If you haven’t, we hope you will read our Circuits Co-ministers Colloquy from last week and this week that shared some other important information. We will continue to provide updates as possible. A new-ish term is being circulated called ‘social distancing.’ Perhaps we might practice social re-imagining. We so deeply care about you and your well-being. We know that gathering together is one of the things that is going to help us get through this. So, please keep reading to see ways for us to gather virtually.

Please be gentle with yourselves and each other. Allow space and time to feel your feelings and to be empathetic to what others may be feeling. Each of us is processing this situation in our own way (just like everything else we experience). Caution is a reasonable response to this pandemic.

This is also a time to reach out to one another, so pick up your phone, call, text, email, message-whatever your skills. Make sure you have at least two weeks worth of food, medications, and other necessities in the event you need to self-quarantine for your own health or others in your family. Ask your neighbors if they are prepared. Remember people in your life whose incomes may be being adversely impacted by the measures that are being taken. Send donations to SiCM and Joseph’s House so that they can offer food and housing to those who will be hit hardest when schools are closing or places of business close temporarily. If you are that person, reach out to us. We can offer some small amounts of assistance through the Ministers Discretionary Congregational and Community Assistance Fund.

The Rev. Lynn Ungar shared a poem that invites us all to consider the potential hidden blessings and opportunities in this moment. She gave permission for us to share it with you.

Pandemic

What if you thought of it

as the Jews consider the Sabbath—

the most sacred of times?

Cease from travel.

Cease from buying and selling.

Give up, just for now,

on trying to make the world

different than it is.

Sing. Pray. Touch only those

to whom you commit your life.

Center down.

And when your body has become still,

reach out with your heart.

Know that we are connected

in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.

(You could hardly deny it now.)

Know that our lives

are in one another’s hands.

(Surely, that has come clear.)

Do not reach out your hands.

Reach out your heart.

Reach out your words.

Reach out all the tendrils

of compassion that move, invisibly,

where we cannot touch.

Promise this world your love–

for better or for worse,

in sickness and in health,

so long as we all shall live.

–Lynn Ungar 3/11/20

To make things even more…interesting…we have also just kicked-off this year’s Stewardship Campaign-Shaping Our Future. You may get an invitation from a Visiting Steward to meet to talk about why the church matters to you, what you hope takes shape in the future. We hope you will say yes in a way that makes sense to you-could be outside in a park away from lots of people, or a version of social media, or a good ole fashioned phone call. Connecting with other people who share your values is life-sustaining in times of challenge.

Just as we care for other organizations through our monthly special collection and just as we provide a place for Family Promise to provide housing for families experiencing homelessness and just as we march on the capital and sign petitions and write letters, we, now too, need to care for the wider community by social re-imagining to help slow down the transmission. We need to be aware of not contributing to overwhelming medical care facilities and staff so that they can tend to what is already happening. We have a responsibility as the interdependent beings that we are to be and act differently.

As we reimagine ourselves as a congregation in the midst of a pandemic, though we won’t have the chili cook-off this weekend, we do plan to have a virtual #UUtheVote kick-off event. You can make chili at your house(!) and join us at 4:30pm at this Zoom link for this modified version:

#UUtheVote UUSS planning session

Time: Mar 14, 2020 04:30 PM Eastern Time

Join Zoom Meeting: https://zoom.us/j/574619121

Meeting ID: 574 619 121

If you don’t have a device that handles this online platform, you can use your phone. Call +1 646 876 9923 US (New York)

As we will not meet in person for worship, we hope you will tune in for an on-line worship experience.

UUSS Sunday worship, March 15 – Whose Future? Rosie Lewis, Rev. Wendy, & Tim Olsen Time: Mar 15, 2020 10:30 AM Eastern Time

Join Zoom Meeting: https://zoom.us/j/295754610

Meeting ID: 295 754 610

If you don’t have devices that can handle the online platform, you can call with a landline or cell phone:  +1 646 876 9923 US (New York)

Stay tuned to our various communication modalities. We will continue to post and email and call a few folks who aren’t online. You might consider printing out this lengthy missive and put it on your fridge so that you are reminded of our connections.

Just as we need to care for the wider community, please continue to pay your pledge as your resources allow. Though our staff schedules and work environments are changing, we want to still be able to pay our staff and pay the congregation’s bills and address various building challenges. Call the church if you are in need, recognizing that each of us have not only 500 or so folks in this congregation but also our own families and friends for whom we are concerned. Thank you for your patience and for practicing our UU principles here and in the wider world, as we experiment and re-imagine ourselves in this together!

With deep and humble care,

Rev. Wendy and Rev. Lynn