March 12, 2020
Dear FCC Puyallup Family and Friends,
Currently Washington State and the City of Puyallup have declared a state of emergency due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We urge everyone to take appropriate precautions to care for themselves and for our communities.
Two weeks ago we began implementing changes to our worship service to implement social distancing and other hygienic practices. We’ve also increased our cleaning and sanitation of regularly used areas in our building.
Thank you to those who heeded the counsel of public health experts and stayed home last Sunday, the second Sunday of Lent. We are grateful for your concern for your own health and for the larger community.
Because of the presence of community spread of COVID-19 we will be suspending public worship services and all planned gatherings at First Christian Puyallup through the month of March. All meetings, studies, groups, and worship services are canceled through March. In April we will assess the recommended practices from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), as well as our local public health departments, to determine how and when to resume gatherings.
Each Sunday in March we will share an order of worship online on our website. You’re invited to read along and watch the videos presented as a part of your spiritual practices at home. This is a new venture for us, so bear with us as we learn the ins and outs of our technological options.
If you have been part of this year’s Lenten study, we will be working on online options to continue that discussion.
The elders and I will be working to develop ways for us to stay connected even though we are not able to meet together. Perhaps we’ll find a modern twist on the old school phone tree so we can share information readily! Please contact the office, me, or your elder with any concerns or suggestions you may have during this time. If you or a loved one are directly affected by the virus, please let us know so that we may pray for you.
Office hours will be limited. If staff are ill, they will not come into work.
We can choose how we respond to this disruption in our daily lives. I invite all of us to welcome the Spirit into our responses. May we speak and act in ways which reflect Christ’s compassion for the poor, for those cast aside, for the least of those among us.
In faith and in hope,
Pastor Nancy
