Coronavirus Response
March 14, 2020
Dear Friends,
As I have been thinking and praying about what steps, if any we need to take in the wake of this growing pandemic. The adage, “Prepare for the worst and pray for the best” seems to be good advice. I wouldn’t be surprised if a Presbyterian came up with the saying. As far as I know there have been no reports of people in Big Spring being infected with the coronavirus, but the truth is, we just won’t know until testing for the virus becomes more available. In the absence of a vaccine anything we can do to help mitigate its spread immediately is our best defense.
Washing our hands and social distancing are key weapons we have at our disposal right now to combat its spread. It’s the social distancing aspect I would like to address as it concerns our congregational life.
Your session and I have been discussing what to do for the past couple of days and here is what we have decided. We are cancelling Sunday school and Take Ten for the rest of March. We will not have our monthly prayer breakfast and 5thSunday potluck luncheon later this month either.
Instead of a passing of the peace we will sing a hymn, I’m thinking Blest Be the Tie That Binds TBA. Offering plates will be in the Narthex for our morning offerings. We will ask the congregation to sit a little further apart than they usually do. The recommendation from health care professionals is stay 6 feet apart. Please avoid shaking hands, wash your hands and avoid touching your eyes and nose.
If you feel it necessary to stay home, please do. I hope the problem with our radio broadcast has been addressed (again) so folks can worship with us via the radio. Monika Robinson has also help put a system in place where we can record the sermon and then download it to the internet. We will make the sermon available as soon as possible. If you get Faith Notes you can hear the sermon. The audio recording of the sermon will also be available on our new website: http://fpcbigspring.com/
We have also decided to cancel the Lenten luncheon for this Wednesday. Our Fellowship Hall is one of the smallest venues for the lunches and we literally crowd the people in. A second critical factor is most of the people who have attended these lunches so far this year are in the highest rick category for catching and not surviving this disease. I will email the other ministers so they can make this announcement in their churches tomorrow.
I have talked to Derrel Patterson from 1st UMC. He has spoken with the pastor of the Church of the Nazarene (host sight for April 1 lunch). They think cancelling this week is a good idea and that the fate of the last two luncheons will be decided depending on where things stand in the U.S. in another week’s time. This is a fluid situation.
Finally, your session and I are still deciding what to do about our committee meetings this week. Right now, I would suggest we find some way to do this without meeting face to face. We do have some other options.
It seems to me these measures are in line with preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. But let me remind you, this is a fluid situation and so we must be proactive and Presbyterian in our response. Which means we must act intelligently, decently and in order. I think the precautions outlined above meet those requirements. But if things get worse before they get better, we may have to consider implementing other actions.
Hopefully this virus will run its course sooner rather than later. Let’s hope our worst fears are not realized and the precautions we take now in the end did indeed help us defeat this deadly enemy.
I hope to see you Sunday (but stay home guilt free if you want too).
Grace and Peace,
Taylor