The Eastern PA Conference office will be officially closed, effective Friday, March 20, until at least March 27. Our staff will work remotely from home with some exceptions. Conference business operations will continue during the regular office hours of 8 AM to 5 PM.

We ask for patience and grace from our conference members and others as we live into our new offsite working arrangement. This move is prompted by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that is causing new, harmful infections daily in our area. The staff has had to make extensive preparations and adjustments to facilitate working from home and to help ensure protection for them and their families from the spread of this deadly virus.

We will continue to process payment invoices and church remittances and manage benefits services as before. And our accounting staff will be in the office on Tuesday and Thursday, March 24 and 26. But we urge churches to make remittance payments through the online portal rather than mailing checks to the conference office. And we will strive to efficiently manage all interactions through email and telephone. It is important to limit our contact with outside persons and materials to avoid the high risk of infection during this life-threatening crisis.

Our conference and district staff will stay connected through Zoom video-conferencing, which we encourage others in the conference to use as well. We will evaluate this temporary remote working arrangement and make adjustments if necessary. And we will announce by March 27 if the arrangement will end then or be extended into April.

Jo Fielding, Director of Administrative Ministries