{"id":4953,"date":"2021-04-27T13:19:46","date_gmt":"2021-04-27T17:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/?p=4953"},"modified":"2021-04-28T16:08:03","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T20:08:03","slug":"moving-towards-a-post-pandemic-era-a-letter-from-rev-lee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/moving-towards-a-post-pandemic-era-a-letter-from-rev-lee\/","title":{"rendered":"Moving Towards a Post-Pandemic Era: A Letter From Rev. Lee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dear WellSpringers,

There\u2019s a joke ministers often tell \u2013 a groaner\u2026 really, \u201cjoke\u201d might be a strong word. A well-worn line for when strange problems come up in the life of a congregation. When a family of racoons builds a nest in the church bell tower, for example. Or when a mischievous eight-year-old gets into the storage room, and writes \u201cbutt\u201d on the inside cover of every hymnal. \u201cWell,\u201d we say to each other, \u201c\u2026they didn\u2019t teach us how to handle this one in seminary.\u201d

This past year has put all other occasions for use of that \u201cjoke\u201d to shame. I certainly wasn\u2019t trained for what we all had to face in 2020 \u2013 and, I know, neither were you. How to parent and homeschool in lockdown, how to keep your job or run your business in a pandemic, how to grieve without the regular comforts of community, how to stay safe, protect your mental health, maintain sobriety or recovery through it all\u2026 nobody taught us how to handle this one. Yet here you are. And almost by definition, if you\u2019re still kicking \u2013 well then, dear one\u2026 you did okay. You did enough.

We are all still living into our \u201cnew normal,\u201d and as coronavirus vaccines become universally available to adults across the country this month, I\u2019m aware that many of us are \u2013 sometimes eagerly, sometimes anxiously, sometimes both \u2013 considering what will change for us. Which brings me to the next thing they didn\u2019t teach me how to do in seminary: how to help a spiritual community move forward, towards a post-pandemic era.

Many of us are focused on one aspect of this question, right now: when might WellSprings offer Sunday services in person again? Our Board and Staff are beginning to discuss this, and to evaluate both when it will be possible to return to Bell Hall, and what safety measures we\u2019ll need to have in place, when we do so. As vaccination rates increase, we hope that case counts will steadily decline. We plan to begin exploring options this summer for the possibility of outdoor and\/or indoor services with capacity limits, in the future. 

Please know, it will take some time for us to ramp up to offering worship both in-person and online, and we do not plan to hold Sunday services physically until we can also provide a way to join in remotely. We\u2019ll need additional volunteers to make this happen on a weekly basis, and time to train those volunteers. We also can\u2019t return to in-person services until we have a plan for families with young children. Can our nursery and YouthSpirit continue in the traditional way? Knowing that children may not have access to a vaccine for many more months, what would we need to consider to have children gathering together with adults in Bell Hall? How can we continue to serve families who may choose not to attend in person, for now?

I hope it doesn\u2019t come to this \u2013 but for any plan we put in place, we must also be prepared to make it \u201creversible,\u201d whether due to a surge in case rates or vaccine-resistant variants, or a known exposure within the congregation. Since last summer, the Board has been monitoring weekly changes in the percentage of positive tests, and the new case rates per 100,000 residents, in each of the 8 counties from which we draw our membership. We continue to keep up with guidance from the CDC and UUA, and are in ongoing conversation with the Montgomery School as well

All of which brings us back to the other aspects of this question, about how WellSprings moves forward, towards a post-pandemic era. What have we<\/em>, as a community, learned from this time? What new opportunities have opened up for us, this year? How are people hurting, and what can we do to help? How can we better serve our community in a way that is, in keeping with our DNA, \u201cnot just about getting religion, one day a week?\u201d

A little over 10% of our congregation participated in one of our Board\u2019s \u201cTogether Towards Tomorrow<\/a>\u201d sessions in March. We\u2019d like to hear more, from those who were unable to attend, so we\u2019ve turned the questions from those gatherings into a survey you can complete online<\/a>. I invite you to do so, by May 7<\/strong>. The feedback you share will help inform the goals our leaders are developing for next year, to be presented during our Congregational Meeting in June. I can share, so far, that there have been three major themes, in what we\u2019ve heard:<\/p>\n\n\n\n