Wednesday, March 4, 2020
Dear Friends,
I know many of us are paying attention to and likely worried about the possibility of a COVID-19 outbreak. Large public gatherings are particularly worrisome and we have large public gatherings!
The staff and I have been discussing preparations and we will be outlining them in more detail soon. We are considering communication methods, alternatives for in-person worship, and services we may provide to those who are in need.
In the meantime, please take these common sense measures:
- If you are sick, no matter what you think the cause may be, please stay at home. We are lucky that we have the technology for streaming our services so you don’t need to miss anything!
- Attend to notifications from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Virginia Department of Health, and Arlington County officials.
- Check our website or Facebook page before you come to church in case there are any last-minute notifications.
And lastly, for the time being, I’ll be asking us to modify our usual greeting behaviors. This will be among the hardest, as we are a community that likes to be in contact with one another! This means casual greetings as you come in as well as our usual greeting at the beginning of service and holding hands at the end. I’ll be asking us to use the elbow bump or a wave. This will seem ridiculous I realize, especially since there are not any reported cases in this area. But I am asking us to do this for two reasons: one is to get into the habit, as this one is hard to break; and the second is out of recognition that the disease has a two-week incubation period so we may not yet know if someone among us is affected.
I am someone who is not at all prone to panic at times like these, but I recognize that certain precautions and attentiveness are called for right now. Most people who have the virus will survive just fine, but there are some vulnerable folks among us who will be at risk.
We want to stay connected and we also want to stay safe. Again, stay tuned for more details in Connections and on
Facebook.
Please let us know if you have any questions, and please notify us if you know you have contracted the virus.
Love in these troubled times takes us far!
Rev. Terasa
