March 4, 2020
Dear FCC Puyallup family,
With the ongoing outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) now affecting our state, we are monitoring the recommendations of the Washington Department of Health and the Center for Disease Control. Our priority is the health and safety of our community.
We encourage you to follow these health precautions:
– Stay home when you or a family member are sick, except to get medical care.
– Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
– Use hand sanitizer when washing hands is not an option.
– Cover your sneeze or cough with a tissue or your arm.
– Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.
– In place of shaking hands, try offering a friendly wave or a smile.
We are also implementing cleaning changes in order to promote the health and safety of everyone who uses our building.
– We will sanitize highly touched surfaces before and after every service such as doors, handles, tables, and more.
– Our staff and volunteer teams will wash their hands frequently and stay home if they are sick.
– We will provide additional hand sanitizer stations around the building.
The following changes are being made to our worship services.
– We will continue to pass the peace, but we encourage you to use greetings without touching hands, such as elbow to elbow touches, friendly waves, bows, etc.
– Offering plates will be relocated to the sides of the sanctuary rather than passed down the rows. Remember, you can also give online.
– Communion will be served at the front of the sanctuary. Servers will sanitize their hands prior to serving.
– In order to limit the number of hands which touch the communion elements, Individual cups with grape juice and pieces of bread will be handed to worshippers by the servers.
– Our baptismal font will temporarily be removed to avoid transmission of infectious diseases.
How you can help.
– Stay home if you or someone in your household becomes ill.
– Volunteer. The additional cleaning and sanitizing practices will require extra time and effort. If you would like to help, contact the church office.
– Pray for all those affected by this outbreak and for the many health professionals working to care for the sick and to help contain the spread of the disease.
– If you or someone you know tests positive for COVID-19, please let us know so we can find a way to help, pray for everyone involved and take any necessary precautions here at FCC Puyallup.
While we cannot control the virus, the spread or the impact it has in our church, we’re doing everything we can to make our facility as safe and clean as possible. We appreciate your cooperation and commitment to help us do just that. If you’d like to share your thoughts, concerns, questions, and ideas with us as we navigate our response to this situation, we’d love to hear from you. If you do need to stay home, remember you can listen to Sunday sermons on our website or on Apple Podcasts.
In Christ’s peace,
Rev. Nancy C. Gowler
