Beloveds,
When we last shared our new COVID Policy changes at First Christian Church of Puyallup, the COVID Policy Team had begun using the CDC community levels as our guide. The CDC recommends the use of Community Levels to determine the impact of COVID-19 on communities and allow us to respond to the different levels appropriately. There are three levels, Green, Yellow, and Orange. Green indicates when the spread of COVID is less and each level notes when the spread of the virus has increased to a point where both individuals and communities should implement different practices to protect one another.
This means when Pierce County changes COVID levels, we change with it, giving us the opportunity to do our part in caring for the community. Our policies at FCC prioritize *Loving One Another,* and may not always match CDC recommendations exactly. The COVID Policy Team looks at multiple resources and factors to help us come up with policies for FCC Puyallup’s unique community that we believe will help us keep not only one another healthy but to love our neighbors as well.
For the last several weeks, Pierce County has been yellow and we have been living into FCC’s yellow policies. This week our county has moved to orange which means the COVID risk to our community is now higher.
So what does this mean for us?
Four things we want to emphasize as we live into our Orange COVID policy at FCC:
1. Meetings are strongly encouraged to be online. If they are in person they need to be outside. Hybrid meetings are inclusive of all and are always encouraged if there is an in-person option. Need help? We can support you.
2. Sit with your household during worship or in-person meetings
3. No food or beverages may be served indoors
4. Please maintain your physical distance from others
What stays the same? Almost everything!
+ Worship will remain both in person and livestreamed on YouTube (youtube.com/c/fccpuyallup)
+ Masks will continued to be required inside
+ Sanitize, sanitize, sanitize
+ Snacks and drinks can be consumed outside
Some things we can all do to help as we continue to live in a pandemic:
+ Whenever you are in the building, open windows and/or doors to help with ventilation.
+ The CDC strongly encourages testing immediately before a gathering. Get your hands on some (free) tests and test before gathering in person with others.
FCC has free tests and masks in the narthex and restrooms – please help yourself!
+ Both of these are good practices for all of us to apply in our lives.
FCC’s Orange policy changes go into effect immediately. We will send out a notification when Pierce County returns to Yellow and hopefully one day we will be back to Green. Until then, thank you for being a part of the solution!
As a reminder, if we do have an outbreak at the church we will go completely virtual for two weeks to give the virus time to pass.
We on the Policy Team are not excited to have to implement Orange COVID policies, but we are grateful to have the guidelines in place, and for the way the congregation has responded to changing times. We all know it takes each of us to care for one another and that the work we have put into caring for our entire community has paid off. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact anyone on the COVID Policy Team.
Much Love,
Rev. Sarah Almanza, Robin Crabb, Terry Forslund, Karrin Lewis
Learn more about the CDC Community Levels:
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-
Request free COVID tests here:
https://sayyescovidhometest.
Want to know more about how to stay safe?
https://www.cdc.gov/
