Building Update & Summer Plans
To Our River Road Community,

What a wild ride we’ve been on over the last several months. When word came in the middle of March that building closures were the best course of action to preserve the safety of our congregation and community, we acted quickly to re-invent what it means to celebrate, deepen and serve in online-only spaces.

Since then, it feels like we’ve reinvented ourselves several times over. We’ve seen continuous adaptations to the changing circumstances as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to evolve. This week, Montgomery County is announcing plans for Phase 2 reopening of businesses and public facilities. It includes an official recommendation that houses of worship can legally host in-person gatherings so long as 200 square feet of space is allocated for each individual and/or family group. Our own Covid-19 advisory team, Board, and staff leadership team have also been discerning the best paths forward together. I’m writing to let you know what our community response is right now and to keep you posted on exciting developments in our worship and programming over the coming months.

Firstly – we can resolutely say that the building at River Road will remain closed for in-person activities through the end of August.  We remain in active conversation and planning about the best courses of action from September on.

You may know that our Unitarian Universalist Association has issued thoughtful guidance based on the known risks of congregational worship in a public health emergency. As you can read below in the collected links, that guidance asks us to prepare for online worship and other gatherings through the spring of 2021. While we are not making such a far-reaching statement at this time, there are some things we can say with clarity:
  1. There is no such thing as no-risk in-person gatherings at this time. The task at hand is not to eliminate risk, but to thoughtfully hold it alongside the great rewards of a variety of community-forming activities.
  2. Our community is larger than the physical space, and participation in the life of the community is for all of us, including and especially those who are most at risk from the virus.
  3. Some aspects of our traditional in-person gatherings cannot resume until a vaccine is in place. As much as we grieve it, these may include congregational and choral singing, which is shown to increase risk significantly.  
  4. Everything is on the table! Including enhanced live-streaming capacity from the sanctuary, small group gatherings, continual development of a variety of virtual platforms, and the possibility of using our beautiful outdoor space in different ways.
  5. We can’t do everything well all at once – but we can do some things with excellence. As we move forward, the staff and lay leaders are balancing the variety of needs the congregation has, knowing that producing full online content and full in-person content at the same time may well stretch us all too thin. We want to bring the best to every commitment we make, and we look forward to shaping those priorities alongside congregational leadership.
 
For now, on behalf of the staff, lay leadership and ministry team, I want you to know how deeply grateful I am for every single member of our community – for your grace, your patience, your adaptability, and your deep well of kindness.

Over the course of the summer, you’ll see a variety of online worship experiments, including joint worship with our entire Association (June 28) shared action/reflection alongside another large congregation (July 5), live-format services without pre-production (July 19), our very first online bring-a-friend Sunday (July 26), and so much more. We’ll also be offering a variety of online programming brought to you by our staff and lay leaders.

In the meantime, we’re hard at work refining how small groups, adult spiritual exploration, children’s faith formation, music ministry and youth leadership can rise up in new forms for the fall and far beyond. We’re also in the process of re-imagining the neighborhood connection groups so ably led throughout the pandemic by our Neighborhood Captains and supporting emerging leadership in pastoral care and beyond.

We are being transformed in these complicated and sometimes-beautiful times, learning together what is at the core of our mission and our commitments. In the midst of it all, I am so grateful to learn and grow alongside a community as faithful and curious as this one.

With great love, and on behalf of your leadership team,



Rev. Nancy
UUA Denominational Guidance:

Montgomery County Phase 2 Reopening Information:

Church Mutual (our insurance provider) Guidelines for Worship