{"id":3801,"date":"2020-03-12T19:09:10","date_gmt":"2020-03-12T23:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/?p=3801"},"modified":"2020-04-29T13:41:19","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T17:41:19","slug":"wellsprings-suspending-all-in-person-gatherings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wellsprings-suspending-all-in-person-gatherings\/","title":{"rendered":"WellSprings Suspending All In-Person Gatherings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>WellSpringers, <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m writing to you all this evening to update you on our community\u2019s plans, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. <strong>Our Board and I have decided that as of Friday, March 13<sup>th<\/sup>, we are suspending all in-person WellSprings gatherings, until further notice.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In our\nconversations over the past week, I\u2019ve heard how many of you are dealing with\nthe changing environment around COVID-19 in your own workplaces, in schools,\nand with your families. The Board and I have also been taking this day by day \u2013\nand sometimes, it has felt, hour by hour \u2013 as the situation evolves. What we\nshared in yesterday\u2019s Weekly e-mail has not changed: at this time, there is no\nrecommendation from the Chester County Health Department (CCHD) to cancel\nreligious services, and the Montgomery School is open. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chesco.org\/224\/Health\">According to CCHD<\/a>, at this time there are still no confirmed cases of COVID-19\nin Chester County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I also know\nthat our commitment to beloved community sometimes means going above and beyond\n\u2013 taking extra care, both with and for each other \u2013 in service of the public\ngood, for those outside our doors. In the past few days, the Board and I have\ncome to trust the guidance of many, including those within our own <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uuworld.org\/articles\/covid19-uua-closure?fbclid=IwAR3rE7g6H5mkTX-e6NZlu_5Vu8I60pZFj3AEL5YJW420_dYV93jwMsAXJSA\">denomination<\/a>, who remind us that in the midst of\na pandemic, canceling non-essential gatherings and keeping physical distance\nare vital ways to care for ourselves and our neighbors. I have been remembering\nthat even though we are physically located in Chester County, our attendees on\nSunday mornings regularly include residents of <strong><em>eight<\/em><\/strong> area\ncounties (Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lancaster, Montgomery, Philadelphia,\nand New Castle County in Delaware). Things are rapidly changing \u2013 Gov. Wolf\u2019s\nannouncement about closures in Montgomery County, for example, happened <em>during<\/em>\nthe Board\u2019s conference call this afternoon, to discuss WellSprings\u2019 plans. As\nmuch as I love seeing your faces each week, and as much as I know how vital a\nlifeline our community is, I believe we can find other ways to stay connected\nthrough this time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Already, our\ncommunity uses our <a href=\"https:\/\/wellsprings.sermon.net\/main\/main\/21548484\">podcast feed<\/a> to listen to Sunday messages, and\nour <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/831341387063943\/\">WellSprings Oasis<\/a> group to stay connected on Facebook.\nWe have a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCf2z6XN1T7XNmz9BjUyh_ag\/playlists\">YouTube channel<\/a> for sharing video, and an account\nwith <a href=\"https:\/\/zoom.us\/home?zcid=2478\">Zoom<\/a> for holding meetings and small groups virtually. Before\nSunday, we will be in touch with you to share a variety of planned ways to help\nmembers of our community \u2013 of all ages \u2013 stay connected. If you are part of a\nspecific, ongoing group (e.g. OWL or YouthSpirit, WellSprings 2.0, Mindful\nRecovery, or one of our Ministries or Teams), please stay tuned for info on\neither postponement, or alternate virtual plans, for your gatherings. We do not\nhave an end date for this suspension \u2013 together with the School and local\nhealth authorities, we will continue to assess, day by day, when to re-open. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the\nmeantime, if you need support, please ask. Myself, our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/more\/ministries\/new-caring-team\/\">Caring Team<\/a>, and our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/more\/ministries\/heartworks-team\/\">HeartWorks Team<\/a> will do what we can, and may also be\nable to connect you to broader networks of support. If you anticipate needing\nassistance with deliveries of food, medication, or are struggling with lost\nwages, <a href=\"mailto:lee@wellspringsuu.org\">contact me<\/a> to access help through our Emergency Assistance Fund. If you\nhave resources to spare, you can also donate to that Fund <a href=\"https:\/\/onrealm.org\/wellsprings\/give\/emergencyfund\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I hope that\nwith these measures, we can all help prevent spread of COVID-19, and that all\nof us, and our loved ones, are able to stay well. No matter how long our\nin-person closure lasts, we\u2019ll be ready to stay connected to each other, and to\nsupport each other, in whatever new ways the situation requires. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m so glad,\nas always, to be in community with all of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Take care,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/files.constantcontact.com\/b07e65c4201\/dc252cea-e171-4920-8e6b-ac9159d865d2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"344\" height=\"65\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Rev. Lee\nPaczulla<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WellSpringers, I\u2019m writing to you all this evening to update you on our community\u2019s plans, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our Board and I have decided that as of Friday, March 13th, we are suspending all in-person WellSprings gatherings, until further notice. In our conversations over the past week, I\u2019ve heard how many of you are dealing with the changing environment around COVID-19 in your own workplaces, in schools, and with your families. The Board and I have also [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3810,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,115],"tags":[117],"class_list":["post-3801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-wellsprings-news","tag-covid-19","ctfw-has-image"],"featured_image_urls":{"medium":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/7F29D233-4D34-4D3E-AC1D-E185552401A1-300x300.jpg","large":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/7F29D233-4D34-4D3E-AC1D-E185552401A1-1024x1024.jpg","thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/7F29D233-4D34-4D3E-AC1D-E185552401A1-150x150.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/7F29D233-4D34-4D3E-AC1D-E185552401A1-768x768.jpg","post-thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/7F29D233-4D34-4D3E-AC1D-E185552401A1-720x480.jpg","saved-section":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/7F29D233-4D34-4D3E-AC1D-E185552401A1-1512x1050.jpg","saved-banner":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/7F29D233-4D34-4D3E-AC1D-E185552401A1-1512x400.jpg","saved-square":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/7F29D233-4D34-4D3E-AC1D-E185552401A1-720x720.jpg","saved-square-large":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/7F29D233-4D34-4D3E-AC1D-E185552401A1-1024x1024.jpg","saved-square-small":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/7F29D233-4D34-4D3E-AC1D-E185552401A1-160x160.jpg","saved-rect-medium":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/7F29D233-4D34-4D3E-AC1D-E185552401A1-480x320.jpg","saved-rect-small":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/7F29D233-4D34-4D3E-AC1D-E185552401A1-200x133.jpg"},"appp_media":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3802,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3801\/revisions\/3802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}