keeping our distance physically. So we are going to try to get everyone connected. We will be collecting creative ways to stay connected. Playing games on FaceTime or Zoom together? Getting out your Christmas lights and writing a message in your windows? Making a standing appointment to call a friend?

“Everything we do before a pandemic will seem alarmist. Everything we do after will seem inadequate.”

Mike Leavitt, former Health and Human Services Secretary

We encourage you to limit all your gatherings and physical interactions. Nancy Grenier will still be coming into the office to keep things working and get communications out to you. We ask that you not stop by the office to see her. We don’t want the office to be a vector of the virus. Call, email, text message,WhatsApp, Zoom. Old fashioned mail will still work too. If you are leading a group or meeting, let us know, and we can get you set up with the information and training to do it all on Zoom using our church account.