September 28, 2020

Greetings Beloved Community,

Here we are, heading into fall after a beautiful (and highly unusual) summer. I hope this letter finds you and yours enjoying this amazing time of year.

As you might expect we (your Board) have been trying to figure out the best way to approach the re-opening at our physical location. While the crash course in running everything on-line has given us some wonderful experiences we will carry forward, we are ever mindful of the time we can be around each other again in person.

While we are all looking forward to that happening, we need to balance that with common-sense measures and timelines. With this as a background, as we look at the current state and national guidelines, along with what other spiritual communities are doing in the area, we are currently looking at a soft re-open date of January 1, 2021.

This date is a soft date in that we will be very flexible as a Board to ensure we are not setting an artificial date that ends up being inconsistent with what is going on in the world/country/state when we actually get to that date. If circumstances have worsened or guidelines have again become stricter, we would adjust accordingly.

This date gives us a few months to prepare – to do things like:

• building up our inventory of hand sanitizer and masks
• figure out any internal spacing needs
• upgrade our technical support in the sanctuary so that folks who have joined us online during this time can continue to enjoy a high-quality experience as they join us virtually in our church home.
• figure out things like how an offering process or children’s church might function
• review how small group meetings on church grounds – like the Friday dinners over the summer – worked and what we can learn from them.

In addition, there will be other processes that I am sure we will think of as we approach the beginning of the year.

By setting this date, it gets us moving toward our eventual re-open. Will it be January 1? We do not know, nobody does – but whether it is or not, by starting this process now, when we do re-open, whenever that may be, we will be ready.

We are all looking forward to seeing each of your smiling faces again. Thank you so much for your continued support of this ministry – through your time, talent, and financial support in these unprecedented times. You are appreciated more than you know.

With Love,

Rev. Matt Purinton, President of the Board of Trustees